I'm a little confused.

Alright, I've seen countless people on these forums recommend Dr. Bronner's for dreads because it doesn't leave a residue in the hair. I ordered mine, and read up a bit on it. On the official Dr. Bronner's website, it says:

"For shampoo, wet hair and scalp very thoroughly, squirt some soap into hands and work into a lather. Wash hair, then rinse well. Because soap can be drying for most hair types, using it as a shampoo is not one of our formal recommendations. Nevertheless, many people are fond of using it as such. People with short and/or curly hair seem to have the best luck using it for shampoo. Those of us with fine, straight hair sometimes feel it is difficult to rinse well. A dilute vinegar rinse is the best way to remove any residue."

So Ii'm kinda confused as to whether Dr. Bronner's leaves a residue or not?

Also.. I used the peppermint kind to brush my teeth the other day.. and bleh. It's not very good, haha.

 

whoa. i never read the website. that's very strange. hey, dude. i got some dread soap from dreadheadhq. and it really helped tighten my dreads. i noticed a difference after the first wash. a slight difference, but a difference. if your hesitant to use bronners just yet, i would give dreadheadhq a shot.

 

i have to dilute my liquid peppermint dr bronners 50/50 with water and then use a squirt of that to wash my hair or it wont rinse out and builds up on my scalp. i live in an area with water so hard its silly though

 

What do you mean "Water so hard?", lol?

 

ooer is that just an english term then??
here we have hard water or soft water, hard water causes things like kettles and shower heads to build up limescale really quickly. its a bugger to rinse soap out using hard water, but a splash of vinegar to rinsing water should do the trick, diluting the soap helps loads and makes it go much further too, bonus!

 

Anything leaves a residue if you goop it on.

Dr. Bronners is good, but in my experience it's impossible to rinse it all out if you apply it directly to your head.

I was freaked out the first time I found goopy stuff built up on my scalp from not rinsing well enough.

It's all about moderation, I think.

 

Ohh, interesting. If it is a term used here in the states, I've never heard it, lol.

I always thought water was just water. =P Now you have me wondering what type of whater I have, haha.

 

So I should dillute it with water, then?

 

if you just dilute it (i do about 1:12) it will rinse easily i find. dilute it a lot. it might seem like your putting water on your head, but it lathers up fine and does its job well. i like to wash my hair twice, the first time i dont get much lather cause my hair has so much oilyness in it, the second time it feels nice and clean and lathers right up. just dont wash to the point that your hair has no natural oil in it.

 

yeah i've heard things about it being worse in hard water

I dilute A LOT.
I'll take an empty 16 oz bottle, add 1 to 1 1/2 inches of dr. bronner's, and fill the rest with water. I could never use that stuff straight. Way too drying, it's meant to be diluted. It also lasts forever that way.

 

Okay, awsome. Thanks

Another question.. after I dilute it, what is the best way to go about washing it? Should I pour small puddles in my hand, and lather it into each dread, or should I just squirt some on my head and work with it from there?

 

I put it on my hands, lather a bit, and THEN rub it on my head...rather than squirting it directly onto my head. also, don't wash the dreads. just wash your scalp, rub at the roots. Give your head a nice lil massage and rinse rinse rinse, rinse some more.

 

I don't bother diluting at all, I'll lather my hair up and do a nice scalp massage then spend about 5 minutes rinsing I only wash my dreads once a week though, if your going to do more frequent washings then I'd probably dilute

 

I pour puddles into my hands then I lather it onto my scalp. I never really wash the acutally dreads.
I do this once or twice a week at most.

 

I always have a hard time getting the tea tree bronner's to wash out properly. I dilute no more than four or five drops in a large drinking glass, pour a little in my hand, lather and rub onto the scalp, and rinse several times... somehow it always leaves oily residue though, so I don't use it often. any suggestions?

 

I have the same problem with tea tree, oilymoily...I've been thinking of switching to peppermint.

 

i use an empty hair dye applicator bottle and dilute it super thin (a little squirt of dr bronners to a full bottle of water) then i squirt in on my scalp (the little tip gets in there good), lather and rinse and repeat. i mix new soap everytime i wash and use it all.

 

Alright, just took my first shower with my dreads, and it seems like there's a tiny bit of oil (?) at the roots of a few dreads in the back of my head. They're still wet right now, so it may just be water, but I think it's some Bronners.

I poured about an inch of Bronner's into a 16 ounce shampoo bottle, and the rest water. It seemed really watery, and didn't lather too well. So I kinda just started squirting it onto my head and lathering from there. I found that worked pretty well, but should I dillute it less, or what?

PS. My dreads stayed in (so far it seems) very well! I was expecting them to come out and not have any dreads left, but they didn't. So I'm very happy

 

that's yummy scalp cake!

mmmmmm! I usually skip washing in my next shower and it rinses out pretty well. Or you could get the kind of shower head that detatches so you can spray directly on yoru scalp...or get a pitcher in the shower with you and pour water on your head.

Doc Bronners is castile soap, so no it doesn't lather a lot. Don't expect a thick foamy lather. It reminds me of the lather that washes up with the tide at the beach.. sigh.

Congrats on your first washing! Feels amazing, dunnit?

 

I wash once a week and I used to wash everyday with bronners. You guys are doing something wrong haha I've never had any sort of build up at all. lather rinse repeat

just rinse really well. I guess hard water oculd create some difficulty but my water's fine so I wouldnt know. Its fine to use bronners, just make sure you rinse really well. If you're that worried about it, wash your hair and then kinda let it dry while you're still in the shower, feel around and see if you can find any soapiness anywhere and if you can, you know you didnt rinse good enough.