Dreads as entertainment! (and a shout out to natural dreads)

Now that my hair has gone insane with the loops and flattened sections I have a new daily game that can sometimes keep me entertained for the better part of an hour. My son enjoys playing it too. It's the first thing we do when we wake up.

I call it "What's this dread look like?"

I have one dread that evolved from a car to a semi truck to a cherry blossom branch. Another one has made it way through all the loopy letters of the alphabet and is in the process of figuring out what comes after W. I have rabbits, bumblebees, bears, snakes, and dinosaurs roaming and coexisting in my hair alongside all the other "objects" I find on a daily basis. I love it.

I'm now at the point where more of my dreads are loopy than not. I almost feel bad for the tiny handful of non-loopy dreads. Pitiful things only ever look like chopsticks, pencils, or skewers. Thankfully there are only maybe 10-15 like that out of 60-70ish.

I'm so glad I made the decision to let my hair do it's thing after setting up the twist and rip. I couldn't imagine "maintaining" all the wildness out of my dreads.

If it weren't for my incessant need to have my fingers in my hair I'd undo it and go completely natural but then I'd never have dreads and that would be no good. I do have some natural dreads though, hiding out between the TnRs, and they are dreading like lightning. They've actually completely surpassed many of my TnRs even though they've only popped up in the last couple of weeks. It's amazing. The shrinkage on the naturals is nuts though. I've got one that is about 1/3 the length of the rest of my hair and I don't think it's done shrinking yet. (For the record, it looks like a cherry!)

If anyone reading this is currently questioning which method to do...I highly recommend natural. If I had the ability to keep my fingers from frolicking in my hair I'd be doing it instead. It is so much fun finding new dreads where I'd swear I had loose hair just the day before. It's kind of like hunting for easter eggs!

So now that I'm done rambling...What do your dreads look like?

updated by @tied-up-in-knots: 02/14/15 09:37:04AM

I have one that looks like a squirrel tail

I had one that looked like a dragon. It had a long jagged beak like mouth that would open close when I wiggle it and had two eyebrow like things above its eyes. I used to do puppet shows for my nephew with it but then the eyebrows turned into just weird lumps that stick off the side so doesn't look like a dragon anymore

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I never really looked at mine when they were forming to tell if they looked like anything. But now that they are mature, that hasn't stopped me from having fun with them. My girlfriend has created her own little game with my locks where she tries to stick them in my ears and up my nose. She'll grab a few and tangle them through my glasses and around the frames.

It's not a game, per say, but it's fun nonetheless.

I love when people play with my locks. I never got that whole attitude that people have where they don't want anyone touching their hair but themselves andimmediatefamily

It's funny you should say that because before I had dreads I hated having people play with my hair. I tried very hard to keep people away from my hair because everyone wanted to touch it. Now that I have dreads though I actually want people to touch and play with my hair. The only one who does is my son. Everyone else is too wary of my personal bubble to want to go near it. I did my job too well it seems!

Baba Fats said:

I never really looked at mine when they were forming to tell if they looked like anything. But now that they are mature, that hasn't stopped me from having fun with them. My girlfriend has created her own little game with my locks where she tries to stick them in my ears and up my nose. She'll grab a few and tangle them through my glasses and around the frames.

It's not a game, per say, but it's fun nonetheless.

I love when people play with my locks. I never got that whole attitude that people have where they don't want anyone touching their hair but themselves andimmediatefamily

The way I get people to touch my hair is when they ask any questions about anything dealing with locks (how to wash them, how long they took, how long I've had them...etc), I grab one and hold it out for them to feel. Some people are weary about it, other go for it and are surprised at how soft they are.

The only time I ever got touchy about someone invading my space was when I was down the shore a few summers ago with my girlfriend and her family. We were at a diner and this waitress came by and flicked one. She didn't say anything, and just kept walking. I mean, I was with my girlfriend and her parents. How rude. It felt like a flirting gesture.

That was the only time I was uncomfortable with someone touching my hair. I'm that guy with no shame. I don't care what people do to me or how I express myself in public, but that was pushing it too far even for me

so lets see all these fun dreads! pictures of ur fancy animal locks!

In an attempt to keep me from being impatient, I didn't bother looking at my dreads until not very long ago, and now I see a lot of loops. It's awesome but a lot of my hair is already dreaded, so I wonder if my hair dreaded by skipping the looping stage, or if I just wasn't paying enough attention to notice the loopiness. Ah well. Most of mine are too short to look at them to figure out what they look like, but I love them nonetheless

I should have taken pictures yesterday! They've changed so much already they look less animal like and more loopy again.

I did snap a few pictures on my phone before it died and I had to do other things but one of them is particularly awesome. It used to be a "bear monster" but now it's a koala sitting on a jack-o-lantern. He may or may not be urinating as well.

A couple of the bunnies are still kinda visible too.I will post them and a few others when I get off work tonight.

Ixchel said:

so lets see all these fun dreads! pictures of ur fancy animal locks!

can't wait to see! I have to live through others bumps, lumps & glorious loops until I have my own to love & share

Tied up in knots said:

I should have taken pictures yesterday! They've changed so much already they look less animal like and more loopy again.

I did snap a few pictures on my phone before it died and I had to do other things but one of them is particularly awesome. It used to be a "bear monster" but now it's a koala sitting on a jack-o-lantern. He may or may not be urinating as well.

A couple of the bunnies are still kinda visible too.I will post them and a few others when I get off work tonight.

Ixchel said:

so lets see all these fun dreads! pictures of ur fancy animal locks!