now that i'm dreaded, i can stop lurking & get advice.

Knotting my hair up was a total impulse decision.
I had planned to go to a salon and get them done "professionally" but was still researching and reading a lot about them. The impulse kicked in and the fun began.
The roots are banded because it didn't have a lot of length in the back and a bit after the first back combing session i added bands to the bottom because they were falling out rather quickly.

These were taken a week and a half ago.


they have all been completely finished as far as back combing is concerned.
i did it over two days because the girlfriend was tired of helping me.



Right now they are frizzy with quite a bit of lose hairs shooting out.
and some have become quite flat because i'm wearing headbands a lot.
The flat ones are fine after a bit of palm rolling.
I've used aloe to try to control the frizzies, which did help temporarily.
I am also using a green tea, lemon juice & salt water spray once a week.

I do have some questions,
how long should i keep the bands on?
do you think they are to young to start crocheting?
any tips or trick on how to get them to calm down a tad?


Any advice welcome and don't be afraid to tell me to leave them the hell alone for a little while.

 

Do you have rubber bands in them now? If you do I suggest you take them out. You can read in the dreadlocktruth.com FAQ why you shouldn't use rubber bands - if they do get stuck they can "grow into" your dreads after a couple of weeks and be a mess to get out.
If you really want to tie them together, do so by using pieces of string. However I don't think you _need_ to have anything to separate them with. I don't know whether or not it affects the dread process, but you could just let them start knotting and rip them apart if they should tangle or grow into each other.

AFAIK you can start crocheting dreads whenever you want, but if you start crocheting you will most likely need to crochet them over and over and over, and it's supposed to be quite damaging to your dreads.

If by calming down you mean get them to not stand out, wear a beanie or hat both daytime and when you sleep.

I just started mine myself and all I do is wear a beanie and leave them alone

 

I agree with what disruptard said for the most part. But with rubber bands I left them in for three weeks and had no problems. I don't think rubber bands are necessary at all though.

I wouldn't recommend crocheting if you plan on having your dreadlocks long term. There's actually a thread somewhere about it... It may have been created yesterday... Someone said that continuous crocheting will stop dreadlocks maturing and posted a pic of a girl with three year old dreadlocks that didn't mature because of all the regular crocheting she had on it.

Most people recommend the gel from Aloe leaves to help calm dreadlocks.

 

Welcome! I think they are dead cute being that short! They suit you well. =)

I didn't use rubber bands so I cannot comment there.
As for crocheting, do you want to do this to tidy the loose hair? I had someone help crochet a couple in the back awhile back and it did nothing for me. :S So I guess I can't really comment there... but depending on what you want to use it for, you may just want to wait a bit.
And calming them down... hehe. Just leave em. The backcombing makes them really puffy for a month or two, but they will settle down on their own. I can promise you that one cuz it happened to me.

 

This is the thread you're referring to.

http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=379223

OP had his dreads crocheted and on page 2 there's a little elaboration on why crocheting requires maintenance and causes dreads that are, to a certain extent, "fake" (not the right word really) because the hair doesn't knot and lock up like it would in dreads made with other methods.

 

good to know. i haven't ben able to drum up my opinions on crocheting the babies but it is definitely something i will be doing in the future to blunt the ends after i extend them.

 

I had a pretty good experience with crocheting but I only did it to start the dreads in combination with backcombing. it gave them a good start, and they didn't fall out at all. I wouldn't recommend it for maintenance though because your locks will always be frizzy and you will always have runaway hairs (unless you wax, but don't do that!).

 

They look good, you dont need the rubber bands though, some think they are damaging to locks, mine didnt suffer any damage but hey, its all up to you, just keep away from the wax

 

Ahoy ... yeah, that was me HDH ... for sure bad news ... here are the vids etc. again