What do you wash with?

I have a tin can from LUSH that I used to keep their shampoo bars in, but I think also just a soap bar holder (with the stripes) would be good

Awesome! I wasn't sure if I should start my washings with the BS method or just buy from dreadlocksoap.com--but now I know!

I'll be buying a bar asap. However, in the mean time, is it alright to wash with Bronner's? I have just begun my dreading process, and so none have formed yet, so it doesn't seem like build up will be an issue just yet.

Dr bronnera causes residue in hard water

Thanks you Noodle-Doo.

Noodle-Doo said:

Must admit, washing has been doing my head in for a while now.
I've had hair for nearly 40 years now, and the only time I've ever had trouble washing it is following the advice on this site! Like using Bronners, washing with a bucket load of essential oils, dreadlocksshampoo bars. All of them caused me problems with scalp irritation and/or residue!
I've been wondering for a while now - why are we all so obsessed with alternative washing methods? Like soap, BS and so on? Is it just wanting to be different, anti-capitalist and support the small company? Or do people follow what others do and think they have to wash their hair differently to have dreads? I'm really disappointed to see the dread gurus here pushing certain products so hard, then ignoring the people who are complaining about what it's doing to their hair!

So, for now, I've gone back to what always worked for me before, which is washing with an ordinary shampoo (Lush bar). I do a rinse with just a few drops of essential oil, and can go nearly a week between washes that way. I kinda knew from school chemistry and experience that soap washing was risky, because of the scum and residue in hard/soft water, but I tried it because people here raved about it. But, you live and learn.

The more I read up about hair washing, the more contradictory information I find. pH, residue, clarifying, conditioning, SLS, blah blah blah it goes on. Everyone seems to have an extreme opinion, and they're all trying to sell you something! So I'll keep researching, bit by bit, trying to separate the facts from the opinions, hype and marketing, and trying things until I find the right product for me.

Sorry if this sounds angry, I don't mean to, it's just really frustrating!

Hi Tim, well, you might not be wrong but i wash my hair 4 times a week with Baking Soda and essensial oils that's all. It's always clean and smells good. I don't know if i have build up and i don't know much about shampoos but i do know that my hair is healthy. I only have problems when am in Europe, the water there is hard and the climate is dry so my hair drys out and breaks often. I decided to wash it once a month, auch! otherwise, in Afica where the water is soft and the climate is humid i wash 4 times a week and it's ok and healthy.

Peace!

Tim said:

How do you know if you have build up from DLS? It is all I use and I'm a bit surprised at the recent posts regarding residue. I would think if DLS leaves residue, then there probably isn't anything that doesn't.

I wash my dreads more now than I ever have, because it is such a joy to use the shampoo, and the ease with which it seems to wash out, I think I currently have very clean hair, what I am getting at, is, that when I previously had dreads they weren't clean very often, but that was how everyone was, I'm not saying folks with dreads are dirty (the old stereotype) but we just didn't wash them that often. This whole thing of ultra clean dreads is certainly new to me, don't get me wrong, I like having clean hair, but it certainly didn't concern me before, and if I didn't wash often now, it wouldn't worry me either.

Clean hair does dread quicker, but not so clean hair dreads too. The average dreaded person on the street is not washing the dreads two or three times a week, that is for sure.

peace

Be very careful in drying your hair if your going to be washing that frequently. The thicker the dread the longer it will take to dry out all the hair strands within it, especially those in the center. The danger is that if you don't dry the centers out completely before the next wash you'll be setting up the perfect conditions for mildew to set in. Once that fungal infection sets in it is very hard to treat. This is the problem that some people have with dreads and leads to that awfully strong "wet dog" smell. This has given rise to some very unfavorable opinions that dreads are dirty, even to the completely false idea in the general population that dreadheads use dog feces in thier hair. Ridiculous I know, but I've heard it.

Hi Sting Rey, thanks alot for the advice. Actually, my dread was not so thick, it took 3 hours to get dry in Nigeria but in Germany it took only 30 mins cos it's so dry there but humid in Nigeria. Now, i have made it thicker by twisting 2 together and hold them with a hair clip just some weeks ago (I have tried this before, i think late last 2 years or early last year and it worked, it took a month for 2 strands to stick together at the roots), because it was breaking as a result of the hard water and dry climate, too harsh to the hair. So, from your advice, 4 times a week in a humid environment will not work lol. I will reduce it to 4 times a month in Africa but once a month in Germany.

Thank you.

Sting.Rey said:

Be very careful in drying your hair if your going to be washing that frequently. The thicker the dread the longer it will take to dry out all the hair strands within it, especially those in the center. The danger is that if you don't dry the centers out completely before the next wash you'll be setting up the perfect conditions for mildew to set in. Once that fungal infection sets in it is very hard to treat. This is the problem that some people have with dreads and leads to that awfully strong "wet dog" smell. This has given rise to some very unfavorable opinions that dreads are dirty, even to the completely false idea in the general population that dreadheads use dog feces in thier hair. Ridiculous I know, but I've heard it.

I was using Dr Bronner's and the water in my location is soft, my hair straight and anyways it left me residues. I don't know why.

Then I started bs/acv and on the first wash, the bs ended up super soapy (I guess were all the Dr Bronner's residues). I used acv and buuum, after month and a half of not brushing, it seems it super conditioned my hair to the point that one week later I passed a brush through and I had any knot.

I decided to next wash put less acv on my mixture, and anyways... My hair feels soft and "oily" at certain point, and it's kinda funny because back then before I tried to freeform, my hair tendency was to be dry.

So I just read a message you posted to someone to use acv just once a week. I'm gonna try that. If doesn't work, I'm gonna try twice per month. If it doesn't work, maybe by that time I would be able to buy some bottles of that dreadlocks shampoo to be sent overseas.

I (unfortunately) live in Southern California. I have found that sometimes the BS does seem to feel buildup-y. I have Dr. Bronner's to use for around the house but I think I am going to try it for my hair. BS/ACV seems to leave my hair feeling like straw and if I use more vinegar it feels...well, gross. What dilution should I use to try Dr. Bronner's?

PS: Just because it pisses me off, I have shampoo that claims to be "no-residue" but when I use it, the baby dreads throw a fit and unravel. This bums me out.