I live in Grand Rapids, Mi and having issues with hard water residue as well. My dreads atre taking on a rust color from the iron in the water. 
What would anyone recommend to get the residue out? Should I start rinsing with distilled water?
Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help out with the site. I feel really strongly about supporting things that feed my Spirit, like this natural dread journey has been doing in so many ways.
Very well said.
taye said:
OMG while i was reading this...I had a mental picture of our members knocking on the doors of all the people who abuse their knotty heads. Wanting to share the message of peace love and healthy dreads in order to save those dreads from LOCK HELL.
sorry i just had to share that. Seriously, Soaring Eagle started this site to educate people about HEALTHY locks. It would be hypocritical of him to just say...sure do whatever...it is all ok...because it is not. This whole site is dedicated to giving people knowledge and spreading the information that hair knots....all by itself. There have been so many people that put their trust in salons and dread kits. They come here to get help after they have made those mistakes. Why would you want to argue about the very reason this site was created? We are not knocking on your door...you come to us.
Ireally like your response to this, Tara. I've noticed you are good at talking to people. You would make a great counselor.
Tara C said:
I don't know anything about re-twisting or going bald because of it or anything like that, so I can't say anything about it. But I dont get how it makes them look tidier? I mean, maybe I'm weird, but the picture SE often posts with his dreads, they look neat to me. Long, yes, but not untidy. Untidy dreads to me are just when they're not mature yet. My hair is untidy now, for sure, but when they're fully locked up, they won't be. Except for loose hairs, but they tend to be not as noticeable as the person with them thinks. So even if twisting doesn't cause any problems, there isn't really a point to it in my opinion, cos you get past the messiness and then it goes away.
That said, to answer your question as to why people here are against maintained dreads, it's not specifically because they're maintained, but because the methods used to maintain them have evidence to suggest that they're at worst damaging, and at best useless. If there were ways to make them neat without any harm coming to them, people wouldn't be against them. They might disagree with the idea of making dreads neat and uniform, but they wouldn't be against people's personal choice of it.
