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I don't know how fast my hair will dread tho...Since I have curly and dry hair I'm think it'll dread pretty fast.But on the other hand, my scalp is oily, and my hair is fine, and thin.Well, we shall see!It's so interesting to see the progress tho... My hair looks nothing like what I had started with(comb twist... Which wasn't a great method for me).Anyways, I'll be updating at 2 months
Well guys, I am about worn out. My girlfriend and I have been getting ready for the epic trekking to begin again and a LOT of work went into it this time. For those of you who don't know, we spent 8 months out of the last year tramping across the country, riding on our thumbs (hitchin'). We covered almost the whole country and made it almost 20k miles before we stopped in March to work on a van that we bought.
Jesus, that van. We bought a 1979 Chevy Trans Van for $1000 in St. Petersburg, FL, drove it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and then to Oklahoma to fix it up. It's a piece of work. Needed a TON of interior TLC. Stripped it down to the bare floors and beyond. Been working on it non-stop ever since. Today I just got the new paneling up for the walls, so next week I can start the install on the futon and table, plus storage space. It's been causing a lot of stress, to say the least. Freakin' bureaucracy is just crazy in this country. Titles, fees, registration, insurance...have this paperwork, that form, fill out this paper, stand in that line, go over here. And we wonder why people go crazy. I'm not there yet, but my patience is being tested.
On top of that, we just opened up a new shop for our jewelry over on Etsy (The Hippie Hempworks) and have been killing ourselves making new pieces to sell at all the festivals we'll be hitting. I have photos up on my page of some of our stuff. I'm really excited about the new Tokewear. I'm hoping we'll be able to do well with those. If they'll sell well anywhere, they'll sell well at festivals! We have about 40 pieces done and want to make about 50 more before we hit the road. First on the list is Sasquatch, up in George, WA. Then we're turning around and coming back to Red Rocks, CO to catch Bassnectar on June 1st. After that, a quick jaunt to Bonnaroo in Tennessee, up to Rothbury for Electric Forest, then on to the National Rainbow Gathering. Once all that is done, it's on to All Good in Ohio and then we're planning on heading to Alaska for a couple of months. We might not make it that far this year, but if we have to settle for trim jobs in NorCal...oh darn, that would break my poor little heart. :D
We're doing all of this on a shoestring budget and we're just hoping that we can sell enough at each stop to pay for the gas to get to the next stop. If not, well....we might just have to ditch a van and go back to thumbing it. Not giving up on our plans though...too much awesomeness packed into one summer to give up on it. We had annual salaries last year of less than $5k...combined. I'm not even sure how we managed it and this year we might be lucky to clear another $5k, but we'll keep going. Money isn't as hard to live without once you stop wanting stuff, but having some more of it sure would make things easier sometimes! :D
On the dread front, the locks are looking good and I just started working on some new burnt bamboo wood beads to pass out to the dreadies I see along the road! The first one came out pretty well, so I'll be making more shortly. Peyote stitching for cuffs is still on my list of things to do...if I can ever find the time!
Truthfully, there wasn't much reason for this post outside of a need to purge. I'm worn out, sore, and hungry. At least I can take care of one of those right now. So until next time, be good to each other and love each other. May the Light of the Universe shine on each and every one of you!
My first set of locks were an epic fail whale. My first mistake was not to research a little longer, so I jumped the gun after seeing the dreadheadhq site. yeah, I know a lot of you are tutt-tutting and shaking your head. Used the shampoo and the dread wax, double no no!! In the begining i wasn't too thrilled with the wax it weighed my hair down and left me feeling icking. After the second attempt I gave up and went wax free. Took a good couple of months just to get the 2 uses of wax out. After the horibble sponginess of the wax was gone I decided to try and speed things up like any other newbie yet again adding to the epic fail. My dreads being only roughly 6 inches long and three months old I decide to add extentsions. Being a stylist I did all the work myself, the three days to add 12 inch fake extentsions felt amazing to begin with, All the beuatiful colors, the lentgh I could do anything. But as I stumbled upon the dreadlocksite I realized I was missing out. My locks weren't a part of me like real timely locks were. Mine were heavy, stiff, and lifeless. I'd mised the journey of descovering, loops and knotts and watching as my babies grew and matured. The fake hair was not a part of me, They weren't me. I was fake.Ashamed of my locks I ripped out the extentsions, combed out my dreads and started again. Two days from today, will be my 7 months dreading bypassing my first set of fake6months locs. My journey so farhas had a few bumps, a couple of dirty hippie has been thrown around. But I'm Happy. I feel free to be myself. My locks are every bit a part of me as the air in my lungs, they are my super power to see the world in a new way. Me in a new light. I don't have to be like everyone else always changing trying to keep up with the new fade. More confident, ambivilent, all together Happy.
I went in to work today only having 1 haircut scheduled. I was kind of bummed about having such a slow day, but ended up getting 3 walk in's and did a co-workers hair too. The second walk in I had was the first person to really complement my dreads.
As of last night almost my entire head is dreaded, except for a small portion at the top that I was just too tired to mess with last night. I pulled the top portion op out of my face and went to work with my crazy wet dreads lol! They had completely dried by the time this guy came in and were super frizzy. So we started talking about hair and the subject of my dreads came up. I said "I'm in the process of dreading and I still have a portion at the top left to do, sorry it looks kind of crazy right now." He said "I was waiting for you to bring the fact that you have dreadlocks up". This confused me, I asked him why, and he said "Because they are the coolest things I've ever seen". He had never seen dreadlocks in person before mine. It's pretty cool to me to know I broke someone's dreadlock visual cherry HAHA! Anyway, He asked about washing and pretty much every other question that's ever been asked. Then I told him that my family wasn't to happy about it and his response is was, "why on earth would your family care about the way you wear your hair?". That's when it hit me! I am the only person that has to like my dreads. If no one else does, then so be it. I am truly okay with my mom not liking the fact that I decided to dread, and the fact that it's my husbands favorite thing in the world. I'm still me, only better . I am happy with my choice, and that's all that matters.
It's amazing how having a conversation with a stranger can change our lives in a second.
So I am 4 months away from my one year mark! How cool is that? :D
I'm a few days lat at making a blog post but I figure better late than never.
So not terribly much has changed since last month but, I will say that I have started stretching my ear lobes. I freaking love it too. I'm only going to 00 but ya know. The dread process and stretching my lobes is a cool journey. I am currently at an 8 at the moment and I think I will go to 6 probably by the end of next week.
I finished my Spring semester of college last week and I have decided not to go for the Summer semester. I think I'm gonna kick back and take a much needed rest from it all. I have been going year round for the last year and a half. I'm so burnt out with it for now. I think the break will do me some good so when I go back I can really put in the time and effort for my classes..
Other than that, I am doing very well and so is everyone in my family.. :D
Thanks for reading!
Peace and Blessings
This morning I did my first TNR, to mark the beginning of this journey. I'm feeling obsessive about the process today; it's the excitement of finally doing this after so, so long of yo-yoing about it. I'll calm down in a day or so, as I work myself into a routine that involves countless hours of studying and writing and remember how to function without deadlines for a minute.
Relaxation for the win.
As of yesterday Some of my dreads are now 2 weeks old. I also finished the whole bottom portion, so some are just a day old. I should have just gone with a full head 2 weeks ago instead of messing around with this partial nonsense, but what can you do? Because of my lack of sectioning (which doesn't totally bother me), It is very difficult to TnR the rest of my head. So, hopefully I'll be able to finish them sometime today. Some of my dreads are VERY small because that is all the hair that I had to work with in those sections. I like the the different sizes, I'm just curious to see how the little baby ones progress. I do have a favorite though! It's one that is 2 weeks old. He has lots of little bumps and loots like so much fun already.
In other news, I'm so tired today. I'm so glad I have the day off to relax! I hope everyone enjoys their day!
HiI live in the U.K and want some Dr. Bronners. My sister is currenlty on holiday in Kissimmee, Florida on holiday and is gonna bring some back if she can find it. Currently she hasn't been able to find any. She says she has checked wallmart. What is it sold as ? body wash, shampoo etc. She is coming home is a few days so I need help quick thanks
stopped dreading a while ago, then chopped my hair in a cute short style ...
Now I'm starting to dread ! started on april 29th (2012)
will post pics tomorrow of day 3!
Today I am just drained and mentally exhausted. My brain has so many jumbled up thoughts, that I don't even know where to start this blog at. I apologize ahead of time if this makes no sense. It could quite possibly just end up being a crazy rant of sorts.
I thought my mom would have no problem with my dreads. My whole life she's known what a creative spirit I am. She has always been my biggest supporter, and never let me down. So I didn't think to ask her if she mined if I gave myself dreads. I am 26, a grown women with a husband and a 4 year old son. I have a great job, manage to pay all my bills on time, take care of my family and pets. Basically, I have my stuff together. It wasn't always this way for me, I had a rough childhood and some pretty wild teenage years. My Mom was by my side through all of the hell I put her through, and she always had my back no matter what. Anyway, The night after I did my partial TnR's, I was at work, on a smoke break. My phone started ringing and it was my mom. While chatting a bit about nothing in particular, I mentioned to her that I finally gave myself some dreads, after wanting them for SO long. The other end of the phone became immediately silent. I asked what was wrong, and she said, "you have never disappointed me with anything you've done ever, until now." I felt like someone had stabbed me in the heart (I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but really that's how it felt). She then went on to say that she couldn't believe that I would ruin my "beautiful" hair like that. Out of our family my brother and I got the "good" hair, and he shaves his bald. How could I tie mine up in knot's? Anyway, A few days later I asked her to come out to dinner with my son and I. When she saw my dreads, I asked her what she thought. She said they looked okay the way they are, and told me to never dread my whole head. She wanted me to just leave them the way they were with my other hair still not dreaded. Today I went to her house to visit and help out in her yard for a while. I said, I'm going to dread the rest of my head, please understand that this means a lot to me. She basically made me feel like shit. I wont go into any of the details of the words she used because it's really unnecessary, but she ended with, "I will disown you if someone in public asks if you're my daughter". Another stab in the heart, and I was fighting back the tears. Once she realized that I was getting really upset she said "you do what you want, I just don't like them".
I never thought I would be so changed by my dreadlocks. I mean sure, I was expecting to change physically from them, but I never in a million years thought my dreads would change me on the inside. This was something I never could have prepared for. It's like I found myself, who I was always meant to be. I feel so truly happy for once in my life and I can't share that happiness with anyone, because everywhere I turn I havecondescending attitudes and judgmental opinions.
My husband doesn'tnecessarily like my decision to dread, but he would never tell me not to. I know he would rather me not dread my hair, but he wont say the things my mom said. Whether he thinks the same way or not.
I wont take my dreads out just because people I love don't like them. I just wish there was some way to make my mom see past the dreads, and realize that my hair does not make me who I am. I wish she would take a minute to see how truly happy I am, and how comfortable I feel in my own skin now.
The only support I get is from a few girls at work. I just wish more people were open minded.
If anyone has been through something similar, and has any suggestions on how to deal with this, please help me. I love my mom dearly. I don't want to lose her over this, but at this point I can't go back to who I was before, for the sake of myself.