Natural dreads - concern

Greetings all!
I've been going natural for 2 weeks now. Yet I have not even one dread baby to be seen.
I wash with bar soap, wrap a towel around my hair to dry, and wear a tam the rest of the time. I have straight caucasian hair. What is the problem?
I think maybe the drying business may pose problem? Possibly let it air dry instead? Looking forward to advice from natural dreadheads.

 

Oh, idk if this matters, but I wash every 2-3 days. Maybe increase or decrease rate as well?

 

The problem is time! Two weeks is waaaaaaay too early to have this worry if you're taking the natural route!

 

ah ok i see. i've seen some friends have baby dreads within 2-3 weeks so it just seemed like i was doing something wrong.

 

I think as early as this, hair type probably plays a big role. Do you have any knots or tangles at all? Do you dry it completely in a towel or let it down to finish drying? I always found my hair most prone to knotting when damp... if yours was similar, perhaps the towel is restricting the movement that would lead to knot formation?

 

btw how long is your hair?

 

I completely dried my hair in the aforementioned way. I wrap the towel around my head for probably around an hour. My hair length is about 6-7 inches. I have little strings/sections of hair and some of it is slightly tangled.

 

Well those tangles are the beginning I think once you have absorbed most of the water from your hair, you should just let it air dry so it can move around some more.

 

seeeeen. thanks!

 

yea mate don't worry. The sooner you forget about what your hair is doing the sooner you will notice dreads. Patience is the key.

Let air dry aswell, I found that helped with mine and a few others here

best of luck!

 

dry your hair by rubbing the towel on your head in a clockwise or counter clockwise (always the same direction). two weeks is way too early to be expecting anything major to happen. if you don't see anything happening in the next two months, maybe you should move on to the next trendy hairstyle

 

2 weeks is enough time for a few rare ppl to see dreads
it happensd that fast in som,e despite the dreadheadhq liesthat oit alwaystakes a year or 2
but 2 weeks is a rare thing not the norm
your on the right track and showing progress..dont judge yoir progress byu others
forget all about it and it will hsppen
maybe in 2 more weeks..maybe 2 months..no way to predict


but
dont wear the tam alllll the time..let them loose as much as u \keep em tucked away

use sea salt sprays to spered it up

is your hair oily?
if so..read the herbs for yoir head thread

post pics every 2 weeks look for tiny not huge signs of progress

 

yeah, i think keeping it wrapped in a towel for too long would stop it from moving.
no movement= no matting, no knotting, no locking

 

I would have to say SE...that this may be happening due to your promises of natural locks in such a short time. So what do you think is going to happen when this guy/girl doesn't get the results he wants in the time frame mentioned? He is going to give up ...and choose a different method. Which makes your mission of getting everyone to go natural or somewhat natural a little counter productive. Maybe you should be a little more honest about what they should be expecting. EVERYTHING that I have read and seen(from natural members on here) on the wonderful Internet indicates that is will take YEARS to form a head full of natural locks. You bash DHHQ and K-Boy for their lies...when you seem to be doing the same thing..just with a different method?????
Not to be confused with an argument..just saying!

 

Same here. I think that a lot of the time, natural dreads would take longer to mature? I know they all fall out at the same time and that, but mine are now 14 months and still locking up. I still have undreaded bits. So if you have completely natural dreads... Wouldn't a realistic timeframe for noticeable results be at least 5-6 months in? And not to expect mature dreads until well into the second year?

 

Well if it were that easy to go natural...I think you would probably see less of the other methods right?

 

Maybe! No method is better than the other. They all have their advantages and disadvantages.

 

I know soaringeagle often sees those first knots or clumps of hair as the beginnings of dreads (which they technically are, I know), but to many people those things just look like untidy hair. So even though the dreading, e.g. tangling may start within weeks, I think (from pics I've seen, obviously I don't know from experience) it's a big difference between that phase and the point where a stranger who knows nothing about dreads and has no empathy for how they "work" would recognise them as dreadlocks rather than a mess. That make any sense?

 

Perfect sense!

 

And can we even begin to tackle the definition of a dreadlock? Let's knot (ha ha ha ) even try. I think we as dreadies should gauge our progress through a mixture of self-awareness and progress pictures of others with similar hair types and locking method.