I cut off one of my dreads today. The past year or so, my scalp had been absolutely terrible. Itching so bad I'd have sores all over, flakes everywhere, etc. Obviously they got embedded into my dreads, some deeper than others. The one I cut off was literally rock-hard because of the amount of flakes in it, just at the top. I didn't feel like combing it out, because it takes forever and it's exhausting, I don't have the energy. I also didn't want the emotional aspect of it to be drawn out through the whole process. Anyway, after I'd cut it off, I opened up the hard part and saw literally nothing but white from all the flakes. The flakes were only at the top, the rest was fine and dreaded brilliantly, but that part wasn't dreaded at all, nothing but flakes engulfing the hair. It was disgusting, and you can imagine how upsetting it is.
I decided to dread because not only did I like the look of it, but I was so ill and in bad shape back then that I thought it'd be a good thing to do, something I could be in control of when everything else was out of my control and beyond my reach. But this just makes me feel like nothing is in my control. I thought my dreads were free and beyond the grasp of my health problems, but now it feels like my dreads have been suffocated by my health problems and it's so discouraging and upsetting. I see everyone on here with their beautiful, flake-free, soft dreads and I wish mine were like that. I love my dreads, I just hate what my bad health has caused them to become. I might as well have been crocheting them with how they've turned out; most are stiff, the thickest ones are thinner where the new growth has dreaded. I want my dreads to be soft and beautiful and exactly how dreads are meant to be.
I've combed out about seven or so of my dreads since the past year or so, I think. So to look on the bright side, I'm getting to experience a truly natural dread journey as much as I've experienced the backcombed one. And also, my scalp is so much better than it was. The past couple of months it's gone from being covered in sores to only having one tiny sore left that's almost healed. Itchiness is at a very minimum, and flakes are almost gone too. So that's good. But I guess I just wanted to vent. I feel like no-one else has this problem, even the people with scalp/skin problems haven't had it this bad, but I wanted to get it off my chest. And also ask if anyone knows if there's any possible way besides combing to get flakes out of dreads.
If you've read all the way through, sorry for the horribly-long post, and thanks.
updated by @tara-c: 01/13/15 09:56:08PM