Right side always looks so short...

Front/top part starting to look like I wanted...

Bottom part is a bit harder to do, so still a bit darker... but Lookit!! I FINALLY managed to section off the bottom/neck part into good dreads!! YAY!

3 Months! I'm blonder and my animal friendly pink hair dye (LaRiche Directions, Pastel Pink and Carnation Pink) have arrived. (FYI, I also used some great and animal friendly bleaches, from the good people of Sanotint). Oh also, this might be of interest to some... after I think the first time bleaching (my virgin hair), my dreads went crazy kinky, and were quite hard to unloop. After the second bleach, my hair felt so dry I used some of the conditioner that came with the bleach. I know conditioner and dreads are a big no-no, but it REALLY helped! I also only left it in very briefly, maybe 30 seconds, and not on the roots. Just wanted to share



The dye looked fantastic going on...


But took on a more orangey hue when dried / after a couple of days


I realized the Pastel Pink really only shows up as such on pretty much white hair - I increased the ration of the Carnation Pink to Pastel to about 1:3 (from 1:5 or so... the Carnation Pink is Quite Strong!) ... and am finally getting somewhere




I liked the idea of having a mix of blonde and pink dreads, which is also a good way to test bleaching time and colours before going BIG with it

Might try and do a pink-blonde ombre thing next time though

I decided to go blonder!! And... red? For some reason... Actually I had fallen in *love* with pink hair, but i had to bleach my hair over a period of several weeks, so as not to damage it. Oils (coconut and olive especially) help a lot!

Before Backcombing

And after



After two weeks I bleached some more:




And experimented with wool extensions



This was mostly spurred on by the annoying gap by my neck... It was fun, but too much upkeep. I'm not a high maintenance sort of person I shall have to be patient

I know these things ordinarily go by the month, but well... me and ordinary don't get together that often


I got a bunch of beads to help guide things along... especially since I have quite a few strays... so they don't fraternize too much... Just have to remember to slide them a bit up or down so as not to create weak spots in the dreads

Gosh darnit... that damn neck part! Never really got it right... This is one of the areas that suffered the most losses at the Great Culling. Now there's kind of a giant gap there... Grrr!

Allrightey.... Back to square one, more or less all unravelled... a few of them did survive ^_^ I should name them something warrior'ey...

And here we go - December 6, 2013!! Under a waxing Aquarius Moon

Yeah, I know.. that's some rough quality there...

Little babies...

Aaaaaallrightey!! ^_^ These shall be the official records of my dreadlock jouney... take three

I started dreading in 2010'ish, this is what i had going on

I only use backcombing. The importance of natural sectioning has become increasingly evident to me, as my locks simply will have their way! They are just not happy if too thin, too thick, or forced into unnatural groups. Not in the long term.. which is what i'm interested in. Best strategy for me by far is to let them form in the sizes and with the 'friends' they want and then take it from there. This means having strays and random smaller locks of undreaded hair, but it's worth my dreads being happy and I kinda like the diversity I like braiding too, so it's nice still being able to do that.

Anyway, I did not know just how important this 'listening to my dreads' was before, and it was just giving me grief, so autumn 2013 the command decision was made to unravel all of this... (pictures taken on decent days.... oh how they can turn )






Oooh my little fabric-flower creations ^_^

.... And start over. Some had gone to neglect, and I just don't like it when I can't get a comb through 'em.. feel like they don't get clean and dry enough... so I chopped off the dead weight, and tried to give it a rest and let some parts grow out a bit before starting over.. couldn't stay away long though.

So - This time I shall keep a log of this great adventure. I'm so grateful to all those out there that bothered to do the same - it's a thrill to watch unfold

Here we go!