Newbie

I've had a little detour. I've been washing about every 5-6 days, and last night I just couldn't stand the itchiness. I gave my hair a pretty good scrub, mostly at the scalp, with dreadlocks shampoo. Got it pretty soapy and rubbed shampoo all over. It felt much better, but I may have loosened some hair. It still has the curls and strands, which is great.

i need to stop twisting and pulling at it, there were a lot of hairs falling out when I scrubbed and I'm sure the directions I'm pulling aren't the same as my hair wants to go. 

Since I feel less itchy, I'm going to start washing every 3 days or so. And renew my patience and restraint!

updated by @ceebenn: 08/27/16 03:27:12PM

when you wash just get in there with your fingertips at the scalp and scrape at it don't worry about scrubbing the hair only the scalp

that's all you need to do for the itchies

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Well, I think I undid a couple of weeks' work. My hair wants to flip up at the edges (like wings)! and it's all kind of frizzed up and not dreading as much. It's okay, I'll just be more careful with my washing.

I found that a lot of my chunks were getting twisty (esp when wet) and I decided to try and twist/rip a couple of them to see if they would stay. They actually did stay together and it feels like the other twists are getting more chunky. I might do a few more but I don't want to make a mess at the roots. I do have a bit of Sideshow Bob in the morning when they stick out straight.

the back has so many sideways chunks, I do wonder if I should grab them and twist them into shapes before it becomes one big ice cream cone. It looks pretty funky right now. Yesterday I wore a headband and just pushed the messy parts to the back.

just separate the back so it doesn't form huge dreads

looks good so far though

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Bad day. I know I overdid the twisting and ripping and started to get ahead of myself.

Today I had a headache from pulling on my scalp, and I was really wondering if I had done too much too soon. I felt like I would end up with a tangled mess just knotting itself up, and I couldn't seem to keep from making it worse by twisting the ends constantly.

so I have shampooed and rubbed pretty vigorously, and I'm basically untwisting the tangles that I put in. I'm not sure if the pieces will stay together or if it will be so bad that I just want to comb it or wiggle it all out. I'm frustrated.

updated by @ceebenn: 09/12/16 05:37:02PM

just stop messing with it and give it a chance to dread on its own

be patient

its a lot less painful that way

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Thanks, I am going to slow down... I can tell my hair is chunky and dry enough to dread. Even now after undoing the straggles, it seems like it is ready to bunch up again.

<--- here it is this morning when I realized the crunchy knots were driving me crazy

I had wanted to see if it would hold a dread, and then afterwards it seemed easy to twist them in, until it got to be too chaotic.

(left) after I undid some of the knots

I think reading some of the online info about sectioning still has me confused. I really don't want a tangled knot mess. But to section, you then have to force knot/twist/scrunch into fake dreads.

<------- here it is after I pulled out some of the top twists that were dry, pulling the wrong way, and generally causing havoc

I don't feel too bad because it's short and needs some length to dread anyway. I guess my thinking was to see if I could encourage the twists to begin growing in a freeform way. Now I'm back to just waiting and letting this weird chunkiness and curls do what they want.

here is the back currently. Frizzy and chunky weird, ------->

im posting this for my own record and in case it helps someone with similar issues. 😊

updated by @ceebenn: 09/13/16 11:57:36AM

definitely looks better just left alone

you can't trust most of the info online unless its on this site

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

My best advice is to just let it go.  I did twist and rip method but almost all of them fell out. The ones that were allowed to form on their own look much better and sit better on the head. The more you touch and tweak the more harm you are doing.  They will turn into fret locks as they say .  Mine just turned 4 months and are now at the point that I can say, ok these are good, and I can relax.  I don't worry like I did in the beginning weeks.

Keep up with the natural way and i think you will be much happier.  My husband back combed his but wishes he would have gone natural.  His ar 1.5 years old.  

Good luck!

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Livin' wild and free in NC

Follow my dreadlock journey on instagram: @3_little_birds2316