HELP!! Remnants of wax - OR EVEN WORSE!?!?

Well, after getting comfortable with my hair these last few weeks - getting to know my crazy loopy numbers better after ridding myself of the evil wax - I've made a horrific discovery:

Some of the awful shit is still there!!! Even worse - I've a fear it's something even more sinister than wax :-( After getting rid of what I thought was the majority of wax with boiling hot showers and residue free shampoo, I assumed I was left with some unmatted hair and some really really hard, matted hair.

Turns out most of the 'really really hard, matted hair' is large amounts of wax stuck in the middle or some other shit that was in the wax. I originally went to a so-called loctician in town who said she used 'proper dread wax', but a friend reckons the shit that's still in my hair is not wax. He reckoned it all woulda melted away by now. Plus he said wax isn't as hard as this stuff. And this stuff is really hard in parts.

I've now got the nightmare feeling that the 'loctician' just used some awful shit from a hardware store or something. And God only knows what's in that stuff?? I'm completely gutted, and feel totally stupid - I really do fear my hair just snapping off, as this stuff's so coarse and hard. And there I was thinking it was locking up real quick....sigh.

Has anyone got any ideas if it's possible to remove this stuff? Does anyone know what it might be? Does anyone have any experience with regular beeswax (if that's what she used?) I feel like taking court action, man!!

I've grown my hair for the last two years just to get dreads on the go. I'm so disappointed in myself for not looking on this and other forums in the first place and just going totally natural from the very beginning :-(

Any help (especially any miracle 'cures'!) would be enormously appreciated!!!

Yours hopefully,

Riffter.

 

Apologies for the enormous post, by the way....:&

 

I'm not sure what that stuff could be, doing some ACV rinses couldnt hurt, but I think you need to call on the mighty knowledge of Annie and Soaring eagle for this!

 

Cheers man. Yeah, I'm hoping the wise ones can give some help here . By the way - excuse the naivety, but what's an ACV rinse??

 

Ooooohhh, it's something to do with vinegar, right?

 

Don't worry.. it's probably a mix of all kinda stuff.. some wax, some dirt/dust, dandruff etc. It's IN your locks, not outside, noone sees, as long as it doesn't stink orso, don't worry

 

Cheers, WP - you're right. And I'm trying not to care too much about it. At the end of the day, I'm not so fussed about aesthetics - or even odour - I can put up wth it (as long as my loved ones aren't too offended!)


My main concern is with breakage. I mean this jive is seriously hard stuff, man! And everytime I look online about wax n stuff people warn of broken dreads . Is this a reality? Does anyone know anyone who's dreads have actually snapped off (or are hanging on loosely) with this stuff?

 

Don't think your hair will break because of wax..

 

I remember knottylocks forum had a recommendation for some orange cleanser that removed wax, so evidently citrus acids remove/break down wax. Maybe lemon juice in near boiling water? I'll try to find what that was it recommended but it was years ago I don't know if I can search it up.

Just don't go and put furniture polish on your hair !!! I'd feel bad about that !

 

Well that's two mentions of citrous/lemon juice I've had, so that may be the way to go!

And thanks Advaya (cool username by the way - is that in the context of non-duality??) for taking time out - much appreciated. I've done a load of searching myself, but come up with precious little.

Riff

 

http://hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=196802

In that thread, there's a cool Apple Cider Vinegar rinse. You could always try that.

 

Alright, well I found the post on knottylocks... now, it's weird, you're prewarned. It's a fruit and vegetable cleanser, and evidently the ingrediants are: water, anionic surfactant, sodium citrate.

The post says:
"fairly simple, so basically its water, a surfactant, and citric acid.
its dye, and fragrance free, formulated to remove wax, oily pesticides, soil and chemicals. made by allems, and called "fruit and veggie wash". $5.75 for 16 oz. thats basically all it tells you. "

Here's a link...http://www.ecos.com/NEWSITE/pages/products/fruit.html

Let me know how it works if you do decide to try it..

 

Wow, nice one Advaya! I'll root it out - hope it's available over here? If I can get it I'll try it - just hope it's short on side-effects (ie rapid hair loss )


Thanks for the help!

 

I don't have any prior experience with fruit and veggie washes lol... but I have managed to get some serious mold and stuff out of a friend's locks before. I think the key is 1) highly acidic rinses to help break down the structure of whatever's in there 2) lots of hot water and residue free soap and 3) SCRUB!

What I mean by those last two, is seriously take a very hot shower (or do this in the sink for that matter) drip some Bronner's or whatever soap you use directly onto the problem areas, and scrub into it as well as you can. It might take a while, so get comfortable.

How hard is it, really? Does it smell like anything? (Wait till the hair's dry, pinch it, and give it a sniff) Like WP said, it's *probably* just dust etc. that got stuck in the wax when you were first locking up. But smell can tell you a lot about these things. Good luck, and keep us posted!

 

simple solution as i dsee it
go to any herb store or health food store that sells esential oils
look for orange oil
orange oil is a very powerful solvent that will literaly dissolve any wax buildip in the dreadsand should make it loosen up and rinse out
its very strong soonly a couple drops on each dreads, work it through..get it inside the dread by bending and twisting the dread gently..to break up the hard mass inside without breaking the dread itself
try repeatting that using the oil..then wash..then apple cider vinager rince
and repeat
each time u should get the orange oil deeper intothe dread and find more of the gunk just dissolving
orange oil will even dissolve glue ..so i'm pretty sure it will work on whatever u got in there..but just remember..1 single drop is very very strong, so go ez on it

 

Man that's cool, soaring eagle!! I can't locate any of the fruit and veggie wash - but we have an abundance of orange oil!! So hopefully, the evil wax will finally be on it's way out!!!!!


Regarding how hard the stuff is, Humblebee - it's incredibly hard!! It softens up when washed in high temps, but goes hard real quick afterwards. I've tried to claw it out when soft in the shower, but no joy.

Whatever it is, it's also very white - like a lard colour white. Having looked at the ingredients in different forms of crappy hardware style beeswax (God only knows what the evil 'loctician' (that's a joke!) used) it could be numerous things - glycerol, glycerine, petroleum-based resins to name a few, but none of which you'd have thought would be this hard!?!

Anyhow, muchachos appreciatos for the sound advice folks - you've provided me with a lifeline . I'll let you know how it goes!!

Riff

 

sounds like she totaly plastered in wax, which can get pretty hard especialy if its more wax then hair

 

if none of the other methods work you might try this. I know that when you get wax on clothing and hair you can put a towel with wax paper down on an ironing board and put the waxed object on it with another towel and wax paper on top and iron on very low heat to take out wax. this works with other things and might be worth experimenting with on dreads you can't get wax out of. just a suggestion.