Well, Baking Soda helps strip colours, but it'll probably just lighten what you've got now. I guess if you keep doing it, it'll eventually take most of it out. If you're willing to wait a litttle bit, you could wash a few times with BS till it's really light and then dye again with your natural colour.
What is your natural hair colour, though? If brown, you wont need to bleach again, but if lighter, you might have to just the one more time
If you need to brush that much, yeah it should happen really fast. Just get rid of your comb and brush. Get yourself a good residue free shampoo, and be happy. Separate as needed (usually 1-2 times a week, but for you maybe after each wash). wash your hair 2-3 times a week. Ignore your hair itself. Just focus on cleaning your scalp. as you rinse, the soap will run through your hair cleaning it.
Don't worry about "what hat your should wear", "what kind of pillow case you need", or any of that other stuff. Locks happen no matter what you do, and if your hair really tangles that fast, you really don't need to do anything to "speed" it up.
I'm glad you decided to lock up. It's so much fun, but you're right, there is a ton of misinformation out there. Some of it is ok, but there are so many people here willing to give out free advice. Why would you waste your time looking at a website made by one person
Heather, your locks really remind me of a lions mane.
I was going to recommend beads, but Heather's right. they can get tangles in your hair and get stuck there. I never thought about using hemp or string like that. I know about using it to wrap as anaesthetic, or to keep a lock together, but never put 2 and 2 together that it would also keep it away from other locks. Good idea
BS= Baking Soda. ACV= Apple Cider Vinegar.
IF you have a large container, it's good to make a big batch of each. For 1 gallon of water, mix 1 cup of BS. In another container do the same with ACV. If you don't have big jugs, about 1 Tbls to 1 cup of water.
Rinse your hair. pour some BS mix over your head evenly. Don't scrub at all. The BS was doesn't need scrubbing. Leave it in for 10 minutes or so and then rinse well. Do the same for the ACV but only leave it in for no more than 5 minutes. ACV is a conditioner. It'll make your locks nice and soft. Einse that out really well, and you're good to go
you don't need to maintain them. they maintain themselves. Get a residue free shampoo form Dreadlockshampo.com, or use Dr. Bronners, or the BS and ACV wash. throw out any combs, crochet hooks, or other tools. wash them 2-3 times a week. After a few months (Closer to a year), you can start washing 1-2 times a week.
maturity depends on your hair. some people it happens really fast, other like me it takes about a year. When you can wash them and they don't come undone or loosen up a lot, they are maturing. mature locks see no change when you wash them except for a few frizzies here and there, but as soon as they dry, those frizzies go away.
To recover from the hook, just stop using it or anything else. Just let them fix themselves.
I don't like the idea of animal testing, but in some cases, there really is no other way. Obviously, for things like clorox, there's no reason to test on animals. We know bleach is dangerous, but for shampoo and other mostly harmless products, Would you volunteer to be tested on? I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that it's necessary. That goes for drug companies too. It's better to test on rats, mice and monkeys first before they test on people.
It sucks. I feel bad for them. I am going to be a research scientist, so I'll have to test on rats and such. I don't know if I could. I've had pets rats since I was 15. I don't know if I could kill one intentionally just to study why it died. But if I had to choose between killing a rat and killing a human, it's not much of a choice.
Beautiful. I'm so glad you were able to come to this realization on your own. I would have told you the same thing.
I understand that you miss styling your hair, but guess what? you can style locks to. My girlfriend used to have them before she got her job. She called them her toybox. There was so much random junk tied to each lock. little bells, feathers, toys of all kinds. A girl me and Eagle know even had a small barbie doll tied into one of hers. You can do what ever you want with you locks.
If you don't want to go that crazy, you could just get some yarn or hemp or any strings and make a cool wrap for them. There's tons of YT videos to watch on how to do it. Get some Sculpie clay and make you're own custom personalized beads too.
There's no limit to what you can do to style your hair. And if you don't want to do it like that, you could look up so cool pics of styled locks. I like people with really thin locks that french braid them into huge ones. It's up to you. But don't think that because you have locks now, that it's the last style you can have. Get creative
Stop using the crochet hook. It does so much damage to your hair. It doesn't nothing to control frizzies. Every time you use it it breaks more hairs into smaller and smaller pieces. Every time you wash, you'll see more loose hairs and think you can control them with the hook, but in reality you'll just be breaking more off when you try. Plus, crochet hooks tighten your locks so much that they end up pulling on your scalp. This will cause bald spots that you might not be able to fix after a while.
The TnR method is good, but you should leave it at that. If you want to try and keep the sections, then just put beads on them.
Ok, I'm done. Welcome to the community. Glad you found us
no prob. You don't have to cut back to once a week until you're closer to a year in. I'm at 5 years and once in a while I still wash twice a week. It depends, cause mine are super fat, so it takes longer to dry
