Dreading my lion's mane

I am just beginning my dread journey & I am so excited for many reasons, the biggest being that I know this whole process will teach me patience; of which I currently have none.

I am allowing my hair to dread naturally on its own. I am descended from an extremely mixed bunch of people, it's not even worth listing; I'm human. I have a lions mane growing out of the top of my head. My hair is very thick, very soft, and very curly. I have a gajillion tight ringlets. It seems to be dreading but I'm not sure. A bunch ringlets have sort of flattened out and clung together but I see no knots, maybe it's too soon. I've officially left my hair alone (no brushing) for two weeks.

I have been scouring the internet and have neither found answers to my questions nor photos or journeys of people with hair that looks like mine but I have also been creeping this site for a few a few months and I am sure someone here can help me.

My questions are: Should I keep my hair up, like in a bun (because right now it looks like a big mess) or will this thwart the dreading? What is the best way to sleep on my hair, with it pulled up in a bun or loose?

Thanks for taking the time to read & answer.

Oh & here's a horrible photo taken today. You can't really see much but I hope it gives some idea of what my hair looks like:

updated by @christina-rivers: 02/14/15 08:48:30AM

Wow, your hair is gorgeous!

Try to not put your hair up when you sleep or during the day because it WILL slow down the process. Hair dreads better when there is movement and when you sleep on it you will see the most dreading.
What you do want to do though is separate your dreads by pulling them apart periodically otherwise you could end up with a really big congo (I imagine that could happen really easily with your curly hair type.)

I have seen some people on here with really curly hair... other than Angela (on my friends list) I can't think of any names off the top of my head... but maybe track these folks down and discuss their experiences and get some advise directly for dealing with your hair type, from someone who has said hair type, would be good.

Can't wait to see the progress

Thank you for the compliment & thanks so much for the great advice; I will definitely heed it :D

I think I'm the Angela she is talking about I think my daughter have similar hair to yours. I have to separate her hair everyday to keep it from merging in together.And I only tie her hair up when she is eating

I thought it might be you! I saw no angela in Valerie's friends list but I peeked at your photos and you and your daughter do appear to have similar hair to mine; beautiful, by the way! Her hair is so long & pretty, I can see why you'd have to tie it up when she's eating. I'm definitely just going to bear with the mess and leave it down & remember to separate daily too because I do wake up with big poofy patcches

Even with hair as curly as yours, you shouldn't have to separate daily. Most people separate once a week. In your case, I'd say no more than 2-3 times. The more you separate, the slower the process. You will be pulling apart hairs that actually should come together. If you think you need to d it every day, they will get caught up again in the impatient mindset of having to maintain you hair.

If you separate every few days to once a week, you will see so much more progress in between sessions. and the few days between wont harm your hair or make it any harder to pull apart. What it will do is help define you sections a bit more and make it easier for you to select how large of sections you want your locks to grow into.

Plus it will keep you from getting annoyed that some loose hairs are still there. You won't worry so much about how far along you are.

A tip for separating, as well... don't do it in front of a mirror. a mirror will only make you nit-picky and you'll end up separating so much that you pull locks apart that should form into 1 lock

Aww thank you! I miss her curly hair, but I think this is the best choice for her.

Christina Rivers said:

I thought it might be you! I saw no angela in Valerie's friends list but I peeked at your photos and you and your daughter do appear to have similar hair to mine; beautiful, by the way! Her hair is so long & pretty, I can see why you'd have to tie it up when she's eating. I'm definitely just going to bear with the mess and leave it down & remember to separate daily too because I do wake up with big poofy patcches

I see. I'm just afraid all the dreads at the back of her head will form one giant dread.So its ok if I don't see distinct parting? Because I sure don't anyone.

Baba Fats said:

Even with hair as curly as yours, you shouldn't have to separate daily. Most people separate once a week. In your case, I'd say no more than 2-3 times. The more you separate, the slower the process. You will be pulling apart hairs that actually should come together. If you think you need to d it every day, they will get caught up again in the impatient mindset of having to maintain you hair.

If you separate every few days to once a week, you will see so much more progress in between sessions. and the few days between wont harm your hair or make it any harder to pull apart. What it will do is help define you sections a bit more and make it easier for you to select how large of sections you want your locks to grow into.

Plus it will keep you from getting annoyed that some loose hairs are still there. You won't worry so much about how far along you are.

A tip for separating, as well... don't do it in front of a mirror. a mirror will only make you nit-picky and you'll end up separating so much that you pull locks apart that should form into 1 lock

You'd like to see some separation between the locks, but only enough to know that it's not one big one. If her locks tart to tangle together, separate them. What you don't want to do is preemptive separating. Don't separate just because you are afraid that it will tangle again. If you do that too often, you end up risking exposing the scalp. That's a big bad. You want there to be hair between the locks at the roots. scalp showing can and will cause baldness. All you want is for the body of the lock to be separate from the ones around it.

Ok I see... So the scalp shouldn't be showing? And just make sure all the dreads are separated?Thank you so much for clearing up my concern. I was very confused with many people telling me different things.