Oh my, I have NO idea what's going on here, but it is quite funny! Feel free to leave comments.

Ok, this may or may not be a stupid idea, but I think I will try it here and see what happens. On my facebook page, I try to post a LOL of the day every week day. I figure we all could use a little more laughter in our lives and.. we... I just like to share my warped sense of humor. Soooo I am going to post LOL of the day #1 here. Feel free to comment or whatever. If I don't get any comments, I may not continue, so we shall see how this goes! ;P

Well, here I am bemoaning the fact that my beloved Steelers can't seem to function right now and I decided that maybe it was a good time to try to get a couple new pics up. I am roughly at my 2 1/2 month mark, and you might not be able to really tell (my camera ran out of batteries before I could take more detailed pics) - but the middle parts of each little section are pretty solid knots. The end and the roots are loose - which I have been told is just fine and perfectly normal for the stage they are currently in. I have put a number of beads in to keep the hair out of my eyes mostly and to help some of the sections from congoing - plus, I just love beads and I have recently gotten a number of really beautiful ones.I just washed my hair a couple of hours ago and my scalp is feeling wonderful and all my little baby dreadies are nice and happy. I can not wait until my hair is long enough and the dreads mature enough to star piling on top of my head in delicious patterns and styles. These days, I pretty much keep them all wrapped up in a big sleeve thing I made out of an old shirt.SO there you go. Not much to tell, but definitely progress!

LOL! My hair is pretty short - about chin length and so the dreads of course are not long enough to pull back. So far I've been using a lot of tams and that usually does fine, but there are times where I would rather not hide my hair under a hat - but I still have the dilemma of what to do to keep the dread out of my eyes.I have been wanting to get a wrap or a sleeve and I love decoration s like beads so I periodically google dread accessories to see what is out there. Knottyboy has some really cute wraps and I almost bought 2. But I've spent a lot of money lately and I really shouldn't spend it, but I really want them... you know how that goes. I tend to be pretty bad with my money because I'm can be a very instant-gratification kind of gal, you know?But you all should be proud of me, I refrained. I did not buy the wraps - even though they were awfully cute with different stripey colors and stuff. First, I didn't like the big knottyboy logo emblazoned on them, and second I logically concluded that my hair was still too short to wear the wrap with any kind of success. But that didn't solve my problem of dreads in my eyes.I have seen many times on this website that people have suggested cutting the sleeves off of old t-shirts and using that. So though I loathed to cut up one of my shirts, I figured I had at least one old one that I never wore that I could part with and proceeded to cut off one of the sleeves. Then I put it on and it was waaay too tight. Well great. I ruined a shirt for nothing. But what would happen if I cut off the bottom of the shirt?So I cut off the bottom of the shirt and instantly made myself a very comfortable wrap-like thing that I was able to loop around my head (and dreads) 2x! It is so cute! I love it!!! And it is in a color that I love because it's one of MY old t-shirts!So lesson learned. Before you go spending money on something, give a home-remedy a try. You never know, you might just find yourself feeling stupid for almost BEING stupid!A

Ok, I promised some pictures and so here they are. This is after 1 week of me separating, twisting and ripping and a little backcombing. I just washed my hair/head using a BS mixture with some drops of tea tree oil, peppermint, rosemary and lilac oils and then I used a mixture of Apple Cider vinigar and water - first time with the AC rinse and I got to say - I'm amazed at how soft my hair feels right now. Anyway, like I said this picture was taken just a few hours after I washed so my hair is pretty fuzzy right now.Ok, ok, I can not lie. My hair is always fuzzy these days. I spent some time this evening looking through the forum with pictures of different stages and that was really encouraging. I am guessing that it will take a number of months for these to tighten up and look like real dreads. I'm not doing anything to them now that they are all on their paths - which I love! I just put a tam on and go! My friend made me a tam to wear at night too - it has a string on it so I can tie it tightly around my face and it won't fall off during the night! lol! I look a little silly but I got to say, I love it! My head is so comfy and cozy at night! The tam is kind of large so all the baby dreads can move around in it while the thing is firmly attached. Brilliant!So without further ado - here are the pix - let me know what you guys think!

I am about halfway done with my head - it's going slow because my arms, wrists and fingers get pretty sore, but overall, I'm loving how it's turning out. But...AAAAAAaaarrrrrrrgh!!!! I've got the itchies! Last week, I washed my hair for the first time with the baking soda recipe found on this forum site and it worked wonderfully. I washed my hair a second time with it this past Saturday - just 2 days ago - and I've got the itchies and some dandruff already!!! I have not tried the AC wash yet, but since I know I won't make it till Saturday before washing my head again, I will try it - probably tonight as soon as I get home from work. I will be gritting my teeth all day trying not to scratch! I know that we have very hard water in my area so maybe that has something to do with it. I also realized pretty quickly while in the shower that I didn't use enough peppermint and tea tree oil in the mixture I made up this time. I felt some tingling, but not like the first time I made it and I think that has a lot to do with it. My friend who is a hairdresser once told me that using something that has a "refreshing" or "tingling" sensation to it is good for those who have dandruff because it is opening up the pores - which is one reason why I included peppermint in my mix. And, as SE has suggested, rinsing the final rinse with cold water is good - because it closes your pores. Maybe I didn't rinse enough this time - I don't know. But you can be sure I will be washing my scalp again this evening or I might just go stark raving mad!lol!!!!

It's been a while since I've posted, I've been pretty busy. But I am attempting to simplify my life a bit hhere and perhaps get back to some of the things I have been meaning to take care of. Like my hair! So finally I am in the pre-dreading process. I have spent the evening sectioning out my hair - sans help and sans mirror - so I expect the dreads to be delighfully non-uniform. My arms and shoulders and fingers are already kind of sore and pretty tired, but I did manage to rip and twist and back-comb the first few. I even have a bead! lol! I love beads in dreads - so pretty. I've got a bunch of beads I am looking forward to putting in.The sections I worked on tonight are fatter and fuzzier than I expected, but they are pretty solid. At least I hope they are. I can not separate the hairs in these sections so I feel fairly confident. I am hoping that I will discover what others claim happens - and as they mature they will become tighter and less puffy. I can not really say they are thick - necessarily - because like I said - they are brand new and puffy and I'm hoping that once they really lock up they will get tighter. But since I have no idea what I'm talking about - who knows! lol!I got to say tho- I am liking the way it looks. My hubby isn't so sure tho. Oh well. He doesn't get a say in this. hahhah! Don't get me wrong, folks, I love the man dearly, but he's just not quite on board with this little adventure.I am a little worried that they will unravel instead of locking up. The ends are kind of loose, I can separate those hairs, but about a quarter of the way up, to the roots, the knots are pretty dense (for now at least) - that's where I can not separate. I remember that many people have said that locks happen when hair has the chance to move - so my roots are still fairly loose. I don't know.Anyway, since I'm doing this on my own, it's gonna take me a few days to get the whole head worked out. I suspect that my arms, fingers, and shoulders are going to really be hurtin' by the end of the week! I will post pictures as soon as I can and you all can tell me how I did. Be kind tho - this the first time I've done this to my own natural hair!Till then, blessings and joy to you all!Andelynn

So I come home and lo and behold my essential oils have arrived! Yeay! I love getting stuff in the mail! Practically all my shopping is done online these days. Who has time to browse stores anymore? Sooooo I got Tea tree oil - smells pretty strong - Lavender, Rosemary and Peppermint oils. Nice. I'm looking forward to trying them. I also - ok, this is actually pretty funny, but I also looked everywhere for sea salt here in my town and couldn't find any so once again, I looked online. I found this great bulk health foods store and bought a 5lb. bag! I didn't really MEAN to get such a large bag but it was so inexpe nsive I figured - why not? Now I'm thinking, how funny is it that I got a 5LB BAG OF SALT coming to me in the mail? LOL! It's gonna last me forever!! It's gonna come and my hubby is going to look at me like I'm crazy! "You bought SALT through the mail?!" yes, yes I did.So I am only a couple of days away from taking a break from school (thank GOD!) and hopefully soon my friend and I will get going on starting my dreads. I've been thinking a lot about how to go about doing this because I've got really silky hair and just leaving it really isn't doing anything. I sent her the link I found on this site that shows you how to do the twist and rip and i figure that will probably be ok, but if not, I thought maybe I would have her braid the sections up like, half way or something. That way they will be anchored but the roots will still be loose enough to start knotting on their own... that sounds fairly reasonable to me, hopefully it will work. If not, um... well I don't know. I think it should be fine. Plus I've got 5 lbs of sea salt to use to dry my hair out a bit first soooo.. lol!A