Shedding so much hair!

Hello everyone! I am over 1 month into growing dreadlocks and I used the twist and rip method. Most of them came out, however, and I'm doing free form from now on.

I have noticed with the past few washes that my hair is shedding a LOT of loose hair. Like, my bathroom floor has hair scattered all over the place after blow drying. And I'm finding lots of hairs on and inside my shirts and its very itchy if it is trapped in there. D: Anyone else have this problem? I used to shed hair a lot before dreads and I'm assuming it's just the hair coming out all at once after the knots from t&r came loose but it's still scary.

Any advice or thoughts? Should I run my hands down them and try to remove any detached hair or might that set back some of the dreading process?

updated by @sarah16: 01/13/15 09:45:00PM

Do not run your fingers through....it will undo any progress. The average person sheds 80+ hairs a day. It is not asnoticeablebecause the hair ends up brushed or combed out. Now that you are not brushing your hair, the hair is just falling out randomly. I personally noticed that my dreads form around shed hair. I have a baby dread in the front on my hairline that has several and by several i mean a lot of shed hair in it. I have been dreading for almost 5 years and the loose hair around my hairline would never knot before now. So this little fellow makes me smile.

Don't worry about the shed hair. It is normal.

Thanks, Taye. I will leave them alone and just deal with plucking hairs from my clothes for the time being, lol. I actually noticed whenever I was drying that I had one dread forming at the back that was longer than the others by a little bit and realized that it was because the end is knotted with some loose hair. It looks funny

taye said:

Do not run your fingers through....it will undo any progress. The average person sheds 80+ hairs a day. It is not asnoticeablebecause the hair ends up brushed or combed out. Now that you are not brushing your hair, the hair is just falling out randomly. I personally noticed that my dreads form around shed hair. I have a baby dread in the front on my hairline that has several and by several i mean a lot of shed hair in it. I have been dreading for almost 5 years and the loose hair around my hairline would never knot before now. So this little fellow makes me smile.

Don't worry about the shed hair. It is normal.

Oh, man! And I was looking forward to not having to worry about cleaning my hair out of the shower drain once I started my dread journey. So much for that... until they mature, at least :P

Robyn said:

I'm almost 6 month in and STILL have tooons of hair all over the place :/ I hate it but it's just the way it is untill the hair is locked up I assume.

23 years in and i stil clog thedrain cause unever have every hair dreaded so hairs still fall out.

if it seems excessive tho caould be hormones or pregnancy causing it hormonal changes can cause way more to shed for awhile

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

My hair is about half dreaded right now. It sheds a ton too, especially after wash days. It's really noticeable now since it's grown so long! I don't worry about em but if I'm going to work I pull the extra loose ones out that are hanging way down--from the ends, I don't run my hands through. It probably slows down dreading, but it bugs me too much to leave hair all over my back and chair at work. :P