Forum Activity for @hazanko

Perfect example of the ignorance associated with dreadlocks...

Introduce Yourself

The page is clearly designed with malicious intent, it'd hard for me to find any humor in it... What makes it even less funny that it already is, is that it clearly shows how small-minded and unthoughtful people can be. The only ones on that list that don't carry some sort of obvious anger or distaste from the person posting it, are 10, 11, 15, 21, and 21 is from a dude with dreads...As much as I enjoy my dreads, stuff like this makes me quite annoyed, because it's a good example of how brash and forceful people can be with their very poor opinions. Even if you don't like white guys with dreads, just shut up and accept it, don't post mocking comments... I had some chick in a store a month or two yelling at me that I was "destroying black culture" by having dreadlocks, and basically followed me around taunting me. Not that I was EVER trying to emulate African Americans, their culture or whoever or whatever, but the majority of the compliments I get are from black people because they usually understand what is involved to get dreads. Stuff like this are the exact issues that hinders forward movement and progressive thinking, and I personally think the only benefit to trying to find humor out of something like this is to comfort our own ill feelings.
updated by @hazanko: 07/22/15 11:57:29AM

Really oily hair

General Questions

you can wash as needed if you want to. As your dreads mature and you're able to space washes out more, your hair should adapt. I used to have very oily hair, now that my dreads have matured quite a bit and I've spaced out washes, I often times go 3-4 days without washing my hair and have no excessive oil buildup, at this point I'm really just washing for the sake of helping progress along and making sure it's not dirty.

Also, after washing, my hair will be moist after almost an entire day, so it would be a little annoying washing daily.

Sleeping with Locs

Dread Maintenance

if you sweat, then just wash them more often. Over time I've learned that acv is useless as long as you know how to properly adjust your BS/water ratios and ''soak'' times. Just completely wet your hair under the shower and move your hair around a little bit, help the natural oils make it to all of your hair. I use a very modest amount of BS compared to the ratios most people post on here. The baking soda doesn't take long to strip oils, so usually it's only in my hair for 30 seconds if that. The whole idea, is to not COMPLETELY strip your hair of the oils, which forces you to replenish them manually. After a wash my hair looks perfectly clean, and it smells like.... hair. I wash my hair anywhere between 2 days to over a week sometimes, depending on weather conditions and how much I sweat and etc. Seems like most people brute force their hair with baking soda every single wash, only to have to ''repair'' it by adding acv.

It's not an exact science, and it may take a little experimenting, but I'd recommend starting by reducing the amount of BS as well as reducing ''soak'' time. ACV is nothing but an added hassle imo, and it seemed like no matter how little I used, my hair always looked extremely greasy even if it wasn't. Don't get me wrong, there may be some people that NEED to use acv if they have very dry scalps or if you have afro-type hair, but at that point maybe I'd recommend using a different washing method.

Should i stop???

General Questions

It's really up to you man, I completely understand the feeling of wanting to start as soon as possible. I do want to say this though:I first started dreading when my hair was maybe 5-6 inches where it was longest. In roughly 5-6 months I had almost everything sectioned off decently, and a few little dread babies. I ended up having to comb them out for a job I needed, and while working I continued to grow my hair out down to an inch or two past my shoulders. Long story short I decided to move on from that job and start my dreads back up again. In only 2 months, almost everything is entirely sectioned off really well, and I have maybe 7-8 very solid dreads that are solid and dreaded almost completely from top to bottom. The progress is so much faster it's amazing and awesome, every time I shower I see a decent amount of progress made.Granted yeah, if I didn't get that job I probably would have continued and been happy with them, but starting them the second time with the progress I've been making this time around... I'm a million times happier the second time around with everything than the first time, now that my hair is longer. So I'll say, that yeah, I feel like the journey is much more exciting if you wait for longer hair, but it should work out fine either way so it's really your decision. With longer hair, I've made maybe 3x the amount of progress in 1/3rd the amount of time as I did with shorter hair before, and the results so far as much more fun.

Insane progress after having to restart

General Talk

So it's been awhile since I've been on here, I ended up finding a decent job I couldn't really give up, but unfortunately one of the stipulations for getting hired was that I had to ''fix'' my hair. I spent probably 4-5+ hours ripping all the knots out, which was needless to say a very painful and frustrating experience.Either way, I had only gotten it trimmed a little bit to straighten it out, and then spent maybe another 3-4 months growing it out. It was maybe almost halfway down my neck then, and now it's maybe 1-2 inches below my shoulders except for in the very front which just grows a little slower I think.I stopped combing out my hair about a month ago, and it seems like I already somehow have like 5 solid dreads where almost all of the hair except for the ends are completely knotted up and meshed together. Granted 4 of them are all on my left side, and I only have 1 on my right, that just seems crazy to me. Almost within the first few days they were sectioned off and starting to loop and tangle up.I have a decent amount of development elsewhere, maybe another 7-8 dread babies forming, where it's grouped together into the sizes I think I want it and there are knots and some loops here and there. Maybe another 7-8 babies forming with knots and etc, but I think I want to let them group together with surrounding hair so they are bigger.Is it normal to have certain parts progress WAY faster than everything else around it? I know that usually one side of your head progresses faster, which is more or less true, but one of my ''real dreads'' out of 5 that have formed so far is on my right side where the other 4 are on my left. Also, I just feel like I have crazy progress in general for only being a month in with almost completely straight hair, or am I just overplaying my progress?I'll try and post pictures a little later too, but my camera doesn't produce the best detail in hair so it may not look like much.
updated by @hazanko: 01/13/15 09:53:47PM

Feeling Dirty

Dread Products

I personally use maybe 2-4 tablespoons of baking soda, in about 1-1.5 cups of water. I don't have exact measurements since I just eyeball it and know how much I need, but I feel like those measurements are pretty close to what I use. Looks like our hair is roughly the same length, so that should be enough mixture. Wet your hair first with plan water from the shower, then use that mixture and very gently ''rub'' it into your hair all over. I'm not talking anything like rubbing like you would with shampoo, but just very gently so that you can help mix the BS/water mixture throughout the hair better.Leave it in for a minute or two then wash it out, making sure you rinse it thoroughly to not leave any baking soda remaining.

moisturizing/conditioning dreadlocks

Dread Maintenance

how much baking soda are you using and how long are you leaving it in for? One thing that I learned over the past few months, is that the BEST way to keep your hair in check is to modify the amount, ratio, and time that you leave baking soda in with each wash(depending on the state of your hair). I wash every 2-3 days depending, and use no acv at all. When you start showering, wet your hair down and VERY gentle massage it with very little movement, make sure that all of your hair is wet and that water has ran through it a decent amount. Wetting it beforehand, will help any natural oils gathering at the scalp or roots to reach the rest of the hair before it's ''neutralized'' by the baking soda. THEN add the baking soda, and experiment with times, you seriously don't need it in at all for it to do it's work. I'm not sure of the exact science behind it, but I'd imagine the oils bind to the baking soda and then gets more easily washed out with water afterwards, this shouldn't take very long for this to happen. I leave baking soda in for anywhere from 30 seconds, to 2-3 minutes, then make sure that it's thoroughly washed out.

I don't have exact measurements because I've always eyeballed it and adjusted on my own, but I'm guessing I using a ratio of roughly 2-3 tablespoons with 2 cups of water, which I believe is WAY thinner than what most people use for their ratios. Once I figured out my amounts and times with baking soda, I figured out that acv was only over conditioning my hair and was nothing more than a hassle anyway. Just think about it, we're using baking soda to remove our NATURAL oils, then replace them with ''synthetic'' oils... why not just be careful with the removal of the natural oils, instead of being overly forceful and having to replace them?

The straightness!

General Talk

Your hair type and length looks really close to mine

when I first started I put 2-3 TnR dreads in just to see what they would do, within the first wash or two they were completely gone. Your hair will do what it feels best with, if the way you wash your hair and sleep and generally treat your hair puts ''tension'' on the TnR section it will just end up falling out. I'm about 3 months or in now and my hair is starting to section off with no intervention from me, and the sections stay through every single wash even though they're still extremely loose. If your hair doesn't feel ''comfortable'' sectioned off a certain way it will pull itself apart and find the way it prefers.

how long do i have to wait to use the crochet hook

Dread Maintenance

Never!

Unless you're OK with having dreads that are itchy, and are weak with a good possibility they will start to break apart after awhile, then don't crochet. If you're OK with heavily damaging your hair to accomplish something that can happen naturally, then by all means crochet.

Just don't think you need to, or even SHOULD crochet them, dreadlocks will happen all by themselves without intervention from a crochet hook. Most ''dreadlocks companies'' like knottyboy and DHHQ(or w/e the acronym is lol), trick you into thinking you need all their products, and then those products you use force you to buy even more product to keep them ''maintained'', when the maintenance requirement is CREATED by using their products in the first place.

Hello :)

Introduce Yourself

it doesn't feel greasy, it just looks greasy/oily because of my hair clumping up into sections. Nothing is stopping me either, although I do maybe need to try ACV. I thought I read that acv can slow down progress as it conditions your hair, and shouldn't be used until later on when your dreads are more mature?

Often times after I'm done with a BS wash, my hair feels... stiff... I'm not sure if it's because my hair is overly dry, or if I'm somehow not rinsing out all of the BS, or if it's simply because I'm letting it airdry(I've towel dried for the majority of my life). I am extremely thorough rinsing out my hair after the BS, maybe I'm using too much? That's the main reason I'm doing the BS wash every other wash, I don't want to ''stress'' my hair with too many BS washes, when I'm still not sure whether or not I'm using the correct proportions. My assumption is I'm using too much, to be honest I'm not really sure why I haven't pulled back the amount I use by now, just stuck in my ways I suppose lol