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One year mark! :D
So, it's 2pm, August 11th here, and it has officially been one year since I've started dreading.
I actually did not know if I should even write and post anything since I've grown so comfortable with not brushing and basically not giving a damn about my hair, just letting it do it's thing, but I decided to do it anyways. They've been trying sooo hard during the past year, they deserve some credit. :D But since I did not give enough of a damn to take pictures on a regular basis, I will just make a kind of a timeline using what I can find on my computer.
So. After numerous start-and-comb-after-a-few-weeks-to-months, I have finally decided not to mess around, and that if I should do it, I should do it right. So last August, I told myself this will be my final attempt at dreading. If I comb them out this time, that's it. No more attempts.
I gave it my last shot. This is me at the beginning, 15 days in or so.
This is what my hair looked like at the 1 month mark.
Right about then, I got frustrated. I was always an overachiever in everything I wanted to do. I was known for failing many subjects inhigh school, but that was solely due to my not caring about them. But I always did things I wanted to do very good, and very quickly. So having the desire for my hair to dread, but it not doing anything, and me not being able to make it tangle faster was something I had a really hard time dealing with. My own hair was failing.
After awhile, I learned to accept it all. Maybe I wasn't as in control as I thought I was, but by New Year's, that was okay.
And this is a photo from the New Year's Eve, four months in. As you can see, nothing happened. :D
Speeding up again, we come to May 6th, which is St. George's day, a holiday my family celebrates. (Orthodox Christian families celebrate one saint, and it is carried down through family by men. So my grandfather, my great grandfather, and all men before him celebrated St. George. That's not really important for the timeline, and it wouldn't even be important for me, if it weren't for my entire family gathering at my grandma's house for the occasion.)
You can't really see much on this photo, but this is the best one I've got of the sectioning that happened by then.
And the side-view...
FF again, we come to 10 months!
By this time, I started changing what I wash my hair with. Having hard water, I couldn't use BS, and there are no dreadlock shampoos or bars here. Also, I can't find any clarifying or residue free shampoos. So I figured, if BS removes the residue from hair, it will do the same thing if added to a shampoo. So I started adding BS directly to the bottle, to the point where there are layers of liquid in the bottle, the bottom layer is the thickest, the one above less so, and so on. It works pretty well, I've had crazy loopiness happening since, each and every one of them has at least one loop now.
Loopies about a month ago - they've changed a lot since then.
And, that would be all. I do not have any one-year-mark photos, since my SD card reader died, and I cannot put any photos on my computer, let alone on the internet. I'll post them when I find a way.
As you can see, they are not even close to being mature. But I'm okay with it. I love the messiness, and even if they stay like this forever, I won't mind. But they are changing, so I know I will eventually have real dreads.
All in all, I posted this mainly for people who are frustrated with their hair to see they are not the only ones with slow progress, and that not combing for a year and still not having dreads does happen to people. It might even make someone who is on, let's say, 5. month mark feel better about those few loose hairs and 6 strands of normal hair. :D
Even if it is dreading extremely slow, letting your hair go can teach you so many things... I'm extremely happy I threatened myself a year ago and stuck to dreading this time. Though I can't see my hair developing much, I can see how much I have grown and developed, and that's the most important thing to me.
Thank you. :D
Beautiful locks
Thanks, SE. :D
bsolutely wonderful blog post and in the end they re turning out truly beautiful and amazing
Haha... :D Thank you. :D
They will most definitely loop, and the happiness you feel when one finally does cannot be put in words. :D
Snails pace progress are some of my favorite progress <3 happy 1 year, glad you have found happiness with your dreadies no matter what they do. It's nice to see varying timelines, most always seem to knot so quickly so I have a soft spot for my fellow snails reminds me I'm not the only slow poke in the bunch & they will loop eventually
Exactly.
I tend to smile to those people, to give them support in case they are dreading. I get those smiles from people with dreads and they make me feel great. :D
And the people you see on the street with just nappy hair, you don't know how long they've been locking for. You see someone with wild hair and think they just have crazy hair. But they might be going on the same trip as you.
At first I did think I would win the 'Slowest Dreading Hair' award, if there was such a thing. But as time goes by, and I talk to people, I realize there are a lot of people with slow progress. You just don't notice 'em as much since they don't post as many pictures and stuff - 'cause there is not much to post. :D
I was right there with you. It took me over a year to see any real progress. If you look at my pics and see the ones of my friends and me playing with bubbles, that's when they were about 1 year old. It's not just you. So welcome to the club