I have been letting my hair go all natural/neglect/freeform since August 2012, at that point and time my hair was very short (much less then 1 inch all around) I started with Dr. Bronners and then used The BS/ACV a couple times and switched to dreadlockshampoo bars for dandruff help (did work well). The past month or so i switched back to BS/ACV by the "no touch" method. I used 1/2 cup of Baking Soda per 5 cups of water with 10 Tea Tree, 10 Rosemary, 5 peppermint essential oil drops. For ACV i used about 2 teaspoons for 5 cups of water with no Essential oils (imo too expensive for me at this stage to just immediately rinse out ACV while using EO's). I kept watch on my scalp pretty much every time before i went to go wash (every 3 days). I noticed that my scalp felt dry and still had dandruff while i was undergoing the no touch method. My hair seems to be sectioning itself out well but i cant seem to understand if my hair type just doesnt want to dread, or if perhaps it is just too short to dread yet. I have very thick hair thats more straight than curly (but not super straight). Yesterday i did my typical BS/ACV wash but this time i massaged my scalp with a decent ammount of pressure "through my hair" aiming at just touching my scalp. I massaged my scalp: #1 while getting my hair wet prior to dumping the BS on, #2 right after i dumped the BS on, #3 while rinsing the BS. #4 after i dumped the ACV on while imediately rinsing out the ACV under the shower head. After all that my scalp has never felt better. All the dandruff was stripped away and i had 0 itchyness even after going for a run (exercising seems to always make my scalp so damned itchy its unbelievable). My hair hasnt really made any progress besides gaining length and forming some sections and some hairs get barely clumped together (super fragile sections that easily come undone). Here is my concern, after that wash all my "fragile sections" for the most part became undone. I want to continue the BS/ACV touch method because it helped my scalp so much, but im worried that its not going to dread because of how easily the sections come undone. But then i think "If i keep washing every 3 days and scrub my scalp and just let my hair keep growing, it'll get to a point where just scrubbing my scalp wont interfere with the progress that has been made further down my hair away from the scalp" <-- is that the case? I get minor minor stress over it and i just need peoples opinons on what i should/shouldnt do. Will just massaging the scalp after i dump the BS on be enough? Am i over massaging? am i not over massaging? i need to be at ease haha. Thank you, i will post a pic on how long my hair is currently. I also feel as though my hair (after becoming undone from massaging/washing) will get back to as much progress as it can get in just a few days because it didnt get that far. Is this just part of the process? I would be 100% at peace to keep scrubbing my scalp even if it "slows" down the dreading process, as long as it would dread eventually in like a year or 2 i would be fine. Photo is down below
updated by @teddyjo: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM