Houdini Dreads?

Hey, I have recently noticed through looking at some pictures that my dreads have somehow shrunk. I think by at least 4 inch's at the most. A few of the tips on the dreads are also pulling a neat little Houdini trick and disappearing upwards into the dreads. Now I have at least 10 that are split at least 2 inch's at the tips and are halfway dreaded as such.

I've had them for almost 8 months, first I back combed them for 2 months and have since left them be and do their thing. I'm also in the process of getting some wax of my hair but I think I've gotten quite a bit of it out by now. Any suggestions? Is this kinda typical? Hope to hear your replies

Rachel

updated by @rachel-c: 01/13/15 09:33:03PM

lol. I love the title. Yes, this is completely normal. Most people lose between 1/3 and 1/2 their original length. This is because your hair needs to knot and tangle to lock. if you took a string that was a foot long, and balled it up and matted it, it would shrink to just a few inches. The same thing is happening to your hair. But because there are hundreds, to thousands of hairs in each lock, it doesn't shrink as drastically. But it still shrinks. Don't worry about. As the wax comes out, you may gain some length, just cause the wax was preventing locking. So some hairs will come loose. But as they tighten again, you'll probably lose that length again.

Locks go through a few stages. First they start to shrink. Then they look like they aren't doing anything. No more shrinking, but not growing longer either. Then they explode with growth and just won't stop

Nevermind, I guess it's normal. But I do miss the length
So I do ask, do dreads grow at about the same rate as hair growth or is it slower since it's dreading?

It all depends. My hair use to grow about 3-4 inches a year. Really slow. Once mine matured, they seem to grow outrageously fast. I think it has to do with how you took care of your locks before you started and how you do now. I never cared much for how healthy my hair was when it was straight. Now I pay more attention to it. Healthy hair grows faster.

But you will still go through periods where it slows down because the new growth at the roots will get sucked in a need to tangle. This will slow it down a bit for a few weeks or month or 2. But then they grow fast again. It's an ever changing process.

Your hair still grows at the same rate. But it may not always look that way because the new growth gets tangled before it looks like it's as long as it just grew

they are magicly dreading despite the fact that u used wax and backcombrd for 2 months

shrinking is part of the process its normal and nesacary

think about it your taking straight hairs and knotting them up if they arent shorter then you somehow defied the laws of physics and crossed into a magical worls

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

it shrinks till tight once toght it grows at a normal rate but the actual overall growth rates higher snce combing causes split ends which cause trims trims cut overall growth rates in 1/2

Rachel C said:

Nevermind, I guess it's normal. But I do miss the length
So I do ask, do dreads grow at about the same rate as hair growth or is it slower since it's dreading?

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Well again, I've gotten most of the wax out, sorry I fudged up I'm only human. >.> But I may trim a few to help them a little, there's one dread that seems to have tentacles on it, it's pretty crazy looking haha.

And thanks for the advice Baba fats, that was very helpful. I'm still learning a few things but to be honest, my dreads are feeling better, and the crazy splits are pretty funny. I can't wait for my hair to really start growing out again.

Totally normal. I have lost an average of 6" of my length and I have loopy and tentacle dreads. They will eventually matte together and round out though so, I wouldn't worry about it.

Unless you have improved or destroyed the conditions your hair needs to grow (ie. scalp conditions, etc.) then it should be growing at the same rate regardless of the knotting. It just seems like it isn't because of the tangling and knotting. Once they have compacted enough to not loop in on themselves anymore then they will start to show length because they will be dreading at the root area as they grow and not throughout.