I initially started my dreads in 2006. A friend spent 4 hours braiding my head. I kept it covered and waxed down due to my job. They locked quickly but I found them to be very heavy. So tyme went on and in search of other ways to cover them I started buying hats. BIG MISTAKE!!!! I bought one at a yard sale. (never buy used) by this tym my locks were down past my shoulders and very very knotty

. My kingman was gone and when i spoke to him about itchy scalp he said "this sometimes happens just keep them covered and oiled if needed.

After 2 months I couldn't take it anymore i went back tp my friend only to find out i had LICE!!!! I went thru 3 months of pure H%$LL trying everything to save my locks, for cutting them to me was not an option. Everything was tried but they just kept coming back, afterresearchingol I found that they were probably laying eggs inside my dreads that couldn't b gotten too with regular treatment. so they kept rehatching.

Finally I let my sister n law treat them with a homemade solution. It was only after it was done that i was told she had injected a weed killer mix into my dreads with a hyperdemic needle. I was shocked a female to a rastaman had used chemicals?! But n the end it did kill the lice it also killed my hair.

Slowly they started falling out they became dry and brittle and nothing helped them. But still i fought to keep them. when my king returned home in 2008 he started treating them and with his help they stopped falling out but could not b healed.

Life went on and so did I just keeping them covered all the time but I noticed no new hair was coming in it was like a dead garden and nothing new was growing. I went back to skewl and got my Associates Degree in accounting. my counselor point blank told me. "you will never get a job in yourfieldwith your hair looking like that, no one will take you seriously"

My kingman told me to ignore her and toper suemy dream after several failed interview I cut my hair n August of 2010. I let my peersconvinceme that they were holding me back. Against my now husbands wishes I went to my daughter and told her to take them off quickly before i changed my mind. Not wanting me to b bald it took her awhile to pick out the front so i would have some hair and she chose the Kate Gosselin cut so that i wouldn't lookbutchered.

I cried like a baby for days i couldn't look at myself in the mirror I just felt plain naked. Like there was a piece of me gone.I take care of his dreads using natural oils when they become a little dry and i have to admit I had started to become jealous of his locks, In the back of my mind I wondered what mine would have been like had i left them alone.

Finally at my husband insistence I stopped going to the salon for trims and just let my hair grow.I keep it in a ponytail or bun because it is so fine and thin. He has been back home for 4 years and i have slowly made my way back into the rastafarian lifestyle, little things like diet and getting back to nature. Finally finding my faith again after denouncing god in 1985. I believed he had turned his back on me so I did the same thing. ( sum pain a 13 yr old child goes thru just can't b healed I struck out at the only person i could and that was god) I also still haven't found a job in myfield (so much for the western hairstyle). But I am working pt..

He came to meSundayand said have you ever thought about regrowing your locks, after a feirce hour arguement of pros and cons. I kept saying you don't have to be dread to be rasta he kept saying it's the only step you have't taken. u know the usualargumentbetween man and woman lol. in the end all i could say is "I couldn't bear to go thru the loss again" Being the kind man he is he simply said "I'm home now and I ill help you take care of them and you won't go thru that again"

10 hrs later there we sat with sore thumbs, tired backs and me with a head full of dreads thanks to the twist and rip method. I feel whole again my hair has so much body and fullness. He laughed when I tried to use a ponytail holder and said "You have way too much hair for that band now" He looks at me in a new light almost and I have a new found respect for myself.

So my advice to anyone with dreads NEVER put used items on your head not hats, wraps or anything else.

Blessed Be The Knatty Lioness