My Official Introduction
Introduce Yourself
I have lurked about the site off and on for about a year now. I took out my dreads about a month ago. They were four months old and they were put in using rnt method. No waxes, etc. I miss them already. I am sitting here, braiding my hair, feeling serious dread envy. So why did I take them out. Here's the scoop:
I have naturally dry hair - like really, really, really dry - like I use black products in my hair sometimes, especially in the winter. I struggled with cleaining them. I used Dr B's, but that left residue. I used baking soda, but it looked like I had baby powder in my hair, no matter how much I rinsed. I always used ACV (still do...LOVE ACV!) So, then I switched over to a purifying shampoo. That's when I started to notice my hair getting brittle. The tips were breaking like crazy. I would find little shards of hair everywhere. I still had more dreads to put in and my hair would just break when I tried. I wanted to cry. While I have always had dry hair, I have never had unhealthy hair. I didn't know what else to do but take them out. So, I did.
It's now been about a month, maybe a little longer. I cut my hair about chin length to remove the parts of my hair that were most damaged. Has anyone ever noticed a change in the way their hair is after dreads? I used to have curly hair and now it's just slightly wavy. Anyway...moving on...
I thought I researched everything so well before I started my dreads but I guess I still needed more. I wanted to just moisturize and keep my dreads but was in fear that I would start seeing breakage further up the dread if I didn't do something. I was also afraid of my dreads coming out. I had no idea what to use to moisturize that wouldn't reverse all of the hard work I had put into my dreads.
I do plan on doing dreads again. I loved them. I loved the way I felt more myself than I ever had. I felt so connected to myself and everything around me...I still do, but I still miss my dreads. I am even putting mini braids in my hair just to kind of feel like I have dreads. I didn't even get to decorate them because they weren't done. Anyway, done whining now. Just know that I constantly envy the beautiful dreads everyone has and I wonder why my attempt was so horribly unsuccessful.
Oh, and there was one other issue...my head felt really, really tender...like someone was constantly pulling on my hair...thoughts?
Anyway, I know I don't chat a lot. Most of my computer time is spent writing but I check in every now and then and oogle over everyone's pictures and keep hoping that I can find a way to remedy my dread problems so I can try again. Next time, I think I might go natural because the tnr seemed to aggrevate my hands pretty badly and since I type for a living, it made work pretty tough.
Okay, novel finished, lol. So nice to officially meet all of you and hope to chat more often in the coming months (downsizing my clientele.)
updated by @cathy-givans: 01/13/15 09:12:47PM