Suggestions

I've been tossing around the idea of getting dreads. I get the typical response I think most people do from family that say it is either a really bad idea or that I'll regret it down the road. But I want to explore beyond those opinions and am open to suggestions!

I have very thick hair and curly hair. It can vary from waves to spiral curls. Needless to say it is extremely hard to maintain. Here is a picture of what my hair look like now:

With the curls my hair length is just past my shoulders. I'm interested in dreads that are small-medium in thickness and equal throughout. The method I'm currently considering is the rip and tear method. Does anyone have any suggestions on if this is a good method for me (I'm not interested in the neglect method)?

updated by @lindsay-daly: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM

also, I don't want to lose a lot of my length...

twist and rips a fine method for you but

1 why do u want them even?

2 why are you not interested in natural (the term neglect is not accurate)

your hairs great for natural dreads and thats the easiest way to dread by far

tho tnr is easy and will work well

just seems wastede effort since your hairs wanting to dread aleready

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

well that cannot be helped

backcomb u lose 1/2 right away then 1/2 more over months

tnr u may only lose 1/3 but still by mature u lose alot more

natural the dreading shrinking and growing rates make hair length loss alot less drastic or noticible (in geberal) it will just seem to not grow for almost a year

no matter what u will regain all the length u lost in a couple years

shrinking is part of how they dread tho

but if u look at say britteny greens timeline you will see when u go natural shrinking is most likely not going to be noticable at all

Lindsay Daly said:

also, I don't want to lose a lot of my length...

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

agree with that fully

tho i still would like to hear why shes not interested in natural cause i have a feeling its due to having alot of bad info

J.D. Flames said:

I kinda did the back comb thing, even though my hair was rather wavy/curly at times too. I wouldn't suggest it because It did look like a clown fro, and people notice that lol. Twist and rip is also a lot less damaging from different pics I've seen on here,and looks a lot less frizzy/fro'd out. If you're gonna do something other than natural, t-n-r would probably be your safest,and less aggressive bet.

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

because most ppl who say that believe the lies about the mewthod and in fact 1/2 of them when they realize the truth decixde to go neglect

im just makimng sure shes aware of the truth before making a decision

why do yu have to question that?

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Hey everyone! I really appreciate all your suggestions and input. I've been a bit "turned off" by the natural method because it doesn't look as "neat" as when you do some other methods. I already have super frizzy hair and I don't want to have a huge afro with no defined dreads. Also, I have seen some pictures of the natural method and I've seen that the dreads look like just big clumps of mess- huge in thickness and sporatic which is something I'm not really interested in. While I realize this isn't always the case, I'm scared my hair will be the mess I've seen done by that method.

u see the lil girl in the pic of the week hers are natural as are mine as are 1/2 the dreads ion this site i think you should look around here more and see that that maybe 1 or 2 u saw but only if theyre truly neglected most natural dreads look better just look around the site more you'll learn alot look through the timelines too and u can search the pics for method names to get a narrowed down idea


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

If you go the natural method, your hair will look messy untill it dreads. Some might even say, "bad". But as long as you keep them seperated into the neat sections you want once you have a head of dreads they will look great. If people could go natural but by-pass the "ugly duckling phase" of the dread process, most of them would. But if you can get past that somehow then you will have a healthier respect for the process, but also your dreadlocks. Natural isn't for everyone though, so TnR might be a viable choice for you, as it is less harmful then backcombing but neater then going natural.