what causes dreads to thin or break? the 1st step in diagnosing why your dreads are thinning or breaking is to determine what you have done to them to contribute to the problem.
common causes of dreads thinning or breaking include
- interlocking- interlocking causes weak spots at each and every interlock point, this may also cause a general thinning of the hair around the dread called traction alopecia thats a result of the hair being pulled away from the scalp because the roots are tightened too much. the weak spots are "snap points" where the hairs twisted and fed through itself theres no elasticity, no shock absorption, so a hard yank is likely to snap the dread off at that point this snap point cannot be repaired after only a few days its permenant, however the traction alopecia can be by simply not interlocking or tightening the roots any more.
- twisting- twisting mas some of the same issues as interlocking , causing traction alopcia by forcing the roots to be too tight, but also thins the dread towards the roots alot the weakness isnt from a snap[ point like interlocking but from a general thinning of the drad itself couplesd with the slow but sure4hair loss from traction alopecia the dread gets thinner and thinner as it grows the ends stay thick but the roots get thin and weak
- crochet- crochet may not cause thinning , at least at the roots, however the entire dread will be about 1/3 the thickness of a healthy dread due to the extreme tightness it causes (along with stiffness) the thing with crochet is there will be no visible signs of trouble! no thinning no hanging by a few hairs, they can look perfectly fine but get weaker and weaker till they just fall off. the reason they get so weak is simple, poking a hole in your dreads over and over breaks hairs. the strength of the dread depends on the number of long continuous hairs if each hairs broken up into short peieces the entire dread gets weakened.
- 4root rubbing palm rolling etc- root rubbing can weaken the roots ecven pull hairs from the scalp, palm rolling can also weaken the dreads although palm rolling does take alot of obsesivle rolling to cause significant harm. root rubbing is definately more of a problem.
- excessive dryness - over bleached hair or extremely dry hair might also break easily
there may be other causes but in most cases the cause of dreads breaking or thinning can be found in the maintenance done or the bad advice recieved.
cures
in most cases simply stopping what your doing that caused the issues will help repair the issues however when the roots are too thin you might need to alow (or encourage) them to congo..or combine for added support
simply dont seperate and they will join together, or wrap 2 weak ones together a month or so and they will join.
in the case of dryness some conditioning will help
damage that cant be repaired , from crochet and interlocking will be permenant but its important to stop these harmful practices so the damage doesnt get worse
if you have thinning or breakage and have not done any of these things please reply and tell us what if anything you have done so we can try to see if it caused your issues or not. there ar other factors such as hormones nutrition medications etc that can cause hair loss and thinning
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updated by @soaring-eagle: 01/22/20 09:33:16AM