I don't mind letting some of them congo here and there, but I swear, the entire back of my head (well, crown, I guess) wants to become one big, massive lock. If I let it go that way, it's going to look like a thick ponytail. I know alot of people think you should just let it go, but I'm fighting this one tooth and nail. I've been ripping and tearing them apart, but at the roots, it just won't rip anymore since it's so close to my head. Should I cut it? It's not something I'd normally reccommend myself, but I don't know what other options I have! We've never had to deal with this on sprout's head...
DO NOT CUT IT unless you want the whole lock gone; that is likely what will happen if you try to snip them apart. I know what you mean.... but, out of curiosity how long/how formed are your locks? There were a few congos I fought that way a few years ago, thinking how ridiculous it would be to have one that big. Now, though, they are formed together and have compacted very nicely. They don't look out of place at all. Just food for thought, you may want to bow to the inevitable and enjoy it!
Just saw your pic in the other thread.... I think your locks are looking great! How old are they? Judging from the loops and fuzzies, I'd say they'll probably tighten up a whole lot if you just give it more time (I know, time is a cliche answer, but almost always THE answer for dreads!). When they tighten up a bit more the big'un won't seem so out of place.
pictures? how mamny dreads are forming into 1? how thick is the superdread? i think a lil snipping wont hurt if done right...it would basicly be the same as ripping as long as its not like your slicing through 6 inches that are very well stuck together but if its just like the 1/2 inch ayt the roots, u should be able to do a lil snipping carefully and be fine id have someone help u, probly best to use some kinda scissors with really short lil blades so u can get a precision cut n noyt accidently chop anything u dont wanna pull the dreads directly away from eachother, and have the scvissors blades vetticly between them and snip carefully, a couple hairs at a time or so u should be fine.. when ya rip your just breaking the same hairs you'll be snipping this way so shouldnt cause a problem
I don't keep upwith exact dates, but they're a little less than a year old. I just don't know how to deal with this in particular....I dealt with sprout's hair and did most of very little bit of maintainance he needed. In the 6-7 years his have been growing, there was nothing like what I've got going on. I know everyone's hair is different, but I wasn't expecting anything quite this drastic. That pic in the other thread is at least a month old now, btw, before this became really noticable I've got about 6 major dreads trying to grow together, but I can usually rip the outer ones away. But on my crown, I have 3 major ones that have all sorta joined together to form one root, even though they still appear to be individual dreads (does that make sense?) The roots are so tight, I can't rip them.....it would almost be like trying to rip a dread up the middle. Not gonna work. I was thinking I might have to let them go, but do you really think it would hurt to give them a tiny snip in the center where the root has grown together? I'm not talking about cutting it down to the scalp, just a a quarter of an inch, maybe less, so I can hopefully pull them apart from there and add some beads to keep em seperated. I just don't know....lol....all I do know is that I would prefer to not have a 6 dread sized mega lock if it can be helped.
i have had good and bad experiences with cutting dreads. i have successfully cut two of them. i have really thin hair and to get fat dreads, i need hair from large sections of my hair. a couple of them were sectioned really poorly and were taking hair from spots very far away from each other. i had to cut one at the nape of my neck because it was causing pain when i moved my head. this was in october. it survived fine, and is growing like a champ. another one, i cut the other day at the top of my head, because it grew funny and was pulling in an awkward direction. that one, fine as well. the dread on my head with the worst sectioning actually had a dread growing almost through the root. it was causing terrible headaches and i had finally had enough the other day. i cut a bit at the root and it didn't help so i had to cut more and more and more and finally, i realized it wasn't working. so i cut it out completely. now i'm waiting for the roots to grow a little bit and i'm going to felt it back into circulation. just my experience! i hope your dread sorts itself out.
i feel your pain. every month or so, i bribe my friend to pull my dreads apart. what works for me is pulling a few hairs at a time in a downward direction from scalp to tip, slowly pulling the strands out of neighbor dreads. this is the only way i could rip apart the last little bit. then of course, youre left with little loose bits but you can pull those in with a crochet hook. theyve actually slowed down lately and i havnt had to do nearly as much ripping.
if u just leave those loose hairs alone they'll form babies on theyre own in time when theres enough i probly have like 15 or 20 lil 3 inch long dread babies in between many of the longer ones i dont do alotta ripping, cause i get lost ijn em..lol i have like 150 or more dreads, and might just randomly seperate 5 or 6 every few weeks so months may go by before some get any attention at all, ..sometimes way longer so a few have combined..mo big deal but i kinda have a feeling that trying to get those loose hairs back into an existing dread instead of letting them form theyre own might just contrinbute to the problem i look at it this way the hairs that connect the 2 dreads do so because they cant figure out which dread they belong to right? you try telling it where it belongs, but it still combines with its neighbour probly meands it wants to be in neither but its own dread between the 2 the more ripping u have to do the more hairs arent where they want to be but if u rip and let them find theyre place theyll either end up in the dread they want to be in or form a new dread where they are
