The truth of Backcombing is Unraveled (literally)

just found this article on backcombing and damage http://thebeautybrains.com/2008/02/22/is-backcombing-bad-for-your-hair/ its about the type backcombing that was done in the 80's just to create volume not the excessivley agressive backcombing used to dreadso the damage done in drewading is way more severe


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1
updated by @soaring-eagle: 07/02/15 05:55:49AM

I remember seeing pictures of alot of people that used to do that as a style, hell if you look at The Cure the lead singer did nothing but back comb his hair a ton as his style, its definitely damaging, although I would probably place a one time back combing as the less damaging than repeatably backcombing the same hair over and over till it just snaps apart *which is pretty common if you do it enough*

the difference be9ng they would do 5-6 strokes at a time just to tease ot not hundreds as tight as possible to compact itabsolutely the backcombing to create dreads is about like a year or 2 worth of the other type if its done every singe day Iain said:

I remember seeing pictures of alot of people that used to do that as a style, hell if you look at The Cure the lead singer did nothing but back comb his hair a ton as his style, its definitely damaging, although I would probably place a one time back combing as the less damaging than repeatably backcombing the same hair over and over till it just snaps apart *which is pretty common if you do it enough*

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Very True

im glad i never head of backcombing when i started


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

A good way to "cure" oily hair, is just to stoop washing it so often with shampoo, go a couple of weeks without shampooing your hair more than once a week, just use water the other days, and it will become much less oily, as it is no loger "used" to be washed clean of oils every other day;) Jo said:

It's thyme that helps with oily hair right?

soaringeagle said:

exactly
well...in most cases
oily hair can be slow so oil reduction is needed 1st
i can say mine dreaded naturaly so fast i really cant remember there being a messy period betwee n dreaded and undreaded..it was 20 years ago but the time that it took to dread seemed like days but im assumming it was weeks.. id guess in 2-3 weeks or so most were dreaded enough to get "nice dreads" comments

Puppy said:

Seems that if you keep them clean with residue free shampoo it still takes about the same amount of time to fully lock up whether you backcomb or not.

the way i got my dreadlocks was by backcombing and my dreads look like shit untill a year but i wouldent say backcombing bad it really isnt yeah i had some dreads that split into 2 but i gave my hair time and surly enough my dreads matured

my dreadlocks have been FINE with backcombing ive had my dreadlocks a little over 3 years now and i never seen a problum with backcombingbut i do respect people who just dont comb there hairi would do that

Yea I know what you mean. People tell me they had too backcomb for hours!It took me like an hour at most for my whole head. I don't understand why you would do something that was painful. Pain is your body saying "hey knock it off this is not natural or good for you." Victoria Tolson said:

Reading this thread has made me realized that I may be using the verb backcomb incorrectly because I didn't do that. I don't know what the frick I did now. I guess I just made my own way of locking as a mixture between natural and twist & rip that just happened to utilize a comb. I just kinda made everything up as I went along and responded to what my hair needed.
. . . lol! This explains a lot actually. I always wondered why when I met people who had just backcombed, their hair always looked all fuzzy/puffy and they always say how much it hurt to backcomb. Mine never looked like that and what I did certainly never hurt.

its pretty funny didj, me and you have the same hair type and from what your page says we started our dreading journey at or around about the same exact time, and mine are pretty much doin the same thing right now that you describe! haha! resituating and such its very interesting to observe like every time you wash and as they dry theyre doin different stuff. its wild! do yours have a decent amount of random ass loosies in the body of the dreads like between the roots and tips as well?