My hair story! :)

Hello all!I'm Gemma and i've had a love/hate relationship with my hair for as long as i can remember!

I always had long hair as a child, and at around 12 years old, i had a hair-stuck-in-the-brush disaster which resulted in my dad chopping a huge chunk of my hair out. Several weeks later, i visited the hairdresser and she laughed at my hair, asked me what on earth i'd done. I know it sounds silly, but it really dented my confidence. I felt stupid enough going round with a tuft of hair sticking up at the top of my head, and her mocking me was too much, so after that, i didn't visit a hairdressers again.

From then on, my hair grew fantasically long. People always commented on it and i enjoyed being the girl with the long hair. When i got a little older though, i realised it was in awful condition. It looked scraggly and i just couldn't manage it very well. Straightening it was a nightmare, and i'd hate washing and drying it.

When i first got with my husband, i started experimenting with my hair. I dyed it red (its naturally mousy/dark brown) and i even shaved underneath (see my avatar). I cut it shorter, chest length, i cut a fringe. I just didn't know what to do with it. After a while, it just didn't feel like 'my hair' anymore - if you can understand such a feeling? When i was pregnant, i made the decision to just hack all of my hair off. It was unruly, it was half red/half brown, it was growing back underneath and it looked an absolute mess - so i took the scissors to it and it all went.

Its been a year and a half (nearly) and its grown back to a nice length now - just past my collarbones. I love my 'new' hair and i have tried to maintainit as best i can (i still don't visit the hairdressers). I have always been interested in the idea of dreading and i recently decided to look up how to do it, how to maintain it and such. This site has already helped answer many questions and taught me new things (no wax! etc).

I hope to start soon, hopefullyusing the TNR method- if anyone has any advice regarding what condition the hair should be in to start, that'd be excellent! I know it shouldn't be conditioned, but if i were to shampoo it and rinse, would that freshly washed hair work? I will start on a small section of hair to start with, and see how i can maintain and look after baby new dreads.

Thanks for listening, if you managed to make it through my post, i appreciate it.
Take care, Gem xx

updated by @gemma: 01/13/15 09:34:24PM

if you had a hair brush stick in it trying to brush out tangles then maybe you should think about just letting it dread on its own

it will go through phases concidered "messy" by some but those times u will love it the most

read this

http://www.dreadlockssite.com/forum/topics/the-beauty-of-the-early-messy-stage-of-natural-neglect-dreadlocks

now to go on all your lif e youve fought its natural dreading tendency and hated fighting it

all you need to do now is allow it to do what its always wanted to do

wash with a non residue non conditioning dread soap or use the baking soda soak method

as dreads form seperate them from other dreads so they dont join together into big dreads

thats about it

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I got it tangled in the brush because i was trying to curl it haha, never again!

My hair definitely tangles up when its left to its own devices. I took a stay in hospital once without brushing and i remember it was crazy trying to untangle it all!

Thanks for the link,fantastic stuff!

so it will dread right up in no time then

ok take yoir brushes and combes and throw em in the trash (better yet recycle)

thrre your started

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1