My loose hair likes to try and join the wrong dreads. Mostly, the problem loosies are repeat offenders and I'm getting quite tired of sorting through the roots on the same 5 dreads. Does root rubbing actually work? I don't want to crochet them in since my dreads are still new and I want to give them time to establish themselves on their own, but it's still really obnoxious. I have a few beads, but the problem dreads are too skinny and the beads just fall off. Any ideas? Also, any ideas on how to keep dreads from eating each other when I pull them back? I always seem to have to do the most root maintenance after putting them in a pony tail.
That's how tangled hair is. It tangles more. Even if you separate, you won't have a strait line down to the scalp, most of the time you should be able to go weeks or months before you NEED to rip. Also, if you rip more often, you'll have to rip more often, it basically moves the knots around and tightens them, and then they congo more. Leave it be, and in a week or four, select the congo's you don't want, and rip them.
What makes it the wrong dread they are trying to join? Apparently its where they are going, unless loose hair from the right is reaching over to the left, let it join
The two posters that responded before provided all the right info you need.... Except..... Smoke more weed! :mickey::sifone::mickey:
That's the problem. And every time I pull the hair from the "wrong" dread to bring it back over to where it's not screwing things up it eventually finds it's way back to where I don't want it. And can I really go 4 weeks without separating?! It seems like it would make ripping congos apart harder... hm... Oh, and Ahmad - trust me. I'm smoking plenty. :2thumbsup: Good advice, though.
that's the thing. Your hair don't care where you want it to go, it's attaching itself to wherever it finds necessary. You can do crazy amounts of maintenance to keep them the way you want them but to me that kinda defeats the purpose of having locks. Some would disagree. and I don't rip too often but when it was a 24 hour Congo party I would wait about a week or 2. I bet you could wait longer, then you get a super loud extended ripping noise. I love that noise.
Yeah, When I had a whole lot of progress I was ripping habitually, daily, and it just made me have to rip more. I stopped ripping, except every few weeks, and eventually went the "chunk o' hair" way, and stopped ALL ripping. And around 3 months after that, when I cut, I could have easily removed MOST of the congo's from that time. You can tell when it's too late... When the root feels like one lock, with no seam or hint of two. It takes an inch+ of growth, and weeks, at least. Again, the more you rip, the faster they will develop a webbing and begin congoing back up.
Humph. I'm skeptical, but I'll try and see what happens. In my previous dreading attempts, I didn't even know you had to rip them apart, I just figured after being backcombed they would just stay in their sections. Needless to say, that's not how things went and when I eventually combed out my 3 inch soon-to-be-beaver tail with 50 tips, my hair was really REALLY greasy. Apparently, when the roots get that bad and you can't reach your scalp to wash, bad things happen. *gag* But since I've never had a set of dreadlocks reach maturity, I suppose I'll trust what you guys say since you all seem to have much more experience than me. Here goes!
....You could have ripped or sliced out a 3 inch congo.... But I can't see why you'd want to, I wish I'd had a 50 lock congo.
The thing with locks is that if you have them then you're just going to have to accept that loose hairs will always exist and that they will always find a place in your hair opposed to your own intentions. Loose hairs aren't a problem you have with your locks. They aren't something that you need to correct. They just are. However, if you want to make yourself more presentable then I'd suggest twisting up your hair every night. Sort out the loose hairs, figure out which dreads they belong to, and then just twist them up every night before you go to sleep. Eventually they'll learn to grow where you want them to grow and your hair should order itself into a pattern you're more willing to accept. LOVE
It's not that I have a problem with loose hairs - I quite like the messy look. it's just that they attach themselves to the dreads I don't want them to attach to, effectively making my roots all criss crossed and tangled the wrong way. I was more looking for tips to try to encourage the loosies to knot up with the dreads that won't screw up my roots as much. But most people just said to leave it for a while and rip less often. So I guess that's what I'll be doing.
I just can't see how ripping is good for your hair no matter the circumstances. If you want your hairs to grown in any certain way then I'd recommend you twist the loose ones into your locks every night so that they learn how to grow that way. Instead of ripping, gently pull the hairs from one lock and lay it against the other and just pay attention to it for a while and it should fix up with the one you want it to.
Forgot to mention, you can always do the root balling thing or whatever they call it... Just grab the hair in question, scrunch it up, and stick it in the root of the dread you want it in... Too intensive for me... Though there where a few times I stuck a handful of hairs THROUGH the root of a lock so they'd come out the other side, just so they'd stop clinging onto a different lock, to prevent the pain that one or two dissenting hairs can cause. I extradited their asses back to the proper lock, so they could face charges for entering the wrong congo with a broken... wait...
