Forum Activity for @janna

Well I haven't noticed much change except in myself, since I'm doing neglect method, most of my hair still looks pretty normal. I have a few baby dreads underneath and just two 'half' dreads on top. It all blends together, I think.

And here is the link to my 2.5 week update!!

It took for-freakin-ever to get a video that wasn't messed up and would upload. :P

Mike Gentry said:

So exciting sounds like we are on the same time line! This coming Friday will be my third week! It is so exciting isn't it? What other things in your life have changed since you got dreads?

oh, and I tried uploading the video three times to youtube and it keeps failing, I think maybe it's too long (12 min) so I have to record a new one tomorrow. Or I might try to upload it here in the morning.

I totally understand what you mean. I've realized that since I've started dreading I wear make up waaaay less.

I'm not gonna lie or be coy/humble about it, I know I am a pretty good looking gal, but even when I had a good day or dolled myself up to go out and could in the mirror and say "hey I'm cute," it doesn't match the kind of feeling I have now of more thorough confidence and feeling beautiful.

soaring eagle said:

you are as beautiful as yiou feel

many women can look incredible even have world famouse beauty but still feel un]gly inside and get that self hatred thung going

when u dread u learn to love yourself more feel your beauty and that radiates from tyou..you are more beautiful and its not even a matter of looks (tho women with dreads will make your heartrate go dangerously high)(heartstopping becomes almost iteral)

but u radiate an innrer beauty that dewmands more respect

not the cheap beauty of makeup and push up bras but apowerful beauty that radiates goddess energy..

your starting to feel your strength

Because I am pretty RIDICULOUSLY excited about my dread journey, and I just want to talk about it :P

Today is my two week mark of kicking the brush habit. I'm working on uploading a video update to youtube, I'll post a link when it's finished.

I am so excited to explore my hair every few days and see new baby dreads pop up and how the older ones are changing. I just spent a bunch of time looking at pictures online of dreads and got really excited for when my dreads a more mature.

I feel like I'm starting my cocoon and I will come out of the journey looking and feeling SO beautiful. I already feel more beautiful than before, just knowing that the under layer of my hair has a few dreads and the top is starting to really separate into sections.

it's such an emotional journey all ready. It is so hard to contain all this excitement and energy I get when I think about my dreads!!

I must have missed your post because I was in Idaho (I don't think there's such a thing as good internet in rural Idaho lol.) But I like your story from work! That's great that your boss is so understanding. It's really frustrating when people make it so obvious that they are judging you and think they know how you feel/will feel about something.

My boyfriend isn't super excited about my dreads either, but I don't know if he'll refuse to touch my hair when they start really coming in :P I had a dream the other night he kept running his fingers through my hair and pulling apart all the baby sections and I had to yell at him.

brandy said:

So my hubs hates my dreads. I mean like he doesn't want to touch my hair anymore. WHATEVER I don't worry about it because I love my hair and it makes me feel sexy. My head...my hair. A coworker actually came up to me ..an older woman....and told me shed wish I wasn't doing this to mg hair and I'll regret it. Then I'll have to shave it....she asked me my reason and I told her why and that I liked it and she said and that's your excuse and just laughed and walked away. A minute later my boss sent me an email that said "don't you just love when pp tell u how to liveur life and how. Screw other ppl do what u want and what makes u you. I said thanks and that I expect it because majority of ppl are so used to having everything normal in their own perception they don't know how to accept different. My boss said yeah..ppl are so close minded sometimes. Awesome my boss supports my journey yeah? Anyways some ppl won't want to vet or reasons and our journey but whatever....free urself from all that. That's one good reason right there. Good luck with our momma baby

Thanks everybody for your support While I was in Idaho I *almost* decided to not dread or at least wait awhile, because I spent a lot more time doing my hair than I typically did at home, and I do think I have very pretty, soft, nice normal hair lol. But as soon as I got home and fell back into my 'normal' routine of hardly ever doing my hair and looking in the mirror, it was really easy to go right into not combing and dreading.

Tomorrow marks 1 week since I stopped combing! I just put up some photos on my page if anyone wants to go take a peek I haven't told dad, I don't know if mom mentioned anything to him, but the subject hasn't come up again since the trip. I think if anything comes up I will probably boil it down to: I'm a grown woman, it's my head and my choice.

I do have some deeper personal reasons for dreading, but at the moment, it's because I find the natural process SO AMAZINGLY FASCINATING. I think it's kind of ridiculous how excited I get about tangles now hahaha.

My mom is, Dad grew up all over the place because his dad was in the Navy.

April Brown said:

Are your parents from Idaho then? I live in Idaho and grew up here and the mentality here is extremely conservative and most of the population is very judgmental to anything that is different from the "norm" let it slide. I don't have all that much support but then I'm not doing it for anyone else, in fact I'm doing it to get away from everyone else s expectations of me.

Thanks for your reply, Olivia! At 25 I feel like I've spent too long giving in to others and not thinking about my own care and needs. I really don't want to wait anymore, it is hard enough just to wait until tuesday! I live away from home mostly but will be moving back just for the summer. If things get really heated I might brush them out, but I'm hoping I can educate my parents enough that they can at least accept my choice even if they don't quite understand it.

OliviaJonas Aley said:

Well...I know that it's important to some of us to want to please our parents...to make them proud of us, and happy with our choices.

When I started to become interested in dreadlocks, I never thought about actually having them for myself...in part because of what my mom would think. My parents didn't really have open minds about stuff like that However, they would usually accept my choices and still love me.

My mom passed away last June 20... the decision I made about getting dreadlocks has partly helped me to understand my own loss. Much like needing time and patience for dreadlocks to form...I need time and patience for healing as well. My journey now without my mom goes on with God's help mostly, but I also know that she is smiling because she loves me.

My apologies if this is a rambling response to your situation. Your mom will still love you for who you are. She will accept your new hairstyle, and she will still think of you as her beautiful daughter. However if you feel that it will indeed cause a rift, you may need to give a small part of yourself over and wait for your journey to begin sometime down the road.

with joy!

Yes, I hoping that after a little education she will be a littler more accepting at least, if not more understanding. I'm scared about telling dad, too :P I am 25 and live away from home most of the time, but around the two month mark of dreads I'm moving back with my parents for the summer. Things will be interesting...I'm sure.

Seth L. said:

Parents can be so mellodramatic sometimes xP haha, and i totally understand you're reasoning, it makes a whole lot of sense and i still thinks you just have to explain dreadlocks and how they're taken care of, it really helps lol, "hippy-dippy", that made me laugh xD Just sounds likes she's closed minded and needs a little help understanding dreads, which if you're on this site and have read all the information you can surely give to her

yeah, I'm unfortunately really bad at explaining things :P I did kind of try to explain that for me it's sort of a way to let go of the old me who cared more about others and what they thought than for herself. Mom said I sounded very 'granola' and mentioned how she knew other parents/families like that from while I was growing up and just not liking it or something. Perhaps though I shouldn't have prefaced it with "they're very 'hippy-dippy' reasons" ...