This is probably done to death, but I stumbled across this and it seems to me that Johnny Clean has no real understanding of the proper way to conduct an experiment. I'll start with the first idea for one that he talks of.
I would take 2 samples of backcombed human hair.Problem 1: 2 samples isn't enough. Any variation in results could be completely down to chance. I'm no statistician, but you would need in excess of at least 7 to get a significant result.I would weigh and wash them in dread soap to be sure they are free of residues.Problem 2: Effectiveness of dread soap isn't proven. You would need to wash to constant mass, once having proven the effectiveness of the soap, which is another matter.I would weigh and then apply a specific amount of DreadHead Dread Wax to one of the dreads. I would use an initial serving of dread wax (either 1 or 2 grams depending on the size of the dread) since this is the largest amount of wax that one every puts in a dread. The second dread would receive an equal amount of Elmersglue. Problem 3: Firstly, there is no control condition, and secondly a variety of different glues would need to be measured.I would then leave the dreads exposed to open air for 7 days (or longer depeding on what is agreed)to give the dread wax and glue time to "dry" if it could, or harden if it was going to. Then I'd measure the dreads width in several areas and record it. Next I'd palm roll the dread for 1 minute.Problem 4: Effectiveness of palm rolling is not documented.Last I would measure the dreads width again as before and record the measurements.
If the second set of measurements were smaller I would conclude that the hair in the dread moved when pressure was applied.Problem 5: This is a surrogate outcome. To suggest that this has shown whether wax glues hair together is completely ridiculous. It's like measuring a drug to treat heart disease, and finding that it lowers cholesterol; and then assuming it's effective in treating heart disease. No.The measurements of the dread with glue and dread with wax could be compared to determine their correlation. A 90% (agreed on ahead of time) correlation would be enough to say that dreadhead dread wax and glue had the same effect.Problem 6: This is stupid. You would do the statistical test, and if s>0.05 then you can assume they both have a gluing effect.Less than 90% would indicate that they effected the hair differently. Individual hairs on the dread could also be lightly pulled on to see if they pull apart or if they are in fact glued together.
This part of the experiment should be sufficient to prove whether or not dread wax sticks the hair together like glue and prevents movement. It does not however, prove that dread wax doesn't prevent the hair from dreading. To do that you would need another experiment with a control dread. All maintenance would need to be recorded and you would need to continue the experiment until the waxed dread had locked (or until it hadn't locked for a number of months which would be agreed upon ahead of time).
I can't be bothered to pick this apart. But I think it's clear that Johnny doesn't understand scientific methodology.
Assuming the experiment we agreed on was carried out and it was concluded that dreadhead dread wax does not prevent dreading or act as glue, preventing hair movement, you would have the opportunity to repeat the experiment yourself or accept the conclusion.
Here's a far better experiment. You take samples of hair, undreaded, all having been washed to constant mass, then cut straight from a human head. You then split them into 3 conditions: a control, one with glue of whichever type suits you, and one with dread wax. You palm roll or whatever you feel like to allow them to stick together. Then you pull the samples into two, using a newton meter to measure the force exerted to do so. You would then do the maths as necessary to make your conclusions.
