I'm glad there are fellow dreadies that are here to warn others of the consequences. But the people that choose not to listen will suffer whatever fate comes from it, good or bad. So try not to put people down. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Some ways just have none, less, or more risk and reward.
Star I haven't had 3 sets of dreads in one year - I grew out my hair 3 different times and had 3 different sets. The first one my hair was too short. I learned about backcombing and washing no-nos. The second set was just fine, except I had to cut them because I found out a daughter was on the way and I flipped out to get a job. Just sayin. I gave my advice as an individual not as an expert - based on the times I've experimented with methods on the 2nd set when I knew I was going to cut them off anyways. I've been on this site since mid 2010 this is just a different username because I deleted the old one (chewinchange). Geez lady...
I re-backcombed once a few days into it cause I split the dreads into way smaller ones so they'd mature quicker and get the chance to congo cause IMO you can definitely tell a congo'd dread from any other one. They look cooler to me. Plus I have little locks that are getting tighter really quick instead of having bigger ones that would be hard to pull apart later and would look loose.
And they hit it on the spot - you absolutely need at least an inch of loose hair at the roots, and it should never hurt when backcombing as well. Just don't leave too much in case oils from the wash pull the roots down an extra inch.
I just made sure to re-backcomb all of the dreads *very lightly* but making sure to get the tips since I skipped them. So an extra few days the dreads had a chance to tighten in the center and roots a little bit while I slept. Sure the tips get loose after like two washes, but that's how it should be and they dry faster. Now that the locks are thinner they're sticking together nicely and trying to congo :D And no they're not staying "tight," they keep loosening and tightening from washes/rinses - that's critical. But they're keeping their sections and getting minor loops and loose hairs within the core which is critical.
Important notes
When you do wash, make sure you get your scalp clean. Or the oils will run down the roots and not help things much. You can still have some water pressure on it, which shouldn't matter since the dreads will loosen and find their place quicker, and some loosening especially while clean would speed things up as opposed to having an oily scalp that soaks the dreads by the time you do your next wash, which would take extra effort to clean.
If some smaller chunks of hair separate from a bigger initial chunk/section , and the bigger one is still fairly knotted, you *could* re-backcomb them individually if you were gentle about it. In the first place. You don't have to, I'm sure SE would not agree. I would rather two loose yet different sized sections congo, than the smaller totally-loose hairs wrap around surrounding sections and hit the dread you want. Splitting a congo when it starts is easier. Otherwise you'll get early looping which is nice but I'd rather have the sections I chose /w the general size I want while still being in cooperative patches of hair and all mature at the same time and be smooth. Then when they mature, they can get loops from the congo action which IMO looks better to me, then of course get zig zags then smoothen back out again.
I'll have to post pics soon my dreads have changed dramatically in a little over a week. I'm quite pleased so far.
take your time and don't think so much. don't get obsessive because it's very easy for ANYONE to get. even dreadheads.
100% wool pillow cases help no matter what. try a 100% wool beanie and see for yourself.'
whatever you do, wash the treasures you recover from thrift stores and garage sales. one time I thought I "scored" a wool tam but I found a tam full of bed bug husks
x2 on what SE said
And to add to that, everyone's distribution of hair on their scalp is different. And some sections have different textures. Some sections just won't lock up as quick as others.
What wool really does attract your hairs together so when your hair moves around they knot easier. Pressure can help, but movement is more important. Too much pressure and you don't get as much movement - so how can it knot?
Correct, he rubbed his palms in circles til it knotted up then separated. He also t&r'd sections. He told me this himself. He doesn't regret it and I'm sure he wouldn't mind at all that I shared this. After all his dreads are incredible!! By far my favorite set next to KnottySleeves and JackRoth's. Who both started with backcombing -- JackRoth's are clean cut and organic and KnottySleeves look totally natural - beautiful.
Pure neglect in the sense of the real definition... Is using no methods other than washing it, using sea salt spray if desired, leaving it alone, and separating when necessary. The end result is very, very unique and it's unlike anything I've ever seen, given you separate properly. When you see them it's like mother nature created them herself. And to strangers it's just fascinating and rare, but it can look much more wild than when using methods.
Now obviously his videos say neglect, and some people on this forum would argue he didn't go neglect. Unfortunately I'd say he didn't go "pure neglect" because it used methods to help it knot, But after the starter method he would touch it minimally, so in my opinion that could classify as neglect. Hell, they look like neglect dreads so why not.
People with very textured hair generally have good luck with that. But there's *no shame* in using a starter method because the end result is dreadlocks. Given, the results may be visually different, but the dreads should still be fully locked in the end. And as they mature it gets more difficult to tell what method (if any) was used.
Keep in mind I know plenty of people who tried "pure neglect" and their hair just wouldn't lock up, even after months and years. They went with a starter method like backcombing or t&r, and once those initial knots were formed, the progress was exponential. None of them regret it. If you have the time and patience for pure neglect, then more power to you and I respect that completely.
"It takes knots to make knots" (SE said that and I won't forget)
I'm personally embarking on pure neglect but that's just because my texture is perfect for dreading at this length, and I think it would be cool to watch the journey unfold! Of course, it took me a year to get to a stage where good progress could be realistically expected. And my hair was seemingly straight until it reached this length, where it really becomes wavy and knots 10 times faster than it used to.
Lastly, I wanna let you know that my first journey was along-side many other dreadie citizens and pure neglect took longer than using starter methods. With some people, it didn't work at all. But what really matters what you're doing it for, whether it be spiritually, aesthetically, or both.
It's technically a clarifying shampoo so yeah, and it shouldn't be used more than every 3 days or so I recommend, cause it strips a lot of natural oils which can *in theory* increase oil production. You just gotta rinse it real well, it works very very well, prolly cause it has some form of solvent, at least it seems like it. Eyeheartchrist (look him up here and youtube) used that and alternated between burts bees and his dreads turned out amazing. It rinses easier if you dilute it. Baking soda seemed to help my sectioning more but it's hard to say if that was the baking soda clumping it up.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=prell+classic&um=1&...
I got it at the local grocery store.
