Forum Activity for @lu-a

dreads lost from retwisting

Help! Save My Dreads

Before I even write this I know that SE is going to disagree with me but I'm gonna say it anyway. I don't think interlocking is that bad. At least not for afro-textured hair. I certainly wouldn't recommend it, and even if i did, I'd say do it like MAYBE twice a year, but my cousin has long gorgeous dreads that he has had for 14 years (actually, might be longer than that), and he interlocks occasionally. A LOT of ppl with afro-textured hair interlock once in a while, usually out of convenience and don't lose their dreads. I think with afro-textured hair you can get away with more, but ANYTHING you do to your hair is bad if you do it too much.

soaringeagle said:

nooooooooooooooooo thats interlocking one of the worse things you can do! never do that

jameela bailey said:

yes i had this problem too i used to retwist 3 times a weak, and my dreads were kind of thinning so i stopped and decided to use olive oil only (not to retwist just to put in) but yea you dont have to go to a locktician?? i dont know what tht is but just use olive oil or there is a video on youtube were this girl is talking about how to let your roots of your dreads get thicker or let them stay, you take your dread and you put it through the hairs at the root and keep doing that until its firm and secure, thats how my roots got tighter and thicker.

dreads lost from retwisting

Help! Save My Dreads

you can use product to get a neater look, but you can still style without retwisting, if that's what you meant by I'm a girl. This is just my personal opinion, but I actually don't think that the "I can see your entire scalp" look that twisting gives you even looks good. If my hair looked like that I'd wear a hat everywhere I went lol

Yeah, twisting is soo bad, because it causes stress which thins your dreads, and then they break off. A lot of black, mixed, whatever people over twist their hair and it gets so so thin and breaks off. And then they'll be like 'well so and so twists their hair every month and they've had their dreads forever.' some people can twist and twist and twist and not lose dreads because of their hair type, but I wouldn't risk it.

Instead of twisting, just separate. Once a week, twice a month, whatever just pull your dreads apart when you get out of the showere so you don't get congos. It's actually a lot easier and faster than twisting. Learn to love your roots, they are beautiful.

Natural dreading!

Introduce Yourself

lol funny pic

Be careful with dr bronners. I bought some about a month ago and the ph balance is really off with that stuff, so now its kinda just sitting there, unused :s But it seems to work well for some people. Still haven't found a shampoo I like though, so I guess I'm not much help haha

Anyway welcome, and enjoy the journey.

Just started

Dreading Methods

how long is your hair?

I ask because the shorter your hair is when you start the more uniform your dreads end up being. At least, that is what i've noticed. my hair is the craziest, wildest, loopiest afro-textured hair i've seen so far (when it comes to new dreads anyway, still don't know how they'll turn out :D) but I started at around 10 inches. If your hair is 3 or shorter and the sections are all the same size you want have to do much at all to get that uniform look you want.

If they're longer I suggest putting in some two strand twists and calling it a day

Just started

Dreading Methods

SE is right. If all your sections are the same size, the dreads will be too. Just let em do their thing and don't retwist unless they fall apart completely. I think if you can avoid overtwisting in the beginning (this is just my theory of course) you can avoid over twisting all together because you won't be in that mindset, and over twisting will result in thinning and breakage. you definitely don't want that, right?

I miss when your hair was beautiful !

Life Issues Facing Dreads

I have one friend that jokes about how he misses my soft pillowy hair because it was so comfy to sleep on lol.

most of my friends are pretty supportive, but I get some family and friends tht are constantly riding me. 'its so ugly' and 'why don't you stop dreading' it's pretty easy to ignore for the most part because they're the same people that didn't like my fro and would prefer if I chemically destroyed my hair.

Dreads are beautiful. You can't change to make other people happy. End of story.

Super duber itchies

Dread Maintenance

lemon juice is great for dandruff, but you have to wash it out. maybe try putting a bit of conditioning oil on your scalp whereever you can get at it (around sections) which might help until you're ready to wash.

My suggestion though is lemon juice. Just put it into a spray bottle diluted with water and spritz directly onto your scalp (try not to get it directly on your dreads because it will close your hair cuticles and may cause your dreads to unravel if they are delicate) leave it on for 20 min to an hour, and then gently wash it out.

Future Dreader, I wanna get it right the first time! (introduction)

Introduce Yourself

Wow SE, tell us how you really feel.

I completely agree though. There are PLENTY of places that will hire you with long hair, dreads, etc. The only strict hair rule I've seen is not dyeing your hair unnatural colours. But if you want to keep your hot pink hair, you just work in a record shop lol. But my old job had a guy with a dreadhawk working behind the counter, serving customers. Sounds like a cool hip hangout huh? Yeah, no, this was Sbucks.

Seriously bro, cutting off your hair to get paid minimum wage? forget that noise.

As for your future locks? TNR or natural. I've never seen backcombing have any kind of effect without wax and wax is a major no-no. tnr and natural will allow you to keep washing your hair as often as is necessary, where as backcombing will come out with the first wash

just need some unbiased advice :)

General Talk

I'm not a writer, but I'm an artist of sorts,and Ijust wanted to say that anytime you create something and put it out into the world, you are automatically making yourself vulnerable. If you put something in the public domain, you are unconciously giving people the right to criticise you and for an artist, someone negatively critiquing something you put blood sweat and tears into can be the hardest thing.

The important thing is to be able to recognize the difference between negative comments and negative (but constructive) criticism. There is an entire world of difference between "your book sucks" and "your characters are static" (heh, sorry that was the last piece of criticism I got) Negative comments should be ignored completely, because they are coming from people who have not taken the time to review and analyse what they think of your book. Their opinions don't matter because they don't really know what their opinions are.Negative criticism on the other handis extremely helpful in growing as an artist (or writer in your case).

I'll give you an example to illustrate my point. When we get assignments or testsback at school, many students look at their mark and never look at the thing again. And then they get a similar mark on the next assignment or test. When I get stuff back from professors I almost don't even care what my grade is (okay that's not true, but with the semester over in a couple weeks, I've stopped caring) I want to read the comments my professors made about what I've handed in. And then the next time around, my grade has usually gone up. I'm always trying to outdo myself, and as a writer, penning a novel that was better than your last should always be your goal.

I also wanted to say congrats on the book. I think it is extremely brave of you to take something you really care about and make it available for outside criticism, and to try to get your stuff out there.Not many people are that brave.Good luck with your next book

Why Dreadlocks?

General Talk

Having natural hair is extremely important to me, but maintaining my natural hair can be a bit of a chore. I've wanted dreads since I was in highschool (probably about 15 or so) but becausedreads are so permanent, I decided to get everything else out of my system first.I've done a lot to my hair, and its been every colour imaginable, but throughout all that I've held on to my natural texture. I grew up in an area where the only people with dreads were the old Jamaican guys that lived down the block. All the guys kept their hair cropped or braided, and evey last girl had a weave or relaxed their hair. I relaxed my hair once when I was 17(because my mother had been hounding me about it for months so I finally gave in) and it remains to this day the worst decision I've ever made. Not because it had the worst consequences (not by a long shot) but because it wasn't what I wanted for myself, but i did it anyway. Anyway, I hated what it did to my hair so much that I chopped it all off a few days later (heh my mom was not pleased with that either) which is when I realized how much easier my hair was to maintain when I kept it ultra short. I was still experimenting with my hair though, lots of crazy colours and cuts, until I was (I think)19, when I decided to stop dyeing my hair and cut off all the red that was in my hair since the roots had grown out, living me with roughly three inches of hair (and then I had to go to a stylist to fix what I had done to my hair lol)

So I kept my hair short for 3 years, with mixed reviews from people. People would say that the shoprt hair suited me, and then turn right around and say how good I would look with long hair. It was really weird. ANYway, when I was almost 22 I wanted to find out how quickly I could grow my hair, soI walked into my bathroom and shaved my head, then I let my hair grow out for the next two years, rocking a mean fro for a good chunk of that time because my hair grew really fast. Eventually the fro maintenance was more trouble than it was worth, hence the dreads. So in summation, I got dreads because of wanting to have long but natural hair, as well as not wanting to deal with maintenance of any kind. Spending time on getting ready in the morning is seriously not for me. I don't even bother with make up lol.

Also (this is a joke I tell people) I thought having dreads with help people take me seriously as an artist.

EDIT: I just re-read my post and realize my hair habits kind of sound bi-polar when you put them all in the same paragraph. All of this stuff was over many many years.

updated by @lu-a: 07/13/15 11:46:20AM