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dread gurusPermalink Reply by ☮ soaring eagle ॐ on April 23, 2012 at 7:18pm

braids to dreads generaly is slower then just neglect dreads as trhe braids gotta loosen up 1st enough to dread

most ppl who get dread extentions regret it and cut em off and  they do need established dreads to anchor onto and by thart time your dreads are growing so why bother

your job cannot prevent you from dreading if you dread for religios or sp[\pitritual reasons and probly not culrtural either but then youd have to dread naturaly

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Permalink Reply by Jenifer on April 23, 2012 at 7:35pm

Yeah, that is why I was wondering if my idea would work, I would have dreads starting naturally and could incorporate the braided hair into it by taking put the braid and dreading it. Once it had some length I might get rid of the extension if I wanted and have the all natural dreads left. I was in an accident years ago and lost most of my hair. It was very traumatic for me For personal reasons, I would like to maintain some length.

No, my job would not say "you have a hairstyle that is not traditional and we are letting you go". They cannot do that. They can, however decide to fabricate a "reason" other than that to avoid controversy. Companies do it all the time. I live is an "open door employment" state (PA). Any employer can let anyone go for any (or no) reason. I am hoping to find a balance between my person choice and the engineering world.

Thanks foe the insight! It is a lot to think about.

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hair-scalp health expertsPermalink Reply by Stephani on April 23, 2012 at 7:38pm

Having just done the twist and rip method myself, I would recommend going with bigger sectioning then a micro braid. I have some very tiny dreads because I thought I wanted small ones, and what I'm finding is I like my bigger ones better. My small dreads are probably only a tiny bit larger then a micro section. My large ones are about 1 inch by 1 inch sectioning. I'm finding that the larger sections are locking better and the beads I put on them feel more secure. Being a hairstylist and specializing in braids myself, I can tell you from personal experience that braids will not dread on their own. I have clients who neglect their braids for a very long time and I'm pretty sure it would take years for the braids to actually start to lock up. What happens is the new growth starts to mat, making one whole dread that covers the scalp. It is extremely bad when that happens, because it does not allow your scalp to breathe and becomes a breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria. I hope this helped you somewhat.

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dread gurusPermalink Reply by ☮ soaring eagle ॐ on April 23, 2012 at 7:46pm

well depends if they are loose enough to unbraid and then dread and if the roots are seperatedit will work just slower then neglect but does define sections

if they are tight ior held together with bands or whatever tgen yea they wont dreadfor a long time

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Permalink Reply by Jenifer on April 23, 2012 at 7:50pm

Oh, ok! That all makes sense. I was not clear with my braider and she made them smaller than I expected. My fault :-)

Hmmm I had planned to unbraiding the hair and twist and rip the portion that was in the braid into a dreadlock. I would separate the bits at the scalp to keep the locks separate. I know what you mean about the scalp mat-yikes!!

Is there a way to make open-ended dreads using human extensions? I like the way they look and it would allow me to keep length while the dreads form.

Thank you do much for the ideas!

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hair-scalp health expertsPermalink Reply by Stephani on April 23, 2012 at 7:51pm

True, I guess if they are braided loose that would work. Most people who braid though, braid extrememly tight. So I guess maybe asking for looser braids, and keeping the sections apart would work. Like you said just slower for sure.

☮ soaring eagle ॐ said:

well depends if they are loose enough to unbraid and then dread and if the roots are seperatedit will work just slower then neglect but does define sections

if they are tight ior held together with bands or whatever tgen yea they wont dreadfor a long time

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dread gurusPermalink Reply by ☮ soaring eagle ॐ on April 23, 2012 at 8:02pm

i have no idea  unkless u wait for the roots to be drading so the 3rd strands anchored in but then again maybe just twisting it in then tnr so the 3rd strand randomly gets mixed in with the other 2..i dunno how it will work tho

Jenifer said:

Oh, ok! That all makes sense. I was not clear with my braider and she made them smaller than I expected. My fault :-)

Hmmm I had planned to unbraiding the hair and twist and rip the portion that was in the braid into a dreadlock. I would separate the bits at the scalp to keep the locks separate. I know what you mean about the scalp mat-yikes!!

Is there a way to make open-ended dreads using human extensions? I like the way they look and it would allow me to keep length while the dreads form.

Thank you do much for the ideas!

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hair-scalp health expertsPermalink Reply by Stephani on April 23, 2012 at 8:10pm

Okay so it would be perfectly possible to add human hair into an open-ended dread and twist and rip it just as you would if the hair grew from your head that way. Here's the only problem I see with it.. Since the added hair wont be growing and changing as your natural hair would be, then I'm not completely sure how your hair would lock into it. I could take a guess and say that I still think your hair would lock up around the added hair and be fine. I can't say that for sure though because I've never done it that way. Really, that is the only problem I see though. As long as the twist and rip is done the right way, I think it would be fine. Just make sure, if you go to a hairstylist. DO NOT let her/him use any product on your hair, whether they say it is it needed or not. No product is needed in order to start the locking process, and many stylists will tell you it is. ALSO, make sure their price is reasonable. Some will over charge, you do have to remember that is their job and they are charging for their time, but they should not charge you an arm and leg for something you could do for free. 

Jenifer said:

Oh, ok! That all makes sense. I was not clear with my braider and she made them smaller than I expected. My fault :-)

Hmmm I had planned to unbraiding the hair and twist and rip the portion that was in the braid into a dreadlock. I would separate the bits at the scalp to keep the locks separate. I know what you mean about the scalp mat-yikes!!

Is there a way to make open-ended dreads using human extensions? I like the way they look and it would allow me to keep length while the dreads form.

Thank you do much for the ideas!

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dread gurusPermalink Reply by ☮ soaring eagle ॐ on April 23, 2012 at 8:21pm

good point 6 hours work at 10 dollars an hour  is 60 dollars

highly trained  professionals with college degrees might make 20 an hour so 120 for 6 hours work

some locticians will charge 500-800 for 6 hours work.. what makes it woth 100 dolars an hour to do hair?

its rediculouse

instead invite 3 freinds over get a 1/2 oz of weed or case of beer whichever they preffer and a couple movies and make a party outta it

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hair-scalp health expertsPermalink Reply by Stephani on April 23, 2012 at 8:34pm

To twist and rip while adding hair though, would be very hard for someone who is not skilled in braiding. Unless you have some friends that really know what they're doing I would go to someone who is trained in adding in extensions and knows how to twist and rip. If they charge anything over $100/ hour that's too much. If you do know some friends who can do all of that, I would probably wait for the party. Things may get confusing if people get too drunk or high LOL.

☮ soaring eagle ॐ said:

good point 6 hours work at 10 dollars an hour  is 60 dollars

highly trained  professionals with college degrees might make 20 an hour so 120 for 6 hours work

some locticians will charge 500-800 for 6 hours work.. what makes it woth 100 dolars an hour to do hair?

its rediculouse

instead invite 3 freinds over get a 1/2 oz of weed or case of beer whichever they preffer and a couple movies and make a party outta it

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crafty craftersPermalink Reply by Valérie on April 23, 2012 at 9:06pm

In my personal experience (not saying this is necessarily advice) loose braids and not "design" braids (like corn rows) may work for what you are trying to do.  I've had braids before but most of my experience with extensions has been synthetic or human hair dreadlock extensions.  The dreadlocks I would make I would then braid into a section of hair that would be of like-size.  If I kept the dreadlocks in for about 3 months, I definitely had dreaded roots.  I was able to keep these separated the same way that naturally grown dread roots would be handled:  By pulling them apart when they started to form together.

Now, I'm not sure how long you've kept braids in your hair before but, if you do attempt to use extensions as a starter (such as in my dread-extension case) when you go to remove them after a long length of time you will have what looks like a LOT of hair loss (this is because hair will shed each day -along with any other trauma breakage- and while in extensions, there is nowhere for this hair to go -  in natural dreadlocks it becomes part of the dread) and for someone who has already undergone hair loss trauma it can be kind of scary (I once took out extensions after a couple of months and had multiple fistfuls of hair come away from my head.  I was worried and had a friend come over and take a look but my head was still full and thick that we decided that I must have hit it's telogen phase.)

Anyhoo, something else similar to what you are talking about my friend did a while back.  She had really short dreads from backcombing and she wanted them to be longer.  She bought some human hair and poked it through the dread (with 3 inches of dread at the top and about an inch of "loosely" dreaded hair below and the rest of the hair loosened.  Once pulled through, she backcombed the extension in with her own hair and then down the length.  I don't see how this can't work the same way with TnR method.  Also she never had any problems with the extension falling out but, she back combed pretty tightly.

Not to advocate that any of these experiences are necessarily the "way to go" but I just wanted to let you know that I have seen it done these ways.

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Permalink Reply by Jenifer on April 23, 2012 at 9:48pm

Thanks so much, everyone! A dreading party sounds pretty cool. I can't say that I have any friends with braiding experience but maybe I can get a good braided to section and rubber and the sections and have a twist n rip party!

I think I might experiment with a few braids and see if my idea works at all. It may be a total bust but a few braids -> dread with the extension hair ate worth a try to see if it works at all. I'd like to keep track of my journey.

I have been very lucky with my braids and no damage. Noam shedding is scary tho, no doubt.

I like the idea of dreading hair and adding a loose extension. I really think my sections are too small. I think the twist and rip or even back combing might just take it out at the root since it is so small. I will try taking out some braids, combining the sections, and twisting the sections to start the dread.

I guess life is an experiment :-)

*hugs*

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