Forum Activity for @chase-valentine

Should I give up, or what?

General Questions

I've had dreads for about 2 and a half months now(photos attached), and I've been loving it.

But I've been having a lot of issues with them..

When I was sectioning it off to T&R dread it, I made my sections too large. But I was too lazy to go back and change it, so I improvised and just made dreads out of parts of the sections.

Two months in now, I have loose tips and loose roots and loose hairs everywhere! It looks pretty much like normal hair! And some of my dreads are formed from sections of hair that aren't squares. They're just long skinny rectangles pulled together and knotted, so the roots are just bad.

It doesn't even look good like natural dreads do. It just looks like a mess.

I'm half tempted to just give up the dreading and shave my head.

But I'm also tempted to buy some conditioner and undread my hair and just let them go all natural from there.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do?

updated by @chase-valentine: 01/13/15 09:14:10PM

Details of baking soda rinse?

Dread Maintenance

Thanks, man!

Details of baking soda rinse?

Dread Maintenance

I'm going to be starting my dreads this Friday, using the Twist & Rip method of dreading.

I saw Soaring Eagle's post about the baking soda rinse, but that seemed like more of the rinse than I would need for my hair, considering my hair is really short.

I was just wondering how much of the rinse I should use, and the details of the rinse.

My hair is pretty short but gets about another inch of length when straightened.

I'm purchasing Rosemary, Lavender, and Tea Tree oil this weekend before I wash my dreads for the first time, so I'll have those. I also have baking soda ready, and I've tested to make sure I don't have hard water.

I was wondering the ratio of baking soda to water, and how many drops of each oil I should use per cup of water/BS mix.

updated by @chase-valentine: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM