if they all fall out wont they just go back to being regular hair? should I have rubber bound at the roots? So far they are kinda unwinding but they haven't merged together. I like the sectioning I did so I hope i don't lose them (especially since it took 4 hours to do) lol.
I started my dreads a couple days ago with the twist and rip method. As I started them I was pulling my hair toward the back of my head and now a few in front don't want to lay the way I dreaded them so the straight hair at the roots is looping up. It doesn't bother me much now but I was wondering if this is something I should expect to get better or worse as they mature? I assume if they lay the way they want for long enough they will dread the way they want as well but now would be the time to re-dread them if I'm going to. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
lol SE! that's awesome. a whole new meaning to recycling to keep things out of landfills. ha!
i recently started dreading with the twist and rip method and i know that they unravel and kinda do their own thing but i was wondering how to help the locking process with sea salt? do ypu just disolve it in warm water and let them soak? if anyone has tried this please let me know what measurements you used as i know sea salt can be drying. also what do you guys use when your dreads get dry? just apple cider vinegar? thanks
This is so sad! It's like an intentional form of genocide or wiping out of your own race because you feel its inferior. It's like when Alexander Graham-Bell married a deaf woman and decided that all deaf people should marry hearing people so they will have hearing kids because the deaf gene is recessive. He actually started a movement and got the support of some deaf people. It's like treating the deaf like they are broken (which many people still believe) and trying to force them to conform to society by lip reading and "breeding out" rather than developing their own language and culture and identity (sorry I studied sign language and deaf culture in school). But it's the same idea right? It's making a culture feel inferior and actually getting to them enough psychologically as a whole to feel like they shouldn't be here or act in their own way.
Alright so I went through several of the responses to this but haven't read them all so I'm sorry if I am reiterating what some of you said. Here is my take on it. A while back i had a class project where we had to view ourselves under many different lights in regards to race. The classifications were something like "what people see you as, how you identify yourself, actual nationality, skin tone, etc." basically all of these can be completely different. One conclusion we came to as a class was that there is a definite line between people who identify as African vs African American. People that identified as African tended to know exactly which parent/grandparent moved to America and where fewer generations in. The people that identified as African American or black have had families here for much longer and seemed to have the more American mindset. I think the longer your family has been here the more "American" you feel regardless of skin tone. You lose your culture from your homeland, wherever that may be. The average American viewpoint is that you should fit into society's views of beauty which are hugely distorted by the media and social psychology. It is scary to think that it is the same pressure that causes people to have eating disorders or be afraid of gay people or feel the need to make a lot of money or whatever else. What can possibly be such a strong force? It is the need to fit in to the small box of expectations of what you should look like, what you should do with your life, how successful you need to be and everything else. It is really sad. All the people squished into that little box get so frustrated with the people that are able to run around freely and they will always attack you for allowing yourself to be who you are. It is every persons choice to decide how they will let others affect them.
I think another issue for a lot of people that identify as black (which i cant say because I'm white and obviously everyone is different regardless) is that they don't feel as strong of a connection with their homelands as the families of Africans who have more recently moved here. When you don't feel a cultural connection to any group regardless of who you are, you feel isolated and lose a sense of identity. You begin to make your own cultural group and put up walls to keep out the cultures you don't understand, cant relate to, or feel cast out by. That is why there is so much misunderstanding between groups of people and ultimately why there is so much misunderstanding about dreads (trying to get back to my point). When you don't understand something and shun it for being different without trying to ask questions to understand it, the walls just get bigger and taller and harder to see around. Whats funny is that dreads have roots in almost every major culture because they aren't meant to be a fashion statement. They just happen naturally when brushes and hair dryers and styling products aren't forced onto people to be beautiful.
If someone hates you for being different or being yourself don't take it as something wrong with you. It is most definitely the opposite. The issue is that they hate individuality because they don't have a strong identity themselves. People that are more self aware and in tune with who they are themselves are more willing to accept who other people are as well.
sorry for the long post >_<
Oops! just realized this is an old forum. oh well. saying how i felt about it to you helped me confirm how i feel about it. It gets really discouraging looking for jobs when you are applying for positions with sometimes hundreds of other applicants. it's hard enough to get an interview let alone a call back especially when you don't look "normal". Anyways there are luckily some people who are tattooed and pierced and have colors in their hair and everything else (or are close to people that are) that have made it to management positions and actually dig it rather than shun it... Maybe ill find another employer like my last one who didn't care at all about those kinds of things.
I agree with SE. I'm in the same boat right now. I am in between jobs and searching like crazy for a new one but I just started dreading regardless. I would like to think that if you make a good impression at an interview that even a close minded employer would look past appearances but sadly that is rarely the case. Just do your best to make a good impression and be yourself. If they like you enough you'll get in. Don't change who you are for them even though it's not easy to find a job. It's better to find a job you will be happy and accepted in because chances are you will stay with that company longer than one that you change yourself for. If you comb them out and then get a job and start dreading again you may get talked to about them because the general public has a negative view of dreads. All you can do is show them that people with dreads aren't all bad and hopefully over time they will be more accepted as a whole in our society. I am the type of person that actually brings up things like this at an interview. As long as you bring it up in a careful way a lot of the time you can get an idea of how the employer feels about them right then and there rather than wondering later if that was why you never got a call back. I have had just about every color of the rainbow in my hair and also have visible tattoos so I tend to ask if those things are going to be an issue and if they are, well I'll find something more for me. Best of luck!
