from tnr to neglect- my journey to the natural side

hey all im randi and havent been on here in almost two years! i just wanted to write a little about my experience with dreads. i started my first set in march of 2010 by twist and rip and palm rolling. i only kept them in for 6 months before i brushed them out. i told everyone i combed them out because i was in a healthcare program at college and it wouldnt look acceptable. in reality, i hated how they looked. i started the journey because i was tired of doing so much to my hair- dying and cutting and brushing for that matter! but while i wanted to be this person that didn't care about what other people thought, in reality i cared more than i realized. i constantly messed with my dreads by palm rolling and re-twisting and ripping and smoothing with aloe. near the end of it, i barely even wore them down because i hated them so much. i wanted them to look more organic but couldn't figure out why they didnt. sounds rediculous now that i say that because how could i not realize that with all the work i was putting in them how could they?? so i combed them out. at first it felt good to have regular hair again, but after a while i hated that i didnthave that identity anymore. i was no longer a dreaded girl. i was just... a girl. an everyday person. and i hated that. so in december i decided to have dreads again. i was going through a hard time and felt thati needed the dread journey to help me through. this time though i wanted them to be whatever they wanted to be. so i threw away the brush and never looked back. it's been almost two months and i have the hair i always wanted. i have never felt more beautiful. most people love my crazy wild hair, but of course there's always the ones who think there's more to dreads than just not brushing. thats where i get to come in and explain thereality of natural dreads. i cannot wait to see how they change and form and this time i plan on having them for life. this is my journey. and it's a beautiful one...

before with tnr dreads

after with natural dreads

updated by @randi2: 02/14/15 05:19:23AM

Welcome back ^.^

awesome glad your so happy now and very well stated

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

can we see photos of the before and the after?

if i did this correctly haha the first one should be my tnr dreads and the second is when right after i brushed them out and cut my hair and the third is now with the natural dreads. love this set soooo much more. if i could tell anyone considering dreads anything it would be to please go natural!! it's so much more rewarding and the results are so much more beautiful. but that's just been my experience...

I need to figure out how I put them in my reply. Lemme work on that

updated by @randi2: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM

i thought u looked cute with tnr

then i saw the natural

omg

and just wait as they mature u will ..omg omg omg

what a doifference

amazing

ok pics 1 and 3 how far into each journey are they just for comparison timewise

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

haha thanks se! yea i feel so much more beautiful with this set! the first one is about 6 weeks into tnr and now im about 6 weeks into neglect. didnt realize that until i just, well, realized that! haha so the difference is amazing when you think about it!

My hair was apparently born to dread because progress has been amazing in such a short amount of time. But you can tell how much hair I lost when I brushed them out. It was incredibly thin! But just another reason to let them do their own thing now. Much healthier