Introduction

Hello all!

New to the site, new to dreads as well. I'm from the southside of the united states. Been dreading my hair for the past 4 months and never did before this. I'm 25. Just wanted to say hello to everyone and add that I think this is an amazing site with some awesome information. And while I'm here doing this I have a question as well:

LIke I said I've been dreading for the past 4 months. I had a friend back-comb and knot my hair at it's roots. We DIDN'T use any wax, I think he used a little lock pepper though. At any rate, my friend has decided to stop helping me in this process so I'm wondering if I should cut everything out and start from scratch or could I just pick up here with the neglect method and let my hair do what it does?

Thanks in advance for anyone who puts their 2 cents in here =D

updated by @dimitri: 02/14/15 04:46:32AM

I'm still a bit confused about the knotting. Were they literally tied into a knot, like you'd tie a rope in a knot? Or were the roots tightened with a hook or other tool? Or were the roots flipped?

If they were tied in a knot, I'd say start over. Knots will stop locking on a large scalp. If your hair is shorter, you may see a little matting below the knot, but not much. You'll end up having pretty straight hair below the knot. It will mat above the knot, but not well, and nothealthily.

If they were root flipped, leave them. If it was done 4 months ago, and not since, you probably wont be able to see the area where it was done, and undo it. If you can't see it, then undoing it will cause more harm. Once won't kill your locks.

If crocheting or any other tool was used, again once won't kill them, but don't do it anymore.

I'm glad your friend isn't helping out anymore. Lock peppa is a scam. Everything from KB and DHHQ is a scam. Almost everything they sell is damaging to dreadlocks.

Get a non residue Shampoo. Dr. Bronners is good, but doesn't work in hard water. Or the Baking soda wash. But that, again, doesn't work well in hard water. Or get a soap from dreadlockshampoo.com. Their stuff rocks and works in any type of water.

Wash 1-3 times a week, and let them air dry as much as possible

Edit: Looks like Baba got here before I did. Welcome!

Sweet, thanks for the good information, thats why I love this site.

@Baba Fats: The technique used, as far as I was told... He sectioned my hair in three different tiers, then he used a metal comb to back-comb towards my scalp then took the back-combed hair and knotted it around itself(i assume) near the scalp of my head. haha, I had the side show Bob look for a while. and then he just repeated process down the length of my hair (which was about 8 inches long at that time. One month later we did what he called a "re-tightening" session and we were gonna do one every month for 6 months but then he started dodging me. Im not sure what "flipped roots" are but looking at it you cant really see where the knots are but it is like you said, from the roots down is pretty much straight hair. The dreads near the back of my neck feel like they have actually dreaded and I assume it's b/c I work outside and sweat a lot.

@Jason: I'm seeing now I didn't need his help but when I started I felt so lost and he had had dreads before so I assumed all would be well. I havent washed my head in the 4 months I've been doing this so i know I don't have any unwanted residues from conventional shampoos. But I was planning on starting to to do the BS and water wash very soon. I live in a downtown area so all I have is hard-water... is the BS wash still gonna be effective with hard water? and I dunno what AV stands for, sorry haha. Thanks again you guys for the hospitality

There are a thousand and 1 different reasons that locks would lock up in different places faster. Most deal with how you sleep, actually. If you sleep on your back, the back tends to lock up faster. Same with either side.

As for the retightening... Don't do it. Every time you retighten, you are really setting the progress back to day one. They have to loosen up again in order to get to the same spot as they are now. Just leave them be.

I get the friends dodging you. I've had it happen. But it helps you really learn who your friends are

I agree completely on the friend notion. And again I appreciate the words of wisdom. So the main thing I need to know now is do I cut out what I have and restart? If you would like I can upload a few photos so you can kinda see what the situation is..

I'd like to see some pics. I doubt you need to cut anything out. Even the most mature locks don't need to be cut to start over. But I don't think you need to do that even. But pics would help

Alrighty, I'll get some pics uploaded to this thread either by the end of today or tomorrow morning. Thanks again. It's so funny to me I've put myself through stressful turmoil over these past 4 months and all that stress has been cleared up in a matter of hours thanks to this website.

Dreadlocks are supposed to be the simplest hairstyle ever. Even simpler than bald. Because being bald you have to shave it periodically. With locks, you do absolutely nothing besides wash

I felt the same way! It's very easy to get misguided when it comes to dreads. There's a lot of different information out there so it's very easy to get headed down the wrong path. But it's good you found this place so these guys can help you.