Im a newbie dreadhead and i want your opinion!

Greeting fellow dreadheads! I recently had my hair dreaded, been wanting to do it for over 10 years and finally grew a pair and did it. I have been doin A LOT of research all over the web including this site and still cant seem to get any straight answers. Heres the scoop...

About a month ago a good friend of mine sectioned my hair and backcombed it, no wax was used.

After working on it for a few hours a day for 5 days it was finished and i put them all in rubber bands(one very loosely at the root and one tighter at the tip) and washed them in salt water.

Once a week i wash my scalp with water, baking soda and tea tree oil, let it set in my hair for about 30 min then rinse it out, dry the dreads a bit then spray them all over with a spray bottle full of salt water, wrap it in a towel for another 30 min, then air dry.

Ive had to have my friend "re-backcomb" a few that were coming loose partially due to her getting kind of lazy about the backcombing towards the end(i dont blame her it was a long process).

I still have the rubber bands in my hair, a girl at my work with some fairly mature dreads swears i should leave em in for 5 months cause i have such fine, straight hair(as does she)

Some are starting to lock well and some are starting to completely fall apart

i have lots of frizzy loose hair on the top.

SO.... now that you have my info, any opinion on the process ive been using so far would be a great help. Every source i check says the opposite of the last one i read. Im running in circles over here.

updated by @brian-mcgeorge: 01/13/15 09:22:49PM

Best to take out the rubber bands. I know it seems illogical cos if you have normal hair, taking out the bands will make them likely to fall apart, but don't worry about it. If you leave in rubber bands they can get swallowed in by the hair, and also...your hair needs to be able to move around. So yeah, take them out. And if they do seem to be falling apart, it's cool. Don't rebackcomb them or anything, there's no point. If they come loose, they'll just dread again.

Agreed. Ditch the rubberbands, they're actually stopping your progress.

Backcombed hair is always two steps forward and one step back. We've found that people who have a mix of backcombed hair and neglect dreaded hair actually see more progress in their neglect dreaded hair.

Rely on your shower being your best friend. Don't wash your hair but every 3-4 days but you really need to balance the ph in your hair and scalp after washing with a baking soda rinse. Here's the basic recipe:

Get a squirt bottle with a long tapered tip and use 1cup warm water + 2 tablespoons baking soda. Shake and apply 3/4 of the bottle's contents to wet hair. Hit those roots hard. Use your fingertips to gently rub the scalp and leave the locks alone. Squirt the rest of the solution on and let it sit for 4-5 minutes. Rinse well.

Here's the ph balancer and where you should be adding the essential oils if you'd like to: Rinse your squirt bottle well and then put in 1 cup of water and 1/2 to 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar. Shake. Add 4-5 drops of your essential oil. Shake. Apply all over head. Let sit on your head for a minute or two and then rinse.

Gently press and blot your hair dry. Separate as needed. Air dry.

That's it! That's the 'magic' of naturally making locks.

Since you've gotten started off on the right foot and using baking soda your hair will have a lot of 'grip' and 'tooth' now so it really shouldn't take long to see some progress.

Sleeping is actually where you get the most locking up done besides the shower, strangely enough. Dreads love pillows and the mild friction/compression. I always find that my hair rocks first thing in the morning. I shake my hair and go!

Mine look to be about the same length as yours, I used the tnr method and will let the rest of them do it on their own, I haven't used any rubberbands at all and they've made it two weeks so far with none of them coming out yet. I started getting some loose hairs but they'll dread after a while, but I'm also seeing some really nice progress to. I would take the bands out and let nature take over.

take the bands out!

spray the salt before not after u wash

never wrap in a towel while wet for that long or u will get mold just shake em and air dry

never rebackcomb even if they fall apart they will dread

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Thanks everyone for your advice! Im starting to realize the only sources that promote the bands are dread product websites, everyone in the forums says to ditch em(and i think i trust people with dreads over people selling dread products lol) and a big thanks to Angel Frye for that wash recipe! its hard to get straight answers, definately just made my life easier!!!

yea eveerything the dread products sites suggest is 100% wrong

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1