So for about one year and a couple months I have been growing natural dreads. Haven't done much other than just let them be, wash every two or three days, and separating. And of course I got most of my knowledge from this awesome community. However it seems to be sort of something that happens every once in a couple months, that somebody will post a heartbreaking story about finding grody amounts of mold/mildew in the center of their dreads. And well that made me personally very self conscious about my own dreads. And just recently I started sensing this sort of odd smell to my head and cut a dread and seem to have some mold or mildew (don't really know the difference haha) in it. I have been really calm about it and today I checked this other half dread, which is basically what I call a dread that forms from a knot of fallen hair that gets tangled and I don't realize for a while and basically this sort of dread forms and it has a weird-ish look to it and I can tell it is not a real dread, long explanation that isn't really important, but yeaa I had one of them and i took it out and cut it in a bunch of different pieces to see if there was anything inside, and there was... it also seemed like a very small amount but it still grossed me out because it was in my hair. I instantly ordered the rot knot because I've read here that it works wonders and once i get it myself and use it, I will write a review on the site. However I wanted to get a discussion going so more experienced dreadies can give out advice and newbies don't go through having to go through mold/mildew
First I wanted to know what is the main cause of mold and mildew? And why it might occur in dreads?
-I think it has to do with water but not fully sure about it.
Second, is there any home recipe for it? I know that the rot knot will be a great product, but i know there's a bunch of members from all over the world and getting Vickis stuff shipped overseas is probably expensive.
Lastly, what methods are there to completely go through a mold/mildew free dread experience? This is more of a question for the dreadheads who've done it for years and have never had an issue, or anybody actually.
Thanks for the answers
updated by @jimmy-dc: 01/13/15 10:04:12PM
