Before T&R. Used a flat iron every day... oh the many hours upon hours I spent on my hair back then.
After T&R... don't freak about the bands, guys, I took your advice almost immediately and took them out. :P Especially after finding that after a nice, hot shower they started to melt into my hair.
Two weeks in- After I took the elastics out, they unraveled a bit at the ends and one in the back came out completely. But for the most part, they kept together. Another in the back came loose from the root some and created a pretty big loop.
One month- A lot of dreads fell out, but I was glad because there were tons of gaps. Some dreads unraveled up to the root, where it feels like its actually starting to dread very well, so I'm very excited about them! Tons of frizz too, but again, I don't mind. I also started using Viki's Locking Up Shampoo and that seems to help a lot... it also smells FANTASTIC. Update again in month two. 
Alright, Two months now, and my T&Rs came almost entirely loose save for some in the back, bottom row.
It feels so nice to finally just let my hair go and do what it naturally does. I can't believe I spent so many hours of my life trying to force my hair straight.
So here are the pics. Know that I have done no maintenance besides some separating, washing, and just recently started using sea salt spray before washing. The sea salt has really helped them along, too. Thanks, everyone!
Month three, and not too much noticeable progress. There are a couple dreads at the back/top of my head that have formed from their own after coming out again and a couple here and there under the top layer of my hair. The back is trying very hard to congo and I'm forced to pull them apart on a daily basis, which I'm totally cool with.
I've pretty much given up telling people that I'm "Dreading" for now and just telling them instead that I haven't brushed my hair in 3 months. :P
Four months. Not much changed besides a few loops here and there and some more tightening on the underside of the hair. I'm perfectly content with my hair at this point. ^_^
5 Month Update!
...And some loops...
A lot has happened over the months I've skipped my timeline updates. I am now on month 9 I believe. There has been a lot of personal problems and things going on in my life that hasn't made this year very positive but things are doing better now, and I'm very grateful.
My newest baby, and one of my faves so far.
And one of my oldest, and the ONLY one near my face.
Month 10 - More action happening around the face, some new baby dreads starting to form and making me so excited to look in the mirror every morning. Some changes I've made that I think have really helped the process along was ditching my pillow pet. Yes, I sleep with a pillow pet. But the first morning I threw it in the floor and had my head tossing around on my normal cotton pillowcase, I had some knots forming that weren't there the night before. Another change- I only have washed with baking soda. I still have Vicki's on hand but I lost my job this month and know it'd be impossible to afford for a while. So now I save it for instances where I feel like having my hair smell fantastic. And washing with BS only is not for everyone, but my scalp for some reason feels happy after I use it. :D Aaalso! I TnRd a few more along the top/front of my head to help give my hair more uniformity. I don't believe it slowed my process down at all because it was 100percent untangled, silky smooth hair. So we will see how those turn out!
ONE YEAR!
It doesn't feel like it's been that long. These past couple months I've noticed a lot of changes in my hair. Knotting, tightening, looping. I have had the most progress in the past few months than in my entire year, and I'm very excited to see how the next couple of months go. My hair is taking its time and a lot of my hair is stubborn to knot up, but it's okay because as soon as you wake up one morning and notice that the "impossibly soft and smooth un-tangled chunk of hair" has a huge loop, the excitement of that moment makes up for all the wait. I love my hair, on a physical and emotional level. When things were at their worst this year, I could always look in the mirror and stare at the mess of tangles on my head and feel a sense of serenity. I am so in love with my journey and look forward to seeing how it continues to change me, both inside and out.
Now at 1 year and 3 months. I have been getting a lot of positive comments on my dreads now that I started a new job! Some of the girls in my training class are actually TnR'ing their hair, so I've been trying to encourage them to take my advice on a few things involving natural dreading, including writing down the link to this site. Recently, I trimmed my ends on the loose-ended dreads because the ends were badly split. I noticed this during work one day when i was playing with the loose hair at the end of my dread and it just... broke. <_< Also, I TnR'd my bangs. Pretty sure they're too short to stay that way, but we will see. ^_^
I year, 5month update!
1 year, 7month-ish update. Seems to be a bit more shrinkage, they've really tightened up!
1 Year 9 Month UPDATE:
They got longer! :D I'm so excited that they seem to have stopped shrinking for the most part and got a bit longer from my last update. Still pretty hard to pull up into a pony tail because my hair had very short layers put in them prior to dreading, so the top half of my hair is still too short. My bangs are also growing out and I have a couple baby dreads forming there, so that's nice too!
updated by @sarah16: 02/14/15 01:16:34PM
