It's a little past my 3 months now. I'm enjoying the process of dreading without too much worry this time round. For the most part my hair has sectioned and knotted on its own (minus the 2 tnr I started with). My front sections are still straight, but I know that may never dread. I counted 62 solid knotted sections. Tons of thin ones, a few fat ones. Lots of loops starting up. I have been washing with baking soda every 2 to 4 days. I have done a few acv rinses but its not part of my routine. I separate almost every day right now too. I have decided not to add beads or wraps yet, since the ones I had in kept falling out and I don't want to stop or hinder the process like last time. Or pick them up off the floor when they fall out daily. I'll wait until they are more along. So yeah, that's my update!

Holy crap! Let me say I was not expecting as much progress as I have right now. Only 6 weeks in and I've had more and more tangles start up in just the last week than I can count. I started with two tnr and the rest natural. I now have tons of knotting up throughout the entire length of the hair sections, which is different than my old tnr set which were knotted in the middle only. I've been continuing to wash with baking soda only and did two rinses of acv. No problems thus far with just using baking soda. I wash every 2 days. Although it's been hotter than normal for September here, so I have rinsed with water on my days I would normally not wash. Snice they aren't mature or anything, they dry fairly quickly (5 hours in doors, much less yesterday and today out in the sun). I am throughly enjoying seeing my hair do its own thing this time.

Seems that this time round going neglect that most people are skeptical that it will work and aren't near as supportive or encouraging to me. It doesn't bother me as I'm not doing this for anyone else, but something I noticed. Just last night, my cousin who supported me through my last twist and rip dreads, basically told me my dreads weren't real last time if I was able to comb them out. That I have to be serious about the knots and really damage my hair inow order to get dreads. Now, he had backcombed dreads for 11 years and never once told me my tnr dreads were not real dreads until yesterday. I told him that any hair could dread and just because I could take them apart (it took me a month of carefully pulling strand by strand out of loops and knots) didn't mean they weren't real. Not sure where to take this conversation with him now, as he thinks he is an expert in all things dread related.

Well, it's around 2 weeks in to my new journey and I feel pretty in love with my first dread that formed lol. My hair has done good at separating so far. I had 2 babies form at the back of my neck and had to pull apart the larger one into three because it would have been to big. But things are moving along as I expected. I feel that having a set previously has increased my level of patience. I know the stages and how I felt before about myself. This time I feel more relaxed but it is also very very very early. I talked with my old boss (same workplace, just different department than me now) and she loved that I was letting my hair dread again. I still should let my own boss know so he's aware of it. I may be getting a promotion, so that's why I have been hesitant this last week to say anything. It's past my yearly review and I am not even supposed to know about this potential raise and title promotion. Kinda stupid to want to stay quiet about dreads because of that isn't it? Anyways, very excited to see what my head looks like in 2 more weeks!

Well, it's been a while since I was on here. I ended up combing out my dreads a year and a half ago after 17.5 months of having them. I had trouble with the ends not locking up (5 to 8 inches smooth silky hair at ends). In the end I'm glad I did. I now have strong healthy long hair that's down to my lower back. But I miss the feeling of my babies. I'm toying with the idea of letting my hair dread again, but I don't think I want it all to dread this time. Not sure if I can let my hair naturally dread on the bottom while maintaining my straight hair on top. However I do it, I will need to keep them looking good and professional for my job, but I don't want to cause damage to my hair in case I need to comb them out. Guess we shall see!

It's been 1 year! My dreads have slowly been shrinking and looping. Still have loads of straight hair and tendrils hanging off of fully knotted dreads. I took out all the beads I had that I could (I am leaving the ones that are stuck for a bit, then will probably either leave them for good or attempt to break them). They are getting heavy though! There are SO many short ones. Literally only a few inches long. I pretty much leave them down, or put a head band on. Hats are too warm right now to bother with.

I don't mind having wispy ends, but the long 6-8 inches of non dreaded tendril hanging off of a dread is kinda annoying. Should I cut that off? Nothing has happened in months for those parts. Just seems that the dreads are too tight at that point to do anything.

I'm still loving them though and am looking forward to another year of changes and growth!

Hit the 7 month mark last week. I can't put my hair in a pony tail anymore without it falling out in a matter of minutes. Too many shorties in the middle and bottom that are causing the massive amount of "volume" I have in the back. My front ones are starting to loop and dread up (finally!). Since I can't really do any updos with my dreadies, I have been just wearing them down, occassionally putting a tam on. I made one tam a few months back and love it (crochet). I also made two crochet headbands, and my very first knitted headband a few nights ago. The only problem I have with headbands at the moment is that it just doesn't feel comfy. I made one headband too big, thinking that would be better and it didn't matter. I think since I always wear my dreads down, having them pulled back just feels funny/odd. Plus, there is so much bulk already with dreads, having an added band of yarn feels like my head is massive. Hoping I can get over it and just start wearing them since I love knitting/crocheting them. I also added some more pony beads on some of the smaller dreads, hoping they will start to knot up some. Realized though that I can't keep them in for too long because they will get sucked in and stuck on the dread like my little blue star bead did.

Dreads are shrinking so much! I love it! The only thing I don't like is that there is SO much shrinkage that I have trouble putting my hair up now. But that just means my little babes are growing and doing their thing. Pictures to come shortly I switched from Dr Bronners to Suave Daily Clarifying shampoo. The Dr Bronners was way too drying on my scalp and I have hard water so it didn't always feel like it was rinsing out all the way. I'm not sure if the Suave stuff is what is helping with the shrinkage or what but I love the way my hair feels and it doesn't leave a smell at all (Bronners would leave a lavendar/peppermint smell for a few hours at least)