Forum Activity for @mary

Believe it or not a lot of companies are using other ingredients instead of SLS. It makes your hair dry and brittle (well for me) Black soap or Doctor Bronners in COLD WATER should be fine.

Believe it or not the loctician that did my hair told me to wait a month, wash it with the stocking cap, and then go back to her for maintenace. I only went back a few months later to let her know that I was leaving town.

Somastefan said:

washing with a stocking cap on sounds ridiculous, Mary! who told you to do that?

Don't feel silly, now you know. When I first got my dreads I was told to wait a month and then wash them with a stocking cap on. That one is kind of useless. You should seriously wash your dreads more often. Unlike cornrows and box braids your hair will not grow because of the dirt.

Wool? With my hair I use a satin pillowcase and/or a sleeping bonnet.

To be honest going to the loctician seriously adds up. The last visit I became pissed that I spent that much money for something I could have done. I'm better off using my own ingredients and save a ton of money in the long run. To each their own, but remember that african hair and caucasian hair lock differently before you yield advice.

NEVER USE Wax. That is a no no. Aloe gel should be fine but if you want to use lock gel use the Rasta Locs Twist (Yellow container) brand since it does not flake. I know some people that have started dreads with braids...

Sadly to be honest, many black locticians can NOT do caucasian dreads. They are so confident that they can they will go all out and use whatever they can to just get the dreadlock "look." Palm rolling did not work so they whip out the wax and place gobs of it in the hair until it looks like dreads. Then they bilk you out of a lot of money.

All I can say is that people need to learn how to do RESEARCH before they get it done, and do not be afraid to ask the loctician questions and it's okay to just walk away.

Okay I have two stories about caucasians and dreads from when I was younger.

1)When I was 11 I went to a family friend's salon to get braids with some Christmas money. While another stylist was doing my hair a Caucasian blond guy came in. He had blond and black spikey hair. He talked to the stylist that did his hair (my family friend). He showed her the yellow bag, inside the bag were a bunch of locks. They all fell out, the stylist went right into her bag and gave him some money. She knew she fucked up and gave him a refund for what happened. Just saying, if they knew they were wrong they should have owned up to their mistakes and given you a refund. Also I would stay away from them.

2) A few years later I went to this family friend again. She moved to a different salon. She was giving my sister and I braids for summer camp. Another stylist was working on this middle aged caucasian woman's hair. We were in the salon for hours and I watched the stylist palm roll, and do many things to try to get her hair to form dreadlocks. When the woman left she paid at the counter and walked out. They looked like loose gray curls and kind of wispy. She would have been better off just doing it at home. And the salon woman told her "This is the best I could do, your hair is too slippery. Very professional, huh?

stacey said:

i did not ask for a refund. i know i should have. i contacted the lady who worked on them and told her i was not happy with the results and wanted to take things over myself.

she said, "oh well good, thats the idea to take care of them yourself then come to the salon when you want a professional touch." ha

i really dont know her well enough to know for sure she was trying to scam me. i always got the impression from her that she was trying really hard to make them work with the method she was using. just not educated herself. i gave her the link to this website.

Oh my Word. I went to the salon of a family friend and it only cost 50-55 dollars. When I moved to the south I had to get them redone (Since I was in the hospital for a month and did not take care of them well). Even then that was like 60 dollars. I would never pay that much for locks, something that happens naturally. Even some of the products I do purchase does not cost more than 8-10 dollars a month.

I seriously recommend separating them. Use some vitamin E oil (real, not the one with fillers) so it won't be as painful. I can't help you with the shrinking but it will grow out in no time, relax.