Hey whats up everybody! Glad to see this website is still very much alive and kicking :D. So much really great info here, and everyone is so respectful and nice too!
I'm not sure if I ever really messaged many other members when I originally signed up to this forum in like 2008 or something and I also don't remember what username I used.. but aaanyway..
At the time I had just gotten out of high school and I already had some pretty long unkept hair about shoulder length that everyone always harassed me to have cut. So after doing a whole bunch of research in all the wrong places I decided to get dreads. I knew this guy online on AIM I used to talk to at the time whos dreads I really liked, and so I asked him how he got his dreads and he said it was easy and just pointed me in the direction of knottyboy and it was all down hill from there pretty much..
Eventually my products arrived in the mail and I was as excited as ever. My girlfriend and I then proceeded to spend hours upon hours backcombing and working beeswax into my hair. When it was finished admittedly I really did love how they looked at first. I remember thinking like 'wow this is so much better than I thought it would be'. I spent the first couple of nights with a sheet around my head so I didn't make a mess all over my pillows.. It eventually got less sticky after a couple of days and from then on I thought everything was fine.. So I went about palm rolling them CONSTANTLY all the time, if I wasn't eating or sleeping I was palm rolling. While I thought this was making the dread knots more compact and tight (like knottyboy suggests), it was really only working the beeswax more and more into the core and making a sausage shape that would be impossible to remove later on.. But I didn't know at the time. So they stayed pretty much the same for AAAAGES, I would struggle with a lot of loose hairs at the front that I also used to stress about a lot. I was under the impression though that everything was going fine and my dreadlocks were tightening just fine. So after like I cant even remember how long I start to notice that my dreads have like a kind of white discolouration in the center of them when you see them in the sunlight.. So I reach up and pinch one of my dreads with my index finger and thumb of both hands and slowly start to pry it apart.. What happens? It easily just starts to pulls apart like it was never even a dreadlock.. So I freak out and roll it back up, and I then spend the next couple of months trying to get the wax out but with minimal success. So after a long struggle and a lot of convincing from my girlfriend I decided to just cut them off and start fresh.. So we cut them all off (I had let a bit of extra length grow from my roots so I wouldn't be completely shaven.. It'd been years since I had what would be considered 'short' hair and I remember being really nervous) the hair cut didn't turn out too badly, but around that time was when I was seeking employment and so that was another reason for cutting them.. So after cutting them, I remember soaringeagle asking me if I wouldn't mind dissecting one of them and providing him with a pic, so I thought sure why not what the hey, lets see what's still inside.. and in case you haven't seen this pic yet (I just stumbled across it myself, I didn't even know it was on the site!! I'm sure soaringeagle told me at the time but I must have forgot.. I came on here today and I'm like woah hey I think that's my dreadlock from like 5 years ago!!) it's from the dreadwax removal section of this page.. Here's the pic: discussions/1-1000/98-3.JPG
What a disaster right? I had about 18 dreadlocks some more waxy than others and 2 little baby ones at the back. Which is not that many at all I realise now..
They used to stay constantly straight and heavy pretty much is a good way to describe them.. like candles actually :p. Every couple of inches there might be some unwaxed natural hair where there would allow movement in the dreads sort of like 'hinges' or 'kinks'. Just yucky. Anyway after cutting them I researched some more on dreadlockssite and realised all of the errors of my ways.. I was keen to start dreading again after that but I soon gained RETAIL employment and had to keep up a 'professional' appearance *dry heave* and so dreadlocks were once again out of the question.
It remained this way for years until less than a year ago there was an opportunity to start doing work at an Australian trailer manufacturer (which is the greatest job I've ever had). And I no longer have to be a customer service rep or anything that involves speaking to the public. My boss is also super laid back and I knew he wouldn't care about me starting my dreads again.. So I decided to give them another go finally! Super super excited..
I knew I didn't want to use wax ever ever again but I also didn't want to go completely natural because I wanted to have some control over where my dreads were positioned and how big they would be. So this time we decided to go for the backcomb method. Backcomb only and no wax nothing else at all. It took far far longer this time around (like a half a week or something) but I ended up with 35 (way more than 18) pretty decent dreads which I am still happy with while I'm writing this.
I know a lot of you are probably going to disagree with my methods but I'm impatient and I wanted something that at least resembled dreads without having to wait years.. This time they are probably 70% lighter than last time, they move like real hair which is a real plus! My hair stands up a little like it naturally does instead of just hanging completely down with weight. and they are just overall way way way way better.. The ends are still wispy and they still have lots and lots of maturing to do, but I am just so happy and excited to be starting my dreadlock progression again! I'll go take some photos and post them back to this topic! Really great to be back! 
updated by @jollystunts: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM
