Hi there My name is Justin and Ive head my dreadlocks for a good two years now and very proud! This summer I took a backpacking trip with my best friend to Europe for about two months. It was an awesome experience I traveled through 9 different countries, but as soon as I got home I noticed my hair had grown alot and I mean I have a good few inches of loose new growth. Now Ive taken the time to separate the dreads from locking together but Ive had no luck in getting them to lock back together all the way. For someone who has already had his dreads for a good 2 years would you recommend going back to the wax to get em tight again(personally not a huge fan of wax but if its necessary) what are some alternatives to getting alot of loose hair nice and tight around the roots again I need some honest good advice Im not sure exactly what I should do. Im using Dr. Bronners right now to clean them and organic coconut oil to feed my scalp but let me know what you think :cheers2::cheers2: cheers Justin Rhinehart
I personally hate the look of crocheted dreads and definitely think you should just leave them. I'd say they look pretty awesome after being forgotten about a bit during your travels. Dreads should have a couple inches of undreaded hair at the root. They will dread in their own time, no fucking pansying around with wax or crotchet hooks needed.
Clockwise rubbing is always an option. http://www.dreadheadhq.com/maintaining-dreadlocks-dread-clockwise-rubbing.php
Ok, this is a lot more tedious to type and read than it is to actually do, but here goes... *sigh* Every 1.5 inches or so of growth I have a bit of a maintenance session. I guess it takes maybe 20 mins or so. After washing my dreads, while they are still damp, I tie them up firmly into a couple of bunches, and have a few more spare hair bands handy. I pull out one dread at a time, root-rub it, then firmly tiwst it around at the base, making sure all the hairs are in there. I keep it held twisted in my hand whilst pulling out another dread and doing the same thing. Once the hand holding the twisted dreads is too full to be useful anymore I tie that bunch of dreads firmly with a hair band and continue. I usually end up with four bunches of root-rubbed and twisted dreads. Then I blow-dry them like this and keep them up until they've dried a bit more and stuck like that. Once I take the bands out I try not to untwist the dreads too much, and whenever I'm fiddling with them over the subsequent days I try to keep them twisted. I've found this works really well at getting the new growth to knot itself into place quite fast. I know it sounds like a tedious load of faff, but really it's little work and not that frequent. If I have a longer bit of loose hair, like 2 or 3 inches long, I use a large sewing needle to just thread it into a dread (coz I find that crochet hooks always pull some hair back out and fuck things up). There. Fun eh
I think you should wash them more, clean hair is more dreading. I think that your use of coconut oil is hindering them locking together too. I would just wash once a week for a few months and they should get tight around the root.
don't worry, they will continue to dread if you use a soap without conditioners... stick with the bronners. personally I think dreads look great when they are loose at the roots, mine are super tight at the roots and I wish they weren't.
if your dreads are knotted all the way to the scalp you look like a mad ballbag. Just let the mofo's be, ya digg dog? ahh fiddlesticks
Seems that dreads are naturally loose at the roots. If they are tight at the roots, sometimes they can look fake. Personally, I leave some of my loose strands out. Eventually they work into a relationship with another dread, although I have plenty of strands that are just curly things. The beauty of dreads is that everyone's are different - and every dread is different, too. I'd love to see a pic(s) of yours.
qfftt. (the extra f is for fuck. the extra t is a typo) Seriously, I saw a guy on the weekend with dreads down to his ass. But he had them knoted all the way to his scap, mega maintained. Made me wanna punch him in the balls.
good points amy and hdh. i think your locks need at least an inch of loose root hair. this gives them the length they need to knot up. i'm guessing it probably has a lot to do with your hair type and what length it needs to lock up. i'd try to be patient.
i hear that drinkin more beer makes the hair knot faster..lol just leave them be dude. some of mine are 1/4 inch from root, some are 2 inches from root, they just naturally knot when the time is right, hard to put up or tie back when they are knotted to the scalp, hurts my head
Ahoy … if you want the manufactured approach, here are two techniques: Wax at the root, Part 2/7, check out the rest of the parts if this maintenance session interests you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ezc9RbiTbQ The result looks like this in Part 6/7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YKxMGS-89c Crochet Hook, this method is a maintenance session based on the approach to locks that is commonly used in Thailand (NB … This method should only be used with an extra, extra small crochet hook, not the standard ones.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7sRsSIqMEQ If you are interested in this method, here is a vid done in Bangkok by the same couple above: Part 1 – 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGHANZrcfnQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUJyWmFxHl0&feature=related https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v2hoIOANLY&feature=related https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuLSdw-Wd64&feature=related If you reckon that these approaches are too manufactured, but still want to reduce the length of un-matted hair in your lock, there is an alternative method to the crochet hook that can be used, but I must warn you that if you do it incorrectly, it will = bad times for your lock / s. The method is to hold your lock in your left hand, if you are right handed …vice versa … give the lock one or two twists with your thumb and index finger holding the lock at about ½ inch above the scalp. With the crochet hook in your right hand, put the hook part under the thumb of your left hand, while still holding the lock. With the hook facing away from your thumb and facing towards your index finger, i.e. the crochet hook lying at 90 degrees to your lock, roll the lock backwards. Now flip the crochet hook over so that the hook is facing your thumb and facing away from your index and roll your lock forward. Repeat several times… … but … and I cannot stress how important this is … a) don’t over do it, the idea is to just put a few tacks into the loose area of your lock so that when your wash your locks the matting process is assisted. ... and ... b) don’t use force, because you will tighten the loose area of the lock too much and restrict movement of hair between your scalp and the rest of the lock. An alternative to root rubbing is put the top of your right hand on the left side of your head … vice versa, put the lock between your index and middle finger, so that the lock touches the web between these two fingers, and rub in a circular motion with your left palm … vice versa. With this method there will still be an area of loose hair, the length being the width of your fingers, but as many other sisters and brothers have mentioned, it’s not a bad thing to have some amount of loose hair before the matted area reaches the scalp.
