Too much sebum/ scalp grease.
Help! Save My Dreads
Hey all, new here. I'm looking for some help with a big problem I've been having off and on since I started dreading.
First off my dreads are about a week away from 5 months. They were crocheted (not looking for a method debate). I washevery 5-7 days.
The problem I'm having is my scalp seems to want to get really greasy with dreads and I feel it's slowing down the locking process for me considerably.
For the first month, my scalp was really greasy and I was using a Knotty Boy bar that wasn't fully washing out. I started washing with just baking soda and no ACV to get the Knotty Boy out and not become even more greasy from the ACV.
For about two months the baking soda mixed with a little bit of dreadlockshampoo.com's tea tree shampoo seemed to do the trick and chilled the greasy out a bit. During that time knots were exploding everywhere and they were really locking up fast and everything was great.
At some point, however, the grease returned and is worse than ever. All the progress I was making has slowed down a lot.
I stopped with the baking soda, as I thought maybe that was over-drying my scalp and started using just the tea tree shampoo, however, when I use the tea tree shampoo in a larger quantity than just a couple drops in baking soda water it doesn't wash out just like the Knotty Boy and it also leaves my hair way too soft to where the dreads feel super loose.
In the last couple of weeks, I've switched to Chandrika Ayurvedic Soap on the recommendation of a friend and this has been the best soap I've used thus far. It lathers well and rinses clean without softening my hair too much but hasn't done anything to help with my grease like I had hoped.
The grease is really bad. Sometimes it's large chunks of white sebum and sometimes it's just a thick grease that literally saturates my dreads. I wake up with my pillow looking like a fast food bag most days I can squeeze the grease out of the locks.
I've tried putting coconut oil on my scalp and all that did was make the grease worse for me. I've also tried rinsing with just water but there's so much grease and sebum that just water isn't strong enough and all the grease just runs into my locks and stays there. I've completely cut out salt spray and essential oil spray hoping that might stop my over-grease production but neither have helped.
Also, this isn't just my scalp adjusting to dread shampoo or not being washed as often. I've used dread shampoos for over a year before dreads and I relaxed my washing routine for about three months before dreads.
Today was wash day, I just washed about 9 hours ago and as I sit here typing this I can touch my scalp and forehead and they're soaked with a wet sweat like grease. It feels like I just ran a bunch of laps but I've literally just sat here in a room that's on the colder side. Can't figure out a reason for it to be this bad. Any help greatly appreciated!!
updated by @mg1134: 01/22/20 09:33:16AM
