Hey all, I'm fairly new to the forum - that is, I have been exploring it for quite some time, but have finally forced myself through the oh-so-arduous registration process to get a question in - and indeed, I have a question for those of you well-versed in the art of locking. I'd really like to dread my hair (or part of it at least), to begin with. I honestly love the sense of character dreadlocks instill into hair... and symbolically, for me, it also represents a lifestyle and a set of values I believe in. Anyways, I won't bore you with the specifics Point being, I have fine, blond hair, about shoulder-length. I have been washing my hair with Bronner's for a couple weeks now, and I'm ready to divide up my hair and begin back-combing it. I'm looking to create very thick dreads, similar to the ones on the woman in the picture below (kudos to google http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/7/7d/190px-DreadlockWoman.jpg ....anyways, you get the idea: tentacle dreads or 'fatties' or whatnot. I've read that it's generally advisable to divide your hair up into 1 inch squares, but I'm wondering whether it might be a good idea to up the ante to 2 inches, taking my hair-type into consideration... You'll have to take a look at the pictures on my profile; my computer and I had a big fight this morning, and it's still sulking, i.e. not letting me post images on the thread itself. Anyways, comments/suggestions/advice and general conversation welcome. Peace, matty
the thicker it is at the base the harder it is to work your fingers under the roots to clean the scalp.. keep that in mind
I have really fine hair as well and when I got mine put in I only had 1.5" bases and they were no where near that thick, not even CLOSE. So yeah, you might want to even go A LOT more than 2" to be honest if your hair is thin like mine. But like soaring eagle said, the bigger the base, the harder to clean the scalp.
To be honest its best to start out smaller because they will congo and get thicker i mean like over the process they get thin and then thicker because of the hair u normally lose gets caught in the dread so do small 1.5" is perfect.
Thanks so so much, guys. Does anyone have any sugegstions for physically dividing up the hair?.... i mean, is there any grid pattern that works better than others, and how does one actually go about dividing it up? ....yes, I am hairstylist-illiterate, for the record.
well alot of ppl (like me) divide them up into squares and put a band on the roots, then u take the bands out when u backcomb the dread. or you can just grab clumps of hair and dread it or dread them naturally; just leave them to knot up by themselves.
try not to part down the centre. Put them in randomly. Make large and small dreads. Mix it up. Your hair looks thicker than what mine was so I'm sure your dreads are going to look great.
I would try to avoid a grid. I thought it would be a good idea, to keep them separated more easily, but when I pull my hair up you can see all the straight lines.
grids are bad. try a checkerboard. Um...do the 1" squares to begin with. If you go much bigger with thinner hair you'll get a LOT of scalp and gaps. ick. You can congo them later. But don't base your goals on somebody else's hair...that's like comparing your body or face to another person.
Alternatively, instead of dreading my entire head, I was thinking of maybe keeping the front of my hair intact, and then splitting up the back of my head into three large dreads.... Do you guys have any suggestions on mixing and matching dreads and loose hair? Would there be any extra precautions I would take to avoid getting the loose hair sucked up into the locks? My other question (and I'm sure it's been answered here before, but bear with me): how much do dreads generally thicken (and over how long of a period of time?)? peace. i appreciate the help!
first off loads of ppl have normal fringes (or bangs for americans) and the rest dreaded so it works just fine. and about your hair thickening..well its different for everybodys hair. just dread your hair and see how it turns out you cant be dissapointed all dreads kick ass.
I have an undreaded fringe, you just have to keep an eye on your dreads because they will try and eat the undreaded hair, especially after washing.
After a wee bit of deliberation, I've decided to go with my full head; hair is, after all, an expendable and reknewable resource I've heard some debate regarding tight vs. loose back-combing, and which provides better results and faster locking. Any opinions on this one? Thanks!
I went for loose back combing to start them off and have sorta left them on their own since. I wanted to keep them fairly natural/neglect but I too have the uber-fine hair, so the loose comb was a nice little boost to the start. I went grid with a part. Lots of folk here dun like that but do it the way you want it. I don't find that my scalp looks too griddish or anything when my hair's up. 'course I still have a good deal of loosey's on the go too that cover things up.
