OK so I'm african american and very interested in dreadlocks. I know for the white folks they go and do the whole back combing or the natural dread journey. Is it possible for me to do the whole natural route or will they become really thick (which I prefer not to have). My afro is only about an inch and I brush and shape it regularly. Should I stop doing that? Also, I regularly put conditioner in my hair to keep it looking neater... should I stop doing that also? Thanks in advance.
all of the black people i know with dreads just twist their hair. just make a section at the root and twist. that way u can have as thin locks as u want. im not sure how the natural way would work with an afro. theres a kid in my american govt. class and he has a fro but he doesnt shape it and it looks like he has cones on the top of his head. the cones arent locked, its just an afro with cones coming off the top. so, ya, im not sure how that would go with an afro.
My friend did the twisting method too. It was really awesome, except that he did them way too thin. They looked like little woolie worms on his head until they were much longer. If you twist them you can get a good uniform look fairly simply. Twists look awesome on kinkier hair. I would have done that since my hair is so curly had I not ran into a white guy at a bar that looked like a fool with twists. White folks hair doesnt twist well at all from what I have heard and seen. Since yours will twist, go for it. Seth's concern about the cone seems pretty accurate. I have seen photos of rastas that have like two dreads comming straight down their back. Huge matted dreads--but there are just two of them. The one I recall best, it looked like there were only the two or three dreads because someone cut the big one--but again it was just a photo. I would go with twisting. And think about making them thicker than a pencil--cause my friend was very unhappy for about a year.
don't condition your hair, just shampoo it with an all-natural shampoo (with no chemicals) and don't brush it. it should dread as it gets longer, especially since your hair is nappy enough to fro. twist it or backcomb it to control the size of the dreads, otherwise they might end up big.. and make sure to rip them apart to keep them from dreading into eachother.
african hair will dread so easyuy naturaly stop combing and conditioning a few weeks and you'll have dreads u can control the size by ripping or twisting dont use rubber bands though just twist then put on a wool hat once a day (because your progress will be fast) seperate them from eachother you'll be well on your way to dreads in just a few weeks post update pics often i would not backcomb african hair at all backcombing just pushes the hair down creatting loops and knots in african hair the natural tight curls will automaticly start loopingand knotting in no time with no dammage backcombing will not only do dammage but is counter productive african hair is already as close to backcombed hair as you'll get eithger do njothing and let them happen, or twist them once to get the sections the size u want thenn leave em be im betting you'll see significant progreess in a week to 3 weeks
