so you got your crochet dreads and maybe your happy, probably your not not, so now what?
fairly quickly they get fuzzy or don't seem to progress but soon need more work. maybe now you just found this site and started to rethink crochet, or maybe you went to work on them year after year.
you probably chose crochet thinking you wanted no loose hairs but loose hairs were constantly popping up everywhere
why crochet dreads need constant crocheting
lets say this is the 1st time visiting an honest site and haven't been told the truth about crochet. there is no possible way to crochet without breaking lots of hairs (you won't hear less then probably 100 hairs ripping at a time even in the quietest rooms and crochets more like 10 10 10 10 10 10 5 10 10 10 18 10 10 10 its not like ripping a partially formed congo all at once its breaking bunches quickly over and over and over and over and over) if you do hear it..panic!!!!! everytime you pull in 10 you rip 30 -100 going through it and back
even if you only lull hairs through loose roots not essentially solid dreads hairs break, a single hair made into a loop and then pulled out of pinched fingers will break more often then not.
there literally is no way to not break hairs when you crochet. so all those hairs you keep "maintaining" you were causing all along.
crochet recovery takes time but is easy
many choose to start over and dread naturally. heartbreaking as that may be, often feels like the right thing to do.
but this is to address the rest of you
- stop crocheting ofcourse. however they will slowly start changing. recovery takes regression before progression. they will need to loosen, and unfortunately will have more frizz for awhile then any other method out there (except crochets deadly kin, felting ironically 1 version sold by the brand name lock docta with the warning "poke with care too much poking may cause dread to fall off, but if this happens poke some more to reattach" brilliant huh?) break your hooks, throw them in the trash, or destroy them bury them put a curse on them whatever it takes to resist the urge to use them again
- condition lightly to loosen them up faster. the stiffness the tightness is preventing progression. preventing dreading. since you most likely began with crochet out of fear of messiness or loose hairs aloes a good conditioner, as well as a good way to smooth frizz. later on you will have to accept some loose hairs and frizz. thats just part of having dreads.aloe will not be the fastest rout just maybe the most comfortable if the frizz scares you. jojoba, argon, or Moroccan oils are better.
- when they loosen significantly and start to get loops, celebrate and stop conditioning. remember those loops you may, or may not have been lucky enough to get, then panicked and crocheted them back in? well, turns out those are essential to dread development. and actually are a beautiful special stage they have to go through. now your hairs finally able to begin to dread. (yes even if you crocheted 8 years and are reading this now the 8 years of crocheting will only mean it takes that much longer to get to this stage). without conditioning this could take 6 months from 1 crochet use to start. with conditioning this time can be reduced. if you crocheted for years it could take over a year of conditioning to lose the stiffness and extreme tightness enough to allow dreading to begin.
thats it. the damage caused cannot be repaired however. the hairs you broke will remain broken. much of the frizz will eventually suck in, they may someday be no more frizzy then anyone elses.
here is what you have never been old.. no dread starter method really starts dreads. nope..not at all, all they do is define sections. dreads either got to dread from there, or constantly be forced to look like dreads all the while suppressing what they need to do to actually dread.
the sections would have defined themselves just fine on their own. theres no reason they should all be exactly the same.. but if thats what you want then that is the only purpose and function of any starter methods. the gentlest, and yes loosest ones dread the fastest! the brutal ones that are extremely tight on day 1.. dread the absolute slowest.
even if you comb them out and let them form from combed hair, 90% or more will dread faster then your average recovery from 1 use (if that 1st time was done very tightly, some who were crocheted only loosely may only have to deal with a little extra frizz)
please share how your recovery has been going
--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1
updated by @soaring-eagle: 01/22/20 09:33:16AM