Could this be mold? :(
Help! Save My Dreads
I haven't been taking very good care of my dreads these past months, and I'm worried I've caused some mold. I've had a rough time with my mental health and I neglected my dreads a little. I've been leaving them damp, wrapped in a towel up to two hours sometimes, and never using a hairdryer. Just hoping that they're dry by the time I went to bed. After realising how badly I've been treating them I decided to cut a few open, and inside I found some white ish powdery stuff. As soon as I cut into my dread it started coming out. It looks like tiny white particles mixed with little white hairs. You can kind of see in the pictures what I mean.
What do you guys think? Is this mold? It doesn't have a smell, but it definitely looks like it, and when I scratch at it, it disappears which I've heard is a sign that it's mold and not lint or skin cells, etc. It's kind of hard to believe that this isn't mold the way I've been treating my dreads they're almost two years old now.
updated by @purpledaze: 02/07/18 03:10:54PM