@soaring eagle, okay I will make these adjustments and see if that helps the problem. How long does it usually take to dry dreads, I know depending on the length they take longer so i guess to be more specific someones dreads that are long enough to touch midway of their back?
Thanks!
@soaring eagle, it's really the body of the dreads, you see how there is loose hairs everywhere? It looks like my dreads are coming out/breaking but when I walk around and see other people's dreads they seem a lot more neat and there isn't a lot of loose hairs surrounding the dread. The loose hair around the scalp i'm not really worried about but the loose hairs around the actually dreads themselves.
When I did the baking soda wash the water did look slightly clowdy but I just really couldn't tell if it was working or not. I didn't understand quite how to get all of the baking soda out of my hair and I don't know how you all are able to completely ring out your dreads so they are dry but I have a problem with that too. Maybe I am too rough when I dry my hair because I usually ring/squeeze my dreads like a towel and enough water comes out and then I blow dry it for a bit and then wrap my hair in a cotton shirt.
Also when I sleep at night I wrap my hair with a cotton shirt to protect it, is that alright?
@soaring eagle When you see keep your dreads loose do you mean whether I tie them up or not? I usually keep them lose and when I am at work and tie them up using 2 of my dreads near the back of my ears. I also did use wax removal although when I did use it I couldn't tell how much of a difference it has made. I still have a lot of wax removal left, should I just dump it in my dreads just to make sure all the wax is out? How can you tell wax is in your dreads because I feel like my dreads are lighter than what they were before when I did use wax plus I used the removal.
@interrstella Yeah castor oil is but I figured that if I mixed it with other oils and water then it would do good and help my hair grow faster.
@spencer mcduffy I didn't really like BS.acv because I don't think I used it correctly. When I did use it my hair would come out white and it seemed to take forever to wash it all out and I believed it left flakes in my hair. The soap I am using is the dreadsoap that soaring eagle recommended I get before and it does work pretty well.
Hey all, just to give some background. I started growing my dreads in 2008 using the beezwax method and after about 2 years I would get my hair retwisted about every 2 weeks and as time went by I slowly started to not get my hair done as often to the point of getting it done once a month. I think I joined this some in December of 2012 and it was also this time I decided to go the neglect method because the last time I got my hair retwisted it was so tight that I had a split in the middle of my head seperating my dreads plus some of my dreads started to look skinnier than usual.
I have tried the ACV/BS (I think that's what it is called) and it didn't work to well and then I tried the soap shampoes which work nicely. I now wash my hair about once every 2 weeks with the dread soap and the oils I use are black castor, canola sweet almond mixed with water and spray when my hair is dry. My scalp looks like it is growing back and recovering from the incident of the last time I got my hair retwisted which was in 2012 but now some of my dreads appear to slowly getting skinnier and skinnier.
I can feel it and see it and it appears that is what is happening. And when I look at the dreads, I see there is a bunch of lose hair around the dread, as if all of the hair apart of my dreads are coming out. What exactly is going on? Is it because I am not washing my hair right? What technique do people use to wash their dreads? Also some of my dreads have thinning sections in the middle and the ends. It's like my dreads are slowly becoming damaged and I have no idea why. I have not gotten my hair retwisted in about 2 years now and still I am having problems.
Plz help me! If you all need more information or pictures then I can provide those!
Hello everyone. Haven't checked back here in a while. I had got a lot of good advice from people and I applied it and although I am seeing positive results I am also seeing negative ones, either that or I might be stressing and going crazy.
Just to give background information, I have been growing my dreads since 2009 which makes them about 4 years old I guess (not sure if that is considered mature). To give an idea of the length, they drop down to my back. I use to get my hair retwisted by a hairdresser whom specialized with dreads but after my last visit which was in November (5 months ago) I stopped going. She seemed to twist them way too tight and braided them. By the time I took out the braids I felt that there was a big split end on the top of my head. Haven't gone ever since and I got advice here on how to take care of my dreads properly. I didn't get my hair retwisted too much either because I didn't like the style, I only got them retwisted because I thought that is how you maintain them. I usually only got them done 4 times a year too.
Right now I just neglect. I try to wash my hair once a week (starting from December) and I use the whole BS/ACV mix to wash them. I use natural oils and such like tea tree and lavender and I follow the directions that everyone here uses to wash them. I only tie my hair at work and when I do I use my own dreads to do it and I stopped sleeping with a skull cap on (basically a wave cap). My roots are coming full swing with recover as only a bit of my scalp can be seen from how it was before. Still I see some problems such as dreads that seem loose on the scalp, coming undone and dreads thinning in the middle. I don't understand why this is happening, maybe I am just seeing things but everyone I wash my hair, step out the shower I always see a new dread that has a thinning mid-end section. Am I washing them wrong? I do notice that BS wash always leaves my hair a bit gray and after I rinse with the ACV it still looks a bit like that and I usually dry it and it doesn't look gray anymore, is that bad?
To give you guys an idea of what I am talking about, I have drawn a little diagram showing you how some of my dreads look. I also will upload pictures showing you my dreads. Sorry for all the text and thank you for the help!
Alright cool, I'll let them be.
Baba Fats said:
From my own experience, it looks like that damage was done by palm rolling. Leave them be. Anything you do to try and fix it will only aggravate the problem. There is a good chance that, in a year, they may snap off at those points on their own. It's happened to me. But they could also tighten themselves up and get strong enough to stay forever. There's no reason to cut them as some sort of preventative measure. Try not to pull on the tips tightly, and they'll be just fine.
Because they just seem to dangle and aren't fully apart of the dread. Will it fix itself if I just leave them be?
soaring eagle said:
why would u cut them off?
why do they need to be thicker
they are fin e just lsave em be
i don't go to the salon anymore, I haven't been since november
the Barrellady said:
what a shame people get sucked into salons & paying to have this happen to their dreads. I feel sorry for your locks & your loss.
