1 year and still no dreads

what i mean by leave your hair alone is don't do anything to it except wash it with baking soda (recommended) or other non residue shampoo, and keep the sections from knotting together. You can wear a hat or a scarf or whatever else you like. You need to wash it regularly. Dirty hair won't dread. But other than that just let it be.

Jeannie Pitt said:

Ok cool. I get the no backcombing thing now lol. There's not much curl to my hair, it's really rather straight. When you say leave it alone, does that include washing? Does that include leave the hats in the closet? Before I decided to dread I never, ever combed my hair, and washed it once a week or less for a good two years. It never dreaded. I'm not convinced that I qualify for the 'leave it alone and it will dread' philosophy. I wish I did!! Any more info will be welcomed. I thank you guys for being so quick to reply.

NaturalWomyn said:

you would most defiantly have dreads by now if you weren't re-backcombing your hair all the time. That just ruins any progress you may have had. The rubber bands have also hindered any possible knotting of your roots. Leave your hair alone and you will be amazed at how quickly they dread. Please stop using any starter methods on your hair! No more backcombing or twist and rip. You are stopping your dreads from forming. The most times any of those methods should be used is once.

updated by @naturalwomyn: 07/02/15 08:07:50PM

sounds like your doing too much for them to dread, leave them alone, and they will dread, if you want buy beads, i hear they help dread... i don't know personally but that's what i hear but leave your hair alone, just wash and thats it!

lol yea what se said and dont use rubber bands

Everything is pretty much covered I think, but you might want to check out some of the essential oils to add to your BS wash and ACV rinse since you had some scalp issues, I oddly enough had some really bad scalp after I got 3rd degree sun burns a couple years ago and could never giet it all fixed up but since using some oils it has gotten immensly better! I know there are lots of posts in here about the oils and what they're good for

Thanks for that tip. Any recommendations off the top of your head (no pun intended)? I think I've got lavendar and rose hips or something kicking around...oh and tea tree. Any of those do the trick, ya think?

yeatree helps somewhat with the bacterial causes of dandruff lavanders a great mold preventer (and killer when used in strong white vinager) rosemary is the best thing ever fir dandruff papermints good too teatree also esential for lice prevention and lastly thyme reduces oil production

jojoba as a conditioner once theyre mature

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

awesome...so what just like a few drops in the pail of baking soda and water mix??

if u use a pale 10 teatree 30 of the rest is whaat i use in a gallon (but i dont measure i shake)

find what works for u i got alotta hair u can use 1/4 tthat i think

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Hey everyone... me again.

Ok so it's been a couple months since my frantic and desperate plea for help here. I've taken everyone's advice and I've learned some things along the way.

#1 thing I figured out is that when I said I was continuing to backcomb over the period of a year, it was because I had complete sections of hair that weren't doing ANYTHING. Not dreading AT ALL. So, that led me to continue backcombing only those sections.

#2 I think my hair is too silky for this. At this point I've got about 3 dreads that look decent. The rest are terrible with loops and loose hairs and just refusing to lock, only knot in an ugly way. Near the roots are just puffy and sticking out everywhere and it's just not locking.

So before I go on, I want everyone to think about this. Imagine you are faced with someone whom you've been following for over a year and you finally look at her and say 'ok I get it. You're the exception to every rule!!' I think that would be me.

So what should I do? Being that I do have a few that look right, I still have hope. I've been apple cidering and leaving the ones alone that are doing whatever they are doing. I've still got sections that are completely free of knots or locking...just straight, loose, long hair.

I'd like to let you all know that for me, leaving it alone does not help. I've just read another forum post by a guy who seemed to be in the exact boat as me. I understand that for most of you the general rule is to backcomb at first, leave them alone and that's that. For me, and apparently that other guy, I really don't think we're doing anything wrong, we just need a different tactic. I hear that it's not rocket science, but for me, it just might be.

When I look at other people with dreads, I'm all about the awesome, neat, great looking ones, but I like the all over the place crazy ones, too. I'd be happy with either. I'm not sure anyone in their right mind would consider mine 'dreads'. It just looks like I haven't combed my hair in over a year.

Does anyone have advice that goes beyond what you'd tell a dread newbie? Let's pull out the big guns and see if you guys can help me figure this out.

Thanks everyone.

the 1's that are all loopy and crazy are indeed dreading you are still stopping alot of progress by not leaving em swlone when u rebackcomb u undo anything thats done

so sea salt and..beads/.. or wraps

anything u can stick on a section to prevent u from combing

lets see pics

but im really thinking u need handcuffs to prevent u from working on em asll thetime

a wool tam swims in the ocean and vampire syndrom so u cant see yourself inn a mirror

but lets see what we got and umm why havent u tried twist and rip if backcomb works so poorly

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1