The unintentional serial dreadlocker needs some advice!

Hey I have just joined up here, thought I could use some advice or maybe just a telling off and a hair brush.

My hair is the product of genuine neglect, there is never enough time in the day for me to do everything that I want and brushing my hair doesn't feature high on my list. The more knotty it becomes the bigger the job of brushing it becomes and it falls further and further down my to-do list.

This has been a recurring pattern for the last 5 years, I did cut it all off in early 2011 because it had become a birds nest. My hair grows fast and so it is quite long again now. Over the past year it has been brought back from states ofimpendingdreadlock a couple of times by a concerned family member who took it in to their own hands to brush it. Generally I tie it up and when I go out I stick abandannaor hat over it.

My hair is washed about once or twice a week with organic shampoo but doesn't need a lot of washing. My hair looks thick but it isn't really it's fine but there is loads of it. Itnaturallycurls and it knots so quickly, I can wake up just after one night and be faced with a monster knot to brush out, if I have been on a camp for any time then it's a pretty knotty affair.

Currently my hair hasn't been brushed for around 3 months. It has been tied up quite a lot and there are some pretty big knots. I am not sure whether it would be possible to brush them out without having another pretty drastic hair cut.

I am thinking now that maybe I am suited to having dreadlocked hair and should just allow it to grow that way, it will not more purposeful rather than neglected. I am wondering if I could turn my existing knotfest in to dreads or if I would have to start again from scratch? Could I try separating individual dreadlocks out of the existing situation?

Thanks

;-))

updated by @gemma-williams: 02/14/15 03:25:16AM

I have to laugh about this, sorry. BVut if your hair is so naturally knotting, then you already have locks. They just aren't mature yet. Keep letting them knot and you'll have an awesome set of locks in months. All you need to do is separate them so they don't form 1 giant mat.

This is much easier than trying to brush out all of the knots. You just grab a sectio of hair that is knotting together and rip it apart. It doesn't have to be a completely clean tear. Just enough to separate them. They'll form their own lock if you just keep separating. This is normally done about once a week, You may need to do it a little more if your hair tangles the way you describe.

The only things I'd recommend are getting a new shampoo. Organic shampoos are not always conducive to locks. they tend to have oils and other ingredients that leave residue. Check out the soaps from dreadlockshampoo.com. They make the best soaps.

Also, tying your hair up will slow down the process, and aid in making your locks mat together into 1 giant one. As they are forming, it's better for them to hang freely as much as possible. If you do keep them up, they will need to be separated much more often.

Lmaoo i wish i had your problem. fast growing hair that knots easy. i would go with dreads for sur since u don't have the time for hair car and because they are AWESOME :p

Well suited for dreads indeed!

welcome yes seperarete into ections no biggr then an inch and stop wearing the bandana

as long as u seperate during the early stages yiu will be fine and have awesome dreads in ni rime

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

sounds like you have all ingredients for great dreads already.

You've been dreading and didn't even know it, what a pleasant surprise for you. In regards to separating, if you need to do it daily in the beginning, then go for it. Just keep the sections from joining onto others, eventually you will not need to do it as often. I had to do it daily in the beginning too. Peace

Haha great it seems I am further along the path to dreadlocks than I thought. I have already got the problem with the big chunk which is matted, right now it is loosely tied up with a couple of bit dangling and it doesn't look too bad, I guess I am looking at my hair different now rather than looking at the mess I am looking at the potential to dreadlock it. If I let it down from the loose pony tail it's just a case of the big clumps really which I needs to some how rip apart into dreads, I should have started doing this from day 1 however I like I said I am the unintentional dreader. Thanks for the heads up about shampoos, I quite a bit for my current shampoo because I really dislike too much chemical and artificial junk in my products and it's from a all natural shop which I just love. I am happy to replace it with something which will be better for my hair (or should I say baby dreads) but would want it to be as natural as possible, can someone point me to a good product? Thanks for the replies.

maybe put up a pic?! Im curious to see how far along you are already.

OK I have taken a few pics because on the surface it doesn't look to bad, the knotting is underneath and is only now starting to show through, my hair is freshly washed and after a couple of days of not washing the top of my hair looks more knotty. As you can see the real knots are underneath I have several proper dreads in there already.