Dreading super fine long hair?

Hi all,

I've been wanting to dread my hair for a long time, but never took the plunge. Now that we have #2 on the way we've decided I'll be a stay at home mom. (Yay!) So I'm finally free to have dreads (I was in teaching) and I'm super excited! However, I'm also nervous because I feel like I have the worst hair ever for dreads. I have a lot of super fine, bone straight, and almost waist length hair. My hair can't hold a curl let alone anything else. I was planning on doing the twist and rip method and was hoping for some advice when it comes to sectioning, care, and such. I was also planning on spraying with sea salt water as I go because my hair is super soft and slick? I'm really sort of lost when it comes to my hair type, and keeping it locked in the early stages. Any tips would be awesome, sorry to be so long winded!

updated by @mothyrgrimm: 02/14/15 05:42:59AM

Since you will have been using normal shampoos and conditioners for so long, you should buy a clarifying shampoo and use it once or twice to get rid of all the residues that will have built up.

With hair that long it will take an age to do tnr. Also, there is no guarantee that they will even stay in. Most tnr dreads come apart at the start, which is normal. I would just let them grow free form. All you have to do is wash and separate. Easy!

I should add, there is nothing you can do to keep the hair locked in the early stages. Locking comes as they mature, over the course of a year.

What I'm nervous about when going the natural route is keeping that much hair seperated. I planned on using tnr more so as a seperation type thing, because I have sooooo much super fine hair. I couldn't imagine trying to keep my hair in 30+ little sections naturally.

You are going to have to separate, regardless. TnR dreads come completely undone sometimes. It will be a mess for a few months, no matter what method, but there are plenty of people who started with waist length hair, also super sine and went natural. You will loose a lot of length though when they shrink and tighten up.

That makes sense does fine hair tend lose more length? I don't brush my hair already in general and my hair always tangles in huge gobs up underneath, so it makes me paranoid I'll end up with five random gigantic dreads. Lol

No, but the longer the hair the more noticeable the shrinkage.

Baby dreads are very easy to pull apart if you need to. Just check them twice a week and get them down to the size you need. It will be very easy, so don't worry about it. They will soon clump into the natural sections and it will then be your job to keep them from joining together. There really is not much to it.

I can't express enough as an X hairdresser that it sounds like your straight hair is so going to come out of the t&r method just like Kelly has said, but what you could do to really find out is one evening or whenever it suits you just sit yourself on the couch in front of the tv if thats your thing, then do 1 or 2 dreads like behind one ear with the twist and rip method, do the sectioning as big or small as you would like your dread to be, with the t&r you will get very fine or thinner looking dreads as the hair won't be bunched up like in backcombing method which makes you loose length but get the look of a mature dread quicker. There r so many ways that you can do this and for your straight hair there are a good few ways to get it dreaded so it stays in, but i will help you if you like when and if you need more help, it would takes quite a few pages for me to go into each and every idea of dreading. Another thing you could do now is stop using conditioner every time you shampoo and makes sure the shampoo you r using is conditioner free, you could also do a permanent colour in your hair or have some highlights depending on the shade of your hair, whatever it is go a couple of shades lighter, reason being to take colour out of the hair you need a slightly stronger peroxide which is what comes with the hair colour, explain to whom ever you buying it from that you r wanting to go lighter so you get the right peroxide strength. Doing this will make your hair alot more pliable and stay in the new locked dread, good strong conditioned hair slides out, dreads r made up of salt water, sun, wind and even sand was added to dreads by the ancients to help the sun 'bleach' the dreads lighter. When you have had a think about what method you would like to try i am here to help if you want to.

Namaste

Hi MonthyrGrimm. I started with hair almost to my waist, by the 11 month mark they were up to my shoulders. I also started my dreads by using the T&R method. If you do choose this way, it is best to let your hair separate into sections naturally first, it will only take about a couple of weeks. When you do your T&R, do them in random thicknesses, anywhere from pencil thin to a max of one inch. The measurement is where the section of hair meets the scalp, that will be the size of your mature dread. When they are first put in, they will be much skinnier, that is because the hair has not shrunk up yet creating the mature dread, so use the scalp area as you measurement. I do have tips posted on my page for T&R to get your started, hope this helps you: http://www.dreadlockssite.com/forum/topics/just-starting-out-what-to-expect?xg_source=activity

As Kelly explained, not all of your T&R dreads will stay in, some will fall out completely. And they will loosen up, need to in order to shrink, so don't do them tooo tight.

A sea salt spray helps the locking process go faster: You can use this as a spray or a head soak. Mix 3 1/2 tbls of sea salt to 5 cups of water. When using this, it should be rinsed out by the two hour mark or it will dry out your hair. Use it as often as you want, but always rinse it out. You can find sea salt from bulk food stores, aquarium fish stores, health food stores. Use the sea salt to dry out your hair a little for the locking process to go faster, not peroxide or hair dye like Sweet recommended. Keep your dreads hair color free, it's hard to rinse that crap out and it will permanently wreck your dreads, lots of ladies with undreaded hair have damaged hair from dye jobs. You would need to use other products just to keep them soft from using that crap.

What are you washing with now??? Don't be sorry for being long winded, you are a teacher are you not.....peace

Oh yeah, hair texture does not matter, fine hair does not matter. Your hair will grow beautiful dreadlocks. Due to the length of yours, as mine was, your will mature closer to the 2 year mark. Longer hair takes longer to shrink and thicken up.

here is a home recipie for washing with baking soda(BS) & apple cider vinegar (ACV) rinse:

Mix 1/2 cup of baking soda with 5 cups water....pour over wet head...leave on the 10-20 minutes to exfoliate the scalp without scrubbing...rinse out well....now, unless you have a very oily scalp, always follow this with an apple cider vinegar rinse to balance back the hair PH levels...mix 2 capful (since you have long hair) of ACV to 5 cups of water...pour over rinsed out head and leave on for only one minute,then rinse well. This is a natural conditioner for dreadlocks, helps keep them soft .

Always finish off your washing with a cold head rinse, as cold as you can take, it helps to close pores and prevents itching scalps, feels refreshing too....peace

Thanks so much everyone! <3Right now I'm just using regular store shampoo and conditioner. I tried finding a clarifying shampoo today to get rid of all my hair build up, but that was a no go. I'll have to go to a salon for it tomorrow. As for hair dye, my hair is colored, but not really any existing damage from what I can tell. Plus, no more hair color for me as my eggo is preggo. LolDoes anyone know the best dread shampoos for hard water? We have super hard water (we have all the huge tests kits as hubby is an avid aquarist) and are moving to another place with hard water as well. I know with our cloth diapers at least, vinegar doesn't work too well with hard water. So guessing I should skip using bs & acv rinsed?Also any preference on the type of salt for the sea salt spray? We have sea salt I cook with, but hubby also has big five gallon buckets of Instant Ocean for his salt water tanks. Thanks again!!