My Official Introduction

I have lurked about the site off and on for about a year now. I took out my dreads about a month ago. They were four months old and they were put in using rnt method. No waxes, etc. I miss them already. I am sitting here, braiding my hair, feeling serious dread envy. So why did I take them out. Here's the scoop:

I have naturally dry hair - like really, really, really dry - like I use black products in my hair sometimes, especially in the winter. I struggled with cleaining them. I used Dr B's, but that left residue. I used baking soda, but it looked like I had baby powder in my hair, no matter how much I rinsed. I always used ACV (still do...LOVE ACV!) So, then I switched over to a purifying shampoo. That's when I started to notice my hair getting brittle. The tips were breaking like crazy. I would find little shards of hair everywhere. I still had more dreads to put in and my hair would just break when I tried. I wanted to cry. While I have always had dry hair, I have never had unhealthy hair. I didn't know what else to do but take them out. So, I did.

It's now been about a month, maybe a little longer. I cut my hair about chin length to remove the parts of my hair that were most damaged. Has anyone ever noticed a change in the way their hair is after dreads? I used to have curly hair and now it's just slightly wavy. Anyway...moving on...

I thought I researched everything so well before I started my dreads but I guess I still needed more. I wanted to just moisturize and keep my dreads but was in fear that I would start seeing breakage further up the dread if I didn't do something. I was also afraid of my dreads coming out. I had no idea what to use to moisturize that wouldn't reverse all of the hard work I had put into my dreads.

I do plan on doing dreads again. I loved them. I loved the way I felt more myself than I ever had. I felt so connected to myself and everything around me...I still do, but I still miss my dreads. I am even putting mini braids in my hair just to kind of feel like I have dreads. I didn't even get to decorate them because they weren't done. Anyway, done whining now. Just know that I constantly envy the beautiful dreads everyone has and I wonder why my attempt was so horribly unsuccessful.

Oh, and there was one other issue...my head felt really, really tender...like someone was constantly pulling on my hair...thoughts?

Anyway, I know I don't chat a lot. Most of my computer time is spent writing but I check in every now and then and oogle over everyone's pictures and keep hoping that I can find a way to remedy my dread problems so I can try again. Next time, I think I might go natural because the tnr seemed to aggrevate my hands pretty badly and since I type for a living, it made work pretty tough.

Okay, novel finished, lol. So nice to officially meet all of you and hope to chat more often in the coming months (downsizing my clientele.)

updated by @cathy-givans: 01/13/15 09:12:47PM

try this www.dreadlockshampoo.com 9new site redesign launching in next couple days)

yourh air/dreads will feel amazing

i would not use sea salt

i would absolutely go natural in fact start today

try that soap see if that solves the issues

its really good and it contains beer wich wuill help your situation aloyt

ive only used it 2 times so far and amazed at how good it makes my dreads feell

besides tnr had u done anytyhing else at all?

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

So I am already in love, just reading the site. I will be ordering some soap as soon as I get paid on Tuesday! I love that it mentions hard water because I think that was my biggest struggle. I am sure the essential oils and beer willhelp with the moisturizing as well. I still use ACV, right?

I was worried that it might still be too soon to restart so I was putting it off. Plus, I wanted to be sure I had it down this time. I won't ever to tnr again. I think it was part of the reason my head hurt so bad and, even though they seemed to mature pretty quickly because they were so thin, they also had a very frizzy look (sign of damaged hair, right?) I tried everything I could to keep from taking them out but when I started breaking at the ends, I was done!

And nope, didn't do anything else. Some palm rolling but that was it. I didn't do wax, I didn't crochet. I knew how damaging all of that was. I was already frustrated that I was too impatient to do the natural method and chose to do tnr. But, now that I have had dreads for a little while, I think I have the impatience out of my system and can wait for my hair to do its thing all on its own. My only worry with the natural method this time around is figuring out how to keep my fingers out of my hair and figuiring out how to find time to seperate the bigger dreads. Having small dreads last time though, I am pretty sure I want bigger ones this time.

And thank you for the tips soaring eagle. As always, a pleasure hearing from you!