DESPERATE! Free form accidental dreads, severely matted and hard.
Help! Save My Dreads
Hi, I'm Jen. I was ill with Covid, couldn't get out of bed and was suffering from bad depression too. After I started to get better, I saw my (non-dreaded before) hair had clumped severely into matted balls, which happened very quickly. I was finding it impossible to untangle the mess and now it has hardened. My hair used to be waist length and healthy but it has clumped and rolled up into balls now so that no part of my hair looks longer than the top of my ears. I now have literal hardened clumps. I'm not sure but I think the detangling spray I was using on the clumps to get them undone might have have been part of what hardened my hair?? One clump is about three inches long, about an inch in depth and about an inch and a half wide!! It's also attached to another clump by the side of it, and so on.... I'm starting to get traction pain in parts of my scalp and headaches because my hair is so heavy. These are, as you can tell, obviously not normal dreads. The hair has folded on top of itself and reduced in length. It also seems like the hair density in the clump has shrunk even in places where I haven't had any hair loss at all? Just thinned out a bit, don't know why?
I'm desperate as if I can't fix this, I will have to cut off four years worth of hair growth and my hair will barely reach the top of my ears, if that.
There are only 2-4 inches at the root that are not badly matted. Anything lower than that is clumped.
What can I do to soften these clumps and unpick them? I'm scared my hair will start coming out at the root. I'm also scared to get them wet in case the water tightens them and makes them more heavy. But I'm having no success trying to undo the hair while it's dry. It helps a little but it's such slow progress and I literally can't find strands to tease. It just is hard texture.
Please can someone who knows how to do dread removal advise me? I realise these are not normal dreads as if they were, there'd be an easier removal method, but can someone help me anyway? Please