Finally ready to start my journey :)

Hi all! I am Allison. I am a 27 year old living in Birmingham, Alabama. I work as a veterinary technician at an animal emergency clinic. Music, writing, and animals are my life. I am finally ready to start this dread journey, I can't quite put my finger on it yet, I am going to just let it flow, but I feel like spiritually, I am being pushed hard to do this. Plus, I am so damn excited! Anyway, so onto the dreads..I started out with backcombing and wax about 3 days ago cause someone recommended it to me and told me about dreadhq or whatever. Then, today, I found this site. Luckily I had only done 4 dreads so far, so I brushed them out and washed all the nasty wax out of my hair (as much as I could. I can't tell for sure, but I think there is still some residue. I am going to continue to use a de-greaser soap until I am sure all of it is out along, with whatever else I decide to use to wash my hair) The change of mind was actually done today. I definitely was not happy with the results of the backcombing and was very frustrated, which is not supposed to happen, I knew already. Anyway, so I twisted and ripped a few with no chemicals (don't really know why, just felt like the thing to do) and am going the natural route, which mentally and spiritually I feel SO much better about. I just washed out the 4 maybe 12 hours ago and the hair that has not been twisted and ripped is already starting to section up a tiny bit. This is probably because I am already used to only washing my hair once or twice a week and my hair is wavy and sort of frizzy and gets tangled and knotted VERY easily. I am so happy and feel so much more free now that I know all I have to do is keep the tangles separated (should have been common sense, but whatever lol) I have not decided what I am going to wash my hair with, but I think I am going to use sea salt spray frequently and just water spritz the other times to refresh my hair when I wake up everyday... Anyway, if you made it through this, just know that I am soo glad to be here and start this journey with all of you I tend to be a lurker cause I feel weird jumping into other people's discussions, but I am going to try my best!!

Allison

updated by @maliba-live85: 01/13/15 09:52:17PM

Welcome to your new journey of freedom! We are all glad you found this site too. Lets start off with the sections you did with wax. Purchase some Dawn dish soap to make sure all the wax is out, even if you just put it in it is hard to get out with one try and will always be in the hair. Use this link and follow the instructions posted by Soaring Eagle & Baba Fats: http://www.dreadlockssite.com/forum/topics/a-couple-of-questions-ab...

Your location has soft and moderately soft water, so you are able to use many of the dread shampoos and bars out there. I personally liked to use the liquid form for beginning dreads and the bar for mature dreads. With the liquid form, just fill an empty squirt bottle with water and add the amount of shampoo you would normally use. Then squirt on all onto your scalp once your hair is wet. You can use your fingertips to gently scrub the scalp only, then when you rinse it out, it will run down the sections and clean them also. For a wonderful homemade recipe, you can do a baking soda wash (BS), always followed by an apple cider vinegar (ACV) rinse. The ACV will balance back the hairs PH and is a healthy conditioner that leaves no residue. So mix 1/2 cup of BS to 5 cups of water. Pour over wet hair and leave on for 10 minutes. This is a no scrub method that will exfoliate the scalp all on its own. Rinse out well and then do the ACV rinse. Mix 1 capful of ACV to 5 cups water, pour over head and rinse out within one minute or right away. You do not want to over condition the hair or any knotting may slip out.

I also did the twist & rip (T&R) method and made a posting about it that may help you out: http://www.dreadlockssite.com/forum/topics/just-starting-out-what-t...

You will enjoy your journey and the inner growth that comes with it. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to ask me or make a post for other members to assist.

Welcome again to your new journey....Peace

updated by @the-barrellady: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM

Yayy, welcome to the natural journey! And don't be afraid to speak up in the forums; ain't nobody got time for lurking 'round these parts!

Thank you for replying! Yeah, at the time of this post I was still trying to decide what I would use to wash. I went with the rosemary and tea tree bar from that store. I am pretty excited to try it out

Justin said:

You're going to need something other than a salt spray to wash your dreads or you'll have other issues later down the road. The 3 main recommendations that tend to float around here are Dr. Bronners, the Baking Soda rinse followed by the Apple Cider Vinegar rinse or the natural and homemade bars and liquids from one of our members that you can find here http://shop.dreadlockshampoo.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPat... . Everyone has their own experience with these washes as each individuals scalp and skin needs tend to differ slightly. I started out using the BS/ACV rinses as I had already used Dr. Bronners and didn't care for it. The rinses were awesome but started to get a little pricey after I started adding the essestial oils I wanted. I will still occasionally do a deep clean with them. I personally love the bars from Vicki and look forward to every wash. You will also need to determine whether you have hard water or not as some of them don't play nice with hard water.

Good luck on your journey.

Wow thank you so much for all this information and looking up the map! I very much appreciate it I ended up going with the rosemary and tea tree shampoo from the Buck County soap store on here. I also bought some of the Wax-be-gone

the Barrellady said:

Welcome to your new journey of freedom! We are all glad you found this site too. Lets start off with the sections you did with wax. Purchase some Dawn dish soap to make sure all the wax is out, even if you just put it in it is hard to get out with one try and will always be in the hair. Use this link and follow the instructions posted by Soaring Eagle & Baba Fats: http://www.dreadlockssite.com/forum/topics/a-couple-of-questions-ab...

Your location has soft and moderately soft water, so you are able to use many of the dread shampoos and bars out there. I personally liked to use the liquid form for beginning dreads and the bar for mature dreads. With the liquid form, just fill an empty squirt bottle with water and add the amount of shampoo you would normally use. Then squirt on all onto your scalp once your hair is wet. You can use your fingertips to gently scrub the scalp only, then when you rinse it out, it will run down the sections and clean them also. For a wonderful homemade recipe, you can do a baking soda wash (BS), always followed by an apple cider vinegar (ACV) rinse. The ACV will balance back the hairs PH and is a healthy conditioner that leaves no residue. So mix 1/2 cup of BS to 5 cups of water. Pour over wet hair and leave on for 10 minutes. This is a no scrub method that will exfoliate the scalp all on its own. Rinse out well and then do the ACV rinse. Mix 1 capful of ACV to 5 cups water, pour over head and rinse out within one minute or right away. You do not want to over condition the hair or any knotting may slip out.

I also did the twist & rip (T&R) method and made a posting about it that may help you out: http://www.dreadlockssite.com/forum/topics/just-starting-out-what-t...

You will enjoy your journey and the inner growth that comes with it. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to ask me or make a post for other members to assist.

Welcome again to your new journey....Peace

updated by @maliba-live85: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM

Thank you so much for the encouragement!!

Laura Earle said:

Yayy, welcome to the natural journey! And don't be afraid to speak up in the forums; ain't nobody got time for lurking 'round these parts!