Blogs
So im new to this whole dreading thing,
ive been looking for someone who knows how to dread..
but ive fount no one..
so im trying the natural way.
i have straight hair
i need some help on what to do and how to do it..
Because hair naturally becomes matted when it isn't styled or combed, prehistoric humans must have worn their hair in a style similar to dreadlocks, until they invented combs and other utensils. Dreadlocks have been discovered on mummies in Peru, dating back to sometime between A.D. 200 and A.D. 800, and Aztec priests dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries traditionally wore their hair in matted locks.
Often, dreadlocks become a symbol of religious devotion, an ascetic's vow not to alter God's creation through grooming. In Ethiopia, priests in Christian Coptic churches have worn dreadlocks for hundreds of years. In India, the "sadhu" sect of Hinduism wears matted locks in tribute to the long-haired deity Shiva. "Rasta-Buddhists" in Japan, members of the black Muslim Baye Fall sect of Senegal, Maori in New Zealand, and tribes in Namibia and Angola all wear dreadlocks.
I'm new to the dreading process and i was just wondering if these looked good so far? i had my mom do them and she was a hair stylist but never has done dreads so any tips? thanks 
does anyone know how to get the beads tostay in if they're a little big?
Ok last night I got frustrated with my tips, which keep unraveling little by little every time I wash. I banded them....This morning I took them out and re twist/ripped them. The bands were strangling my poor babies, and little pieces of loose hair were caught in them, making it pull every time I moved my head...this is not natural or part of accepting the nature of things, this is not patience, this is not the journey that I want to take with my dreads, I want to learn from them (as well as looking awesome in the process, lol) not bend them to my will.
So two maintenance sessions at two months. There looking nice to me. What do you guys think?
Also My head gets really itchy, Ive read most of the posts for itchiness and dandruff. I use backing soda/ ACV. Ive used tea tree, lavender, and rosemary essential oils and they dont help that much. I also do a cold rinse at the end of my showers. Thanks for any feedback Peace and Love to you guys.
Well Gilly's dreads had their 2 month birthday yesterday! They are coming along nicely I would have to say.
She wears her cute little striped shower cap for baths most nights and we washherdreadiesonce a week using a nice nag champa dread shampoo bar that just smells lovely! Its lathers up so nicely and I just wash lift up all those knotty locks and scrub in between and around her roots. Finally we let the warm water just rinse the suds down her dreads and leaving it's sweet smell behind. I'm sure as the summer goes on and she becomes sweaty in the summer sun, more hair washings will be in order, but for now this is all we do... with exception of yesterday that is.
It was lunch time at her fine little pre-school and the kids were sitting around eagerly helping to pass one another their lunches, getting help with drinks and the like. One of Gills very sweet Teachers, Ms. Sue, came around and asked all the kids if they'd like some apple sauce. Gill said "No thank you" and as Ms. Sue walked on pass Gilly and over to serve some one else a big heaping scoop of sweet, sticky applesauce, a GREAT BIG PLOP of it fell off teh spoon and landed on a kids head...
but not just any kids head...
Not on Mic's head, with her short, easy to wash bob...
not on Tanner's head, where if could have easily been wiped up from his tight crew cut...
No, that sweet, lumpy, deliciously sticky, cinnamony applesauce landed square on the head of the kid with dread locks!
Gilly burst into tears knowing that she'd been asked to try not to get too much in her dreads and, no doubt, the onloooking caretakers did all they could to stifle their laughs and giggles as this poor little girl sat there with a plop of applesauce in her 2 month old dreads.
She INSISTED that she could NOT get them wet, and even though her teachers were fairly certain that I wash them (which we do! and she knows we do!), well they wanted to try to comfort her as best they could so instead of washing the spot, the used a baby wipe and sat there and picked out chuncks of applesauce from between her roots and down her little locks.
When I picked her up and heard the story all I could do was laugh.
"OF COURSE it was Gill... OF COURSE the one kid with the head full of applesauce was the one kid who has dreads and OF COURSE we hade JUST washed them yesterday!!!", I thought to myself.
I bet she was quite the sight! She was a good sport about it all in the end. We extra washed and we extra scrubbed the sticky spot on the top of her head and then extra extra extra rinsed.... the last thing we need is fermenting appley bits in my 4 years olds hair! I'm fairly certain we got it all out and alls well that ends well!
Happy 2 months lil dread head!
After talking about it for some time, today I decided to hit the reset button on my dread journey and start over on most of them. "But they look so good" they say " But you have come so far" they say. well I agree my dreads have really progressed well in the last few months, but the funny thing is only half of them are actually TNR (Twist and Rip) the rest are all 100% neglect. The Neglect dreads are coming close to 8 months old now. Those are the ones you see with all the loops, twists and zig-zags. The TNR dreads are only 3 months old, which to me is a major short amount of time compared to the amount of time I will be having them. But the longer I wait the more I have to loose. "The best time to plant an oak tree is either today or 30 years ago" -Someone. I figure now is a better time then any.
DREADLOCKSSITE
I have wanted dreads for a couple years now. Last year I started researching it a little. asking friends with dreads about it, reading articles and watching videos. Come to find out all of society is fooled on what dreads are and what they should be. people convinced me that dreads were from not washing hair and they were dirty and nasty. so June 2012 came along and I stopped washing my hair. I would lightly wash it once a month maybe all through the summer, it was pretty disgusting, oily, nasty bleh. but my hair did start locking up. mostly on the back. and DEC 1st I decided to commit to it and TNRed my whole head. I wanted to know how to wash it and ran across this site. BAM instantly found out that I was messing up all along. I was convinced at that point, after Soaring Eagle (SE) had informed me to start cleaning my hair to make it dread faster. He couldnt have been more correct I noticed the original dreads from earlier that year were dreading much faster, and I feels so amazing to have clean hair also!
Reason.
Having dreads for this amount of time I have had them, I have done nothing but love them more and get even more.... attached..... to them (pun). I had no idea that I would actually enjoy having dreads this much, they represent who I am so much better and I grow to love them more and more every day. but I love the neglects so much more then the TNR's they are untouched, untorn and just natural, they are all insanely crazy and I cant help but want them all like that. After all that is what this whole thing is about, getting in touch with nature. not having to worry about your hair :P and just being yourself. I feel like I need to start over and let my hair freely do whatever it wants. I am going to have these things living on my head for sometime and I feel like I owe it to myself to it the natural way. It will fit my personality better.
Let me help YOU!
I am going to blog this whole journey! I am tired of people with curly hair saying "I cant dread my hair. it will turn into one big dread" or anything like that. A few weeks ago I combed a few out to turn the single dreads into two dreads cause the roots were to far apart. So here is a couple of links to them. these photos were added approx. three weeks after they were loose hair
https://www.dreadlockssite.com/photo/soon-they-all-will-join?context=user# !/photo/soon-they-all-will-join?context=user
https://www.dreadlockssite.com/photo/soon-they-all-will-join?context=user# !/photo/new-ones-1?context=user
Follow my Journey :D
dread babies are 2 weeks old, I had bands on the roots and tips, but took them all out a couple days ago. I was nervous about washing today (I do about every 3 days) because the baking soda makes my tips super soft and they have been unraveling, I felt like if I took the tip bands off then the process would continue up my whole dread and they would fall out. So today I washed with baking soda, then some Dr. Bronners peppermint (helps with the itchies a whole lot) then after rinsing my tips felt slippery and smooth still, which is lovely if you aren't trying to dread. So I dipped my hair in a 2 liter jug filled with lemony sea salt water. They aren't dry yet, but I am super stoked, they feel like they will hold just fine. Yay for sea salt!