Bug's Dreadline (aka plee for moral support) UPDATE 7/10/13: 1 YEAR PIC & VID - pic in first post.

Ok so July 9th, 2012 I stopped brushing (i never did comb) or adding detangler spray to my hair. Or at lest i think it was July 9th... i sorta just stopped one day kinda forgot to look at the calendar, i've pick July 9th to be my starting day though. So given that, i'm almost two weeks in. I plan to take some pics at the two week mark, but really nothing to see yet, hopefully i'll have a bit more to report at 1 month.

Right now i have to use up the Sauve's naturals shampoo (no conditioner) that i have, but after that I'll go to the BS/ACV or Dr. B or a combo of both as well as a salt water spray as soon as i can get myself to a pet store that carries sea salt for fish tanks.I have hard water (country well water, best tasting water around) so there might be some borax in my future, but I read baking soda is actually better.

At this point there is clumping more then knotting, and my niece says its separating but she also said it was separating in BIG sections so i have gone to once in awhile splitting the big sections into smaller ones, and doing a real loose finger comb to make sure hair form one side of my head isn't tangling up with hair across on the other side. i shower every day usually but i only wash my hair with shampoo every other day. on the off days if i shower my hair get soaked down with water but not scrubbed( there is scalp scratching though). Right now every time i do wash it it feels like i loose any clumping i had. but i figure with really fine, silky, thin hair, its gonna take a loooong time to dread, hopefully when i can start using sea salt spray it'll help it lock up a bit faster. I'm probably making natural dreading way more complex then it is! XD

I decided on natural vs TnR like I had planned, because I originally promised my folks i'd get a job before i dreaded my hair. But I've waited 6 years and frankly am getting tired of waiting so I'm going to have stealthy ninja dreads. I'm hoping by the time any actual dreads form i'll have a job anyways. in the mean time a little bit of straight water smooths my hair down and a bandanna holds it back if i'm out working, and i can still pull it back in a pony tail or twist it up into a bun if i need to look decent for a job interview.

So anyways that's where i'm at. I'll keep ya'll updated. Till i got something to report though, Happy Dreading!

~Bug

2 WEEKS

1 MONTH

1 MONTH 4 DAYS (better 1 month pic)

UPDATE: 2 MONTHS

3 MONTHS

4 MONTHS

5 MONTHS

6 MONTHS

6 MONTHS VIDEO

7 MONTHS 1 DAY

8 MONTHS

9 MONTHS

10 MONTHS

11 MONTHS

12 MONTHS (1 YEAR YAY!)

1 YEAR VIDEO:

updated by @bug: 02/14/15 04:59:28AM

when u wash with shampoo how do u wash do you carefully scrub just the scalp then rinse tgru the hair without scrubbing the hair?

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I rub it into the scalp and lather it up ( with some careful scalp scratching here) then kind fold the rest of my hair up on top my head and work the lather in to it like i was a one big sponge, i rise in the shower spray again treating it like it was one solid mass (some more scalp scratching here).

i'm figuring the combo of store shampoo (Sauve's Naturals - Strawberry) and hard water is whats leaving the itchy residue on my scalp and probably hindering any knotting, but like i said i'll just have to deal until i use of the shampoo i bought otherwise my mom will 1: be mad I bought a big bottle of shampoo and only used half, and 2: will catch on i'm dreading my hair before i landed a job (thus breaking my promise to her). I'm ok with it not dreading as fast, i understand it'll take time and that what i have now is probably extending that.

suave shampoos have silicones in them which is basically coating your hair with conditioner. get yourself a clarifying shampoo or better yet start the bs/acv washes. bs is really whats going to help roughen up the cuticle of your hair so it will be more prone to knotting. also don't do much separating now. i did quite a bit in the beginning and it basically set me back.

oh and i would skip the water rinse on your day in between washes. you might be undoing progress.

Thanks! i'll try to pawn the shampoo off on my niece.. if i can sneak some baking soda from the kitchen. *plays the mission impossible theme*

oh side thought, i have pretty oily hair sense before this it was used to being washed daily... i read on here for the first week or two if i just us the BS and skip the ACV it'll help with the oiliness, then when it evens out i can add the ACV rinse... did i get that right?

Welcome and congrats on the start of your "stealth" dreadlock journey.
Since you mentioned this in your post and no one else has caught it Dr. Bronners will leave a residue on your hair if you have hard water. I've also heard mixed results that BS/ACV will as well.
If you don't mind the wasting of the Suave, maybe you can squirt a little bit out when you shower while actually using the BS/ACV? Also, BS has a high alkalinity content. I know that there are some people on here that swear they have no problems skipping the ACV but, being that I went to beauty school I will always recommend following a BS with an ACV (even just the smallest amount will do!) to help bring your hairs pH level back down.

Also, check out the post (which I just saw on the main page a bit ago) about essential oils for dreadlocks because there are some oils that will help with itchiness, mold, etc. that may be beneficial for you to throw into your BS/ACV.

thanks! i had some oils i wanted to get (tea tree, rosemary, and citronella) but there isn't any store in driving distance, and what i'm seeing online is way pricier then i can afford, not to mention ordering online sorta clues the folks in. I was looking i can't remember if it was on here or out in the google-verse that i could possibly counter hardwater with a little borax mixed in diluted Dr. Bronners. I've also read the BS is better then borax for hard water do to basic chemistry (i barely passed that class so I can't back that up either way) but first i'll just be using the straight BS wash found a bottle of ACV so i'm good there too. thansk for all the tips and pointers and encouragements guys! gonna do my first BS/ACV wash now, let ya know how it turns out.

As far as the separating goes, just go with your gut feeling and separate the really big clumps or you r going to have problems on an epic scale if they r really big clumps, i recon the middle way - yes just separate however big you want the dreads, mine still try to clump together and i have massive sectioning, i you can call it sectioning, i still have 2 rip them apart after washing. I wash with a simple soap (sunlight) once a week, less washing does help the dreads settle in faster as your not undoing the natural process of tangling

I'll inbox you when i have more time tomorrow, really do like the idea of your Bug's Dreadline.

well did BS/ACV yesterday and yuck my hair is super oily and filmy and just gross. granted were in the middle of a heat wave...again... so I've been sweating a lot today but my hair is worst then I've ever seen it in just one day. next time I'm going to try just straight baking soda see if that makes any difference.