Forum Activity for @rockerbaby

Hello again!

Introduce Yourself

Alright. I'm back. You may have previously seen me on this forum by the name of Cherice. I left the site in a rather pissy mood, but all's good now.

I combed my last set out, making this current set my 4th. My very first set I attempted in 2004 and made them so waxy I couldn't take it, so those were combed out pretty fast. My second set was started shortly after that, but since I did them myself my sectioning was HORRIBLE. I had only 20 dreadlocks (read: very fat dreads with lots of bald spots) they were way too thick and I had no idea what I was doing. So those came out too.

Then in August of this year I had a crazy notion that I should dread my hair again. So armed with a comb and my boyfriend's patience, my third set was started! Of course, my boyfriend ignored all of my requests for thin to medium sized dreads and did what he want. Most of my sections were rectangle shaped and 2 months later when they started locking up I had oddly shaped mats in weird places. And since he just started grabbing random chunks of hair and started backcombing, (read again = no definite section lines to see what hair should go where) all of my dreads joined together at the roots and was such a pain to try to resection and get things in order so that set got combed out too.

Now that my job hunt is over, I'm no longer in an emotional funk and my life is pretty stable right now, I figured I'd start my 4th set. The process started on Dec 1st, and I backcombed and lightly crocheted them in so the knots wouldn't fall out. (Yeah, I know how this site feels about crochet. Spare me, please?)

Currently only half of my head is sectioned and "dreaded". I left the front and top loose so that just in case I ever needed to hide my dreads, I can pull all of my hair back in a ponytail and the dreads are barely noticeable. Clever, eh?

So just reintroducing myself. New name for a new dread set and a new start. This time I'm promising myself to stay on top of separating them and since all of my sectioning was done cleanly, keeping them away from each other shouldn't be too hard this time. I'm also promising to try to keep my dreads as clean as possible. My last set had locked together at the roots so much that reaching my scalp to keep it clean was pretty much impossible. When I combed that set out, my hair looked like I dipped it in cooking oil and left it there! It was really disgusting, actually. So hope you guys learn from my mistake too!

updated by @rockerbaby: 01/13/15 08:51:18PM

to cut or not to cut?

Introduce Yourself

I think if you get rid of them completely, you'll really miss them and end up dreading again. If you feel they're too long, go ahead and give them a trim! Or, even cut them to shoulder length. People get tired of same-ness, so just do something different with them and I promise you won't even remember why you wanted to get rid of them!

I didn't read all of the responses, so I don't know if anyone's already brought up any of these points, so I'll just do it anyway.

1: DO NOT GO ALONE. Even if you think they won't happen, accidents CAN (and do!) happen that can leave you completely stranded or injured. If there's no cell phone reception, you're kind of screwed. Take someone along.

2: Unfortunately, if you've never backpacked long distances, you won't want to hear this, but you shouldn't jump into a hike this long without prior experience. Not only will your body physically not be up the challenge, but if you've never done anything like this before, you're not going to have all the gear you need. Start by taking day hikes, and make notes of anything you forget, or you think would come in handy. Better to forget something on a short trip than forget something for a trip as long as the one you're planning.

3: Condition, condition, condition! If the weather is bad where you are right now, join a gym and start walking on a treadmill daily. Trust me, your feet will thank you if they get used to it now. Also, if you're in better shape in general, you're going to have an easier time with endurance. Once the weather gets nice again, you'll want to start walking as much as you can across as much varied terrain as possible so you know what to expect for the long haul.

4: This guy is awesome: http://www.andrewskurka.com/ He's got some great gear lists and some really awesome advice if you read through the website. Join backpacking forums online. Do not go into this without knowing exactly what you're getting into. There's more involved than you think.

5: Even if somebody made it across the US spending less than $5, at least bring a credit card for any unexpected expenses- especially if anything happens where you'll need medical care. Better to be safe than screwed.

6: This will challenge you both physically and mentally but it's SO COMPLETELY WORTH IT! My first backpacking trips were short - probably 10 miles or so, but I've been working up and after 2 years I'm finally ready and planning a backpacking trip from Chicago to southern Illinois and back. I know that seems discouraging, but please don't kid yourself into thinking walking from Arkansas to California will be easy. It will be awesome, but it's going to be one of the most difficult things you've ever done. I can't even imagine backpacking that distance.

7: If you decide to ignore all of my advice, just use common sense, have a backup stash of money just in case and BE SAFE. Which really means don't do anything stupid to put yourself in harm's way. Make sure you map out your route carefully - don't just take the most direct route because you'll run into things you didn't plan for and completely overlooked. (IE deserts, mountains or anything else mother nature decides to throw at you.)

Do have fun though. It's a really awesome experience and I wish I had enough balls to do something like what you want to!

the truth about crocheting dreadlocks

Dread Maintenance

I TOTALLY agree with this statement. People should never be mislead. I wish I had a video camera to record how I crochet - the camera on my laptop would never get enough detail to really show things.

soaringeagle said:

but we have tons and tonsd of ppl hdere pissed off after being mislead into thinking crochet was a great way to dread and then having to suffer with the consequences of salons and theyre owmn actians after being mislead and now many of them havent seen any actual dreading for a good 6 months afyer crocheting

i hate hate hate seeing ppl mislead and having to deal with the damage after being screwed over by other sites

the truth about crocheting dreadlocks

Dread Maintenance

The site won't let me edit, sorry for the double post.On the contrary- I have naturally curly and coarse hair that dreads very easily. In between crocheting I made HUGE progress, I used the hook to make things look a little tidier. I would even argue that I my hair was dreading less before I crocheted the first time and I think it made so much progress after because it had other knots to grab onto.I'm not at all arguing that over-crocheting isn't bad because it can be, all I'm saying is that there is a right way and a wrong way and we should be educating those who choose to use the technique instead of driving people away. Even if you don't mean to, this forum is very condescending towards people who choose not to go natural.

the truth about crocheting dreadlocks

Dread Maintenance

Hair isn't elastic? http://fasthealthyhair.com/03-hair-elasticity-stretch-test.html http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100606192214AAqrRt5
http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/archive/index.php/t-57720.html


I've also had dreads before where I didn't crochet. I'm currently on my 4th set.

I would argue that most of the hair left in a hair brush is the hair that naturally falls out - you lose about 100 strands per day.

the truth about crocheting dreadlocks

Dread Maintenance

Alright guys. I crocheted this set of dreadlocks in and I crocheted my last set as well. No, I didn't get rid of the last set due to damage/thinness, simply because I didn't like how poorly they had been sectioned.I personally believe that crocheting baby dreadlocks is perfectly acceptable IN MODERATION. SE, I've heard you say that because dreadlocks are solid that putting an object through them will break strands of hair - except that baby dreads are loose, you can generally stick your finger through them because they haven't actually locked up yet. So where's the harm pulling hair in? There isn't any.My last set I crocheted twice and didn't see any damage. In fact, after I combed them out I had the same amount of hair I had before I started. Yeah, it was rough feeling since I hadn't been using any conditioner, but there was absolutely no noticeable damage to my hair that I didn't have before I started them.I have seen people just stab the dread super fast with a crochet hook, and that can't be good for them, but done slowly and carefully all it does is tidy them up. Why is there so much hatred towards people who choose to make their hair neater? I also firmly believe that it gave my dreads a head start by making knots manually. Isn't that what dreads are? Long ropes of knotted hair?Crocheting lightly does no more damage than tnr or backcomb. Let's not forget that any knots in hair technically weaken the strands anyway, so bashing something for damage is a null point when a hair style based around knots causes damage by it's nature.I can understand that people don't agree with "insta-dreads" when so many people wait months to get to a point where their hair actually looks like dreads, but the method someone uses is a personal choice. There is no right or wrong way. It all creates knotty hair in the end, doesn't it?You say that pulling the hook through breaks hairs - I disagree. I think it simply moves them out of the way. Like a strand of hemp - if you push through the fibers, nothing breaks, things just move to make space. No matter how mature a dread is, there's still space in there - that space just becomes less as they get older, and a small enough crochet hook will find that space and fill it with the hair you bring in. And another thing - hair is naturally elastic. Biologically designed to resist damage. If it wasn't elastic, every time someone with loose hair combed out a knot all of the hair would break off, and obviously that doesn't happen.I certainly agree that you can crochet too much and make dreads too tight. No argument there. But occasional crocheting doesn't require "recovery". The way you pull the crochet hook out is a major factor. If you simply yank it out, obviously that will break a few hairs. But you DEFINITELY can maneuver the hook out of the dread without taking anything with it, I promise.Instead of using scare tactics (breaking hundreds of hairs? Really? I just counted the individual strands of loose hair at the bottom of my biggest dread and it was under 75 - and salons generally comment on how much hair I have.) maybe we need to inform those that crochet how to do it correctly. It's like teenagers and sex - they're going to do it anyway, so let's educate instead!