Ey, i had my dreadlocks dyed red ombre for the past 2 years and now i wanted a change, i asked my friends if my color looks better than before and they said yes but i'm kinda unsure about my '' color '', maybe that's only because it's a change for me and i'm not used to.
well your natural colors best
but its the crochet you gotta stop!
thats why they are stiff and damaged
read up on the site on crochet
it breaks thousands of hairs everytime you use it this makes them weaker and weaker
it makes them really stiff and tight. too stiff and tight (an scratchy from all the broken hairs)
when you start with crochet it prevents any dreading for 6 months
it takes 3 years to lose the stiffness from 1 use
it then makes you a slave to the hook as all the hairs you broke pop back out so you crochet again..braking more more pop out
you never let them dread at all you replace dreading with crochetting ..weaving.. and brutally breaking hairs
if you look at naturakl dreads they flow they hang soft and natural like bair should
crochet dreads either are supernaturally straight ..or curl forward around the face
depended on who maintains them. since your rochetting them yourself you pull them forward where you can see them so the stiffnes results in a forward curl
what to expect when you toss the hook
1 slow kloosening an d reovey light conditioning can help speed this up
2 frizz and i mean way more frizz then if you neverr crochetted..it will get better but 1st will get worse
3 a delayed teen stage once they are loosened even though they are 2 years old you'll start to get loops..this is an essential stage that was skipped ..or prevente it will come eventually..thats when they are starting to dread so stoop the conditioning and leave em alone
from then on your ok.. but the damage is permenant..broken hairs sta y brokn.. .. lets put it this way your dreads shouuld support the weight of 3 elephants (whole hed0) 1 dread over 1000 pounds
after years of crochet it could be 1/4 that.. still 250 pounds .. but eventualy a hard rain is all thats needd to wash away a dred.. when they are so damaged an ounce of pressure breamks them simply diving into a pool can cause 4 dreads to float away (we've seen it happen)
I used the crochet method only to make my dreadlocks and from there i used the croched just for maintenance to get in the loose hairs.
And yes they're kinda stiff but only the older parts like 20-30% of the dreadlock length.
About frizz yeah isn't too much i usually trim only the long hairs that are poppin' out from my locks ( yea i know i can get them back in just from palm rolling but i'm lazy sometimes )
Anyways my dreadlocks from my perspective are alright.
I do maintenance only once two months only on roots (to get back in the loose hairs ), i like a ''clean'' lookin' style.
oh if the color was lightened
besides the crochet damage but also this is what lightening does to the hair (if done a lot) thats why I say your natural colors best
you should leave them alone the loose hairs take care of themselves theres no need to cut them
palm rolling does absolutely nothing but the crochet is really horrible its dread abuse
is a cleaner look worth really harming them so severely so they get weak and don't last?
this is at 18 years in now they are 27 (almost double the length) you see how they hang like hair should?
theres nothing "unclean" about healthy dreads (often washed a lot more) its all a marketing gimmick to convince you to spend money .. shaming healthy dreads so you can have a damaged alternative
why is stiff with broken hairs more clean?
if you were African American this would be called a clean look
this would be healthy
and this.. would be the worse case of "clean look" ever
notice they are tightening the roots in the photo
really worth the clean look huh?
healthy will last
clean will only get worse and worse every time you clean them up
Good thing that i dye only the exterior.
On the interior everything is good and healthy
but our best expert says they should be dyed clean through
I would just let them return to your natural color from here on
if anything...henna is fairly good for your hair
