!! TAKING THE PLUNGE !!

yeah if you look at my first two sentences you'll see that I said I didn't think you were talking about it negatively.

good luck with TnR.

Renee L Mullenax said:

@ Journeyman, I wasn't intending to sound negative--by "plunge" I meant like a leap of faith or like when the water is freezing so you just jump right in rather than trying to work your way in slowly. I decided to jump right in LOL. A word isn't negative until someone MAKES it negative ;p And For you & Soaringeagle, I feel like, as a woman, the neglect method is not an option. Society throughout the ages has pretty much hardwired women to maintain their hair to a certain degree of beauty..therefore I'll be using the TnR method. THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR ALL OF YOUR ADVICE!!!

updated by @eddy-st-king: 07/23/15 08:16:35AM

Hi, I'm a woman doing neglect and wouldn't have it any other way. If you want "maintained" dreads, you're kind of out of luck. Dreads are wild, beautiful, and free <3.In my understanding, TnR comes undone anyway and mainly helps with sectioning. Sectioning will naturally occur with neglect as would be best with your hair anyway.Part of my dreading journey is learning to let go a little (or a lot some days. Haha), have patience and trust the process.I hope you find the path best for you.

i agree exactly, expecting dreads to be maintained in the early stages is pretty unrealistic. it's a process. you're either all in or should just wait until ready.

Kimberly Eve said:

Hi, I'm a woman doing neglect and wouldn't have it any other way. If you want "maintained" dreads, you're kind of out of luck. Dreads are wild, beautiful, and free <3.
In my understanding, TnR comes undone anyway and mainly helps with sectioning. Sectioning will naturally occur with neglect as would be best with your hair anyway.
Part of my dreading journey is learning to let go a little (or a lot some days. Haha), have patience and trust the process.
I hope you find the path best for you.

I know that they won't look perfect for the 1st few months, I just meant that I prefer to have messy dreads that are recognizable dreads for the 1st few months than to have just a weird mess on my head that looks like I got in a fight with a vacuum cleaner. I've seen progression pics of people that used the neglect method and I don't want my hair to look like that. I also want to be able to control the size of my dreads & it doesn't seem possible to do that with the neglect method. I want pretty small dreads. I understand that everybody is different and that some people prefer different methods. I'm not trying to insult anybody for their preferences so please nobody get offended!! I've studied up A LOT on the different methods of dreading and I've decided that TnR is the way for me. If it doesn't work out then I'll just try something else--its all part of the journey. Thank you all for your advice

The messy dreads are the most beautiful, in my opinion. I think that as you progress on your journey you will start to appreciate (and maybe even envy) the loops and bumps in other people's progression photos, because not only are they fun and unique, they show actual progress happening.

I started to notice my very first zigzag dread a few days ago and It made me so excited! And I used to want mine to look "maintained" and nice at first, too. :P But you can't force dreads to dread. You have to LET your hair dread. Unless you want icky or severely damaged dreads. Good luck!

Renee L Mullenax said:

I know that they won't look perfect for the 1st few months, I just meant that I prefer to have messy dreads that are recognizable dreads for the 1st few months than to have just a weird mess on my head that looks like I got in a fight with a vacuum cleaner. I've seen progression pics of people that used the neglect method and I don't want my hair to look like that. I also want to be able to control the size of my dreads & it doesn't seem possible to do that with the neglect method. I want pretty small dreads. I understand that everybody is different and that some people prefer different methods. I'm not trying to insult anybody for their preferences so please nobody get offended!! I've studied up A LOT on the different methods of dreading and I've decided that TnR is the way for me. If it doesn't work out then I'll just try something else--its all part of the journey. Thank you all for your advice

Happy dreading no matter which way you decide. Any method or no method can all get pretty wild looking. Enjoy, you will love it.

peace and blessings.