how much time do you spend working on and maintaining your dreads?

early on many tend to mess with their dreads obsessively, constantly trying to improve them, then usualy find oyut if they just leave them alone nature takes care of them and they look better and better by doing less to them. so how much time on average did you spend working on them in the early weeks and months and how much time do you spend now?include what yiou do for maintenance too.me personaly1st few weeks- played with them mindlessly at work, no real methods involved just twiddled with them cause i liked how they felt1st 18 years seperated them randomly maybe 10 minutes a weeklast year 1/2 nothing at allexcept washingnever palm rolled rubbed or fussed with them ..just trusted in the process to take care of itselfps also include the method used to start, would be interesting to see if different starting methods tend to lead to higher or lower maintenance dreadsmine all natural


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1
updated by @soaring-eagle: 02/14/15 09:35:10AM

I just wash them once a week, but I use a shower cap and take a shower every day. I use dr bronners-either peppermint or tea tree oil. I also use baking soda and I do a Acv wash every month or so. I rip here and there, but I have 4 congos, and 3 of those are unrippable. maybe like an hour a week at the most.In the beginning I backcombed 2 or 3 just to see what it would look like and then. I didn't like it cause I guess I did a crappy job so I brushed them out and went neglect.I did palmroll in the beginning but that seemed like a joke.

Haven't been dreading all that long, started 9/5/09. Wash about twice a week with baking soda and an ACV rinse. I shower every day so it gets a water wash too, not into shower caps. Very simple routine but it seems to work well for me. Going the organic, natural way and it seems to be coming along nicely. Haven't found a need to rip or seperate, wad them up in a tam if I'm having a bad hair day. Don't spend much time on em at all, thats a big part of the reason for going organic.

lonnie been wanting to see an uopdate on how yours are comming along Lonnie Berg said:

Haven't been dreading all that long, started 9/5/09. Wash about twice a week with baking soda and an ACV rinse. I shower every day so it gets a water wash too, not into shower caps. Very simple routine but it seems to work well for me. Going the organic, natural way and it seems to be coming along nicely. Haven't found a need to rip or seperate, wad them up in a tam if I'm having a bad hair day. Don't spend much time on em at all, thats a big part of the reason for going organic.

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

i don't spend alot of time maintaining mine, i wash mine like every 3 or 4 days, on the days i do wash em i usually blow dry em, it takes like 15 minutes and if any or tangled to gether i'll pull em apart, but when i get bored i'll just start messing with em, twirling it back and forth with my fingers all the way down, just gives me something to do not sure it helps any, mine were also backcombed they'v stayed for the most part, nooo wax

i began with backcomb. in the first two or so weeks i was retarded obsessed with using a flosser to crochet, then i decided after finding this site before i actually joined to just stop messin with them altogether except washing... (thank you soaring eagle!) since then its been awesome. mirrors are the only enemy enemy haha!

I cut my first set of dreads off about a week ago because I didn't like the way they were coming out. after reading around this site I think the reason they weren't what I wanted was that I did the whole dreadhead hq thing. After using the wax, they got a little bit better, but sill had all the weak spots from all the root rubbing and palm rolling. All the stuff that dreadhead told me to do took up a lot of time and I didn't end up liking them like I thought I would. Since I cut them short and combed out the rest, I've decided to regrow my dreads the ntural way and it's going great. Almost zero maintenace and my hair is startng to clump together and it's only been 4 days! The only thing I do is wash.

i backcombed with no wax, and i palmrolled with knotty boy gel for the first 2 months or so. i hated how that gunk felt in my hair tho so i stopped, i wasnt sure if that was the right thing to do until i found this site. now i just do a baking soda wash every week sometimes longer if my heads not itchy. i just put em up when i shower so they dont get wet, and rip some congos randomly if i find them. thats it! im so glad i found this site when i did

Let's see, started out under the impression that the youtube videos showing wax is locks was a good thing,started by backcombing/waxit looked horrible (Ill show how bad in my journal post im working on)4ish months I realized the wax seemed counter-productive and typed dreadlock forums into google to see information from hopefully people that actually had locks longer than most peopleafter awhile I found some information that finally convinced me the wax was all around stupid waste (along with kit) and I stopped all that,around 6ish months I spent a day with a crochet needle I lost and found (over an over) and crocheted a few spots just so at the least I'd know a little about the whole crochetting deal and blunted a tip that looked awkward prior,all in all I didn't do much, i guess you can say i palm rolled a little aafter showers cuz it worked some of the water out (I did it in the early months to but with the amount of wax that was in my hair it felt like palm rolling putty almost)other than those 2 things all I ever did was shake my hair when listening to loud music which has probably been more productive than all the crap I did in the first few months (or at least more enjoyable)

I didn't do much maintenance in the beginning, my brother actually touched them more than i did haha. I did palm roll them once in a while at the ends but soon after i realized that accomplished nothing i stopped and just let it all go. Now i just wash it a few times a week and sometimes rip them apart if too many are dreading together. But that tends to hurt so i try not to do that either. When i was younger in the beginning years i used to dye them, which i totally regret. Dying your hair in general is terrible let alone dying dreadlocks. I strongly don't recommend this! The last 5 years or so i completely just let them go and i could not be happier with how much healthier they look. You can tell the areas i dyed from the areas that are healthy grown hair. I have a few different colors (blonde and different shades of brown) from past dying. Also when i was about 14 when i first started, my brother had this genius idea to put honey in my hair haha BAD IDEA! I knew it seemed like a bad idea but I listened and did it anyway and for about an hour i was sticking to everything! Finally i realized what a dumb idea that was and washed it out. That was the one and only thing I've ever used in my hair. After that experience i never tried anything again haha Now all i use is shampoo, I've never tried any baking soda or any other concoctions that i hear about on here. The shampoo i use now is head and shoulders, never seem to have a problem. I wash it well enough and get the soap out and dry with a hair dryer. I was thinking about trying something new but don't feel like putting the mixture together. If anyone would like to make me the mixture and come wash my hair their welcome! hahaOh yeah and I'm going to be a teacher and surrounded by lil kids who may or may not have lice, this scares me a bit!