Crocheting method- opinions?

Hi, I've been thinking about getting dreads for about a year now, and recently started a few in my hair. I have four, which I done using the backcombing and crocheting method, but after looking around more on some forums, the response to crocheting is pretty negative
The dreads I've already done are looking good given that they are only a few days old, but I'm worried that crocheting them is going to be a disaster.
Has anyone got any advice for me on what to do?
Also if anyone has crocheted their dreads, how easy are they to remove if I ever want to take them out?

Peace x

 

crochetting dreads is pretty bad for your hair, i think crochetted dreads look really dry and dead, but if you like that method then go for it
i crochetted a few of mine, and they are a lot harder to comb out compared to other methods.

 

Thanks for the reply
What method would you say is the best? I've heard alot of people say just backcombing and palm rolling works well and doesn't cause your hair to break too much
x

 

Most would say Neglect is best. Palm rolling is a waste of time.

Backcombing is what a lot of people have had to get dreads. Any method you try will leave your hair looking shit. Crochetting, waxing and repeatedly backcombing will ruin your hair. Using wax will damage your hair the most though.

 

now that you've already done that to them, just leave them alone. if you stop fucking with them now, chances are they'll be fine. if you try to re-backcomb them or do more crocheting they'll look fuckin stupid and be damaged.

 

ive seen crochet dreads look pretty awesome, theres just a lot of upkeep to do on them after theyre initially done.

mine were backcombed and ive had 'em for over 2 years now, i love 'em.

palm rolling is a waste of time, unless you wanna give yer arms a workout.
dont use wax
dont listen to most people on here (by most, read ~97%)
just do what you wanna do, tis your hair

 

I crocheted the first couple of my dreads too, but only once at the beginning. They are looking good and a tiny bit more matured than the rest of my dreads which I just backcombed. I would probably just say stop crocheting them and they will turn out fine.

 

i crocheted my last set for 18 months and they were crazy dry, like barbed wire, but they looked pretty sweet. theres a guy who goes to school with me who crochets his all the time and they look like crap though. like dry, crispy thin chunks of hair, no loops or bumps or anything fun at all.

this sets only been in for about 2 months but i've already stopped crochetting. a few were getting the beginning of that dry feeling. i think i'll crochet just to clean them up every couple of months for my job and what not, but besides that yeah.

i find a lot of people who neglect them appear to have super soft dreads. backcombing and leaving them is another good way. mine right now were backcombed, crochetted after every wash for a month, and then once in the second month. i hope this helps you coming from someone who has there are other people who've had a better time with crochetting but unfortunately, i think all the bad hype is true. it's fine to just get them started, but yeah.

 

i like this

 

I crochet my frizz away a bit every now and then so I look presentable in the office. So yeah, you can do that

 

the only thing is, you may think you're helping frizz, but if you stick a metal hook into you locks chances are you're gonna pull new frizz out with it.

 

Well, the net frizz is visibly reduced, which is good enough for the office as I'm only concerned with looking presentable.

 

Free form for freedom!!

 

Everyone decides that their method is WHY their hair locked, and overlooks the fact that hair locks with no method at all-it'd have to be a pretty bad method to KEEP it form locking at all, think about it.

If your name is a religious reference, and not a pot reference, I think you should distance yourself from this silly desire for locks, it will cause you suffering. Just don't desire hair cuts or combs either, and you'll have locks without having to ever worry about them.

Jimbo.... Aloe tames frizz without fucking up your hair.... but it's too easy and not time consuming enough, ehh?

 

Yes my name is a religious reference. But I don't think desiring locks is going to cause me suffering if I'm completely honest.
Sadly, I can't use the neglect method, as I have too look very presentable for my job

 

In this case, you can't have locks.

Sure, some people like jimbo put a huge amount of time into it, and it works for them. If he's happy, that's what matters.

But if the long run, crocheted locks will be shit.... I don't mean in a year, or two... For an example of an awesome set of an age where crocheting would cause problems (IMO) look up phunkybrewster, she may also go by similar names involving brewing and funk... I think she may have an account on HF, or that may just be someone else who likes making beer. I know this person has an account on knottylocks.tk, and probably on other lock sites. Her locks are somewhere around 14 or 15 years now, if my counting is right, going from the last time I saw her hair. (and I can't imagine she would have cut since then) I think she neglected, but it may have started with backcombing or tnr. Either way, she practiced the NOT TOUCHING IT method, other than seperating (she has few or no congos, as I recall)

The watched pot never boils. Maybe you should wait until you can take a year off from looking presentable. This goes for whatever method you use. They ALL look like shit, the only difference is backcombing needs to fall out or whatever first, depending on your hair type and how compatible it is with the type of knots formed. Neglect comes together at the same time or considerably sooner, depending on who's timeline you watch, and looks the same or better, and can be just as carefully controlled through ripping or seperating.

Locks are not just random, even if some neglect ones look wild. There's precise physics to how different hair types lock, and doing different things to make your hair LOOK locked only damages the hair and fights the natural locking processes, thereby slowing and hurting the process. Locks are not just random knots, but knots that follow various sets of rules depending on your hair. None of these things are anywhere near the same things that happen when you backcomb, palmroll(because it does NOTHING) root rub(again, fucking NOTHING) root flip (just rips out your locks and fucks up the natural way they lock towards the roots), crochet, or any of the rest of that crap.

Having neglected, I can tell you that with my hairtype(medium fine reasonably strait white persons hair) you will NOT have loose hair if you just let it do it's thing, or at least NOT the type that crocheting can help along the body of the lock. Frizz from between locks? sure.... and if it bothers you, you can just stuff it into one at the base, no crochet hook needed(and after an area's been locked for a while, there is none anyway, until your second generation of locks starts coming in) But the locks themselves are VERY cohesive, with NO loose hair after they've had a few months to tighten up. Also, my (and seemingly, since dreadlocks work, EVERYONES) hair locks towards the roots, doing silly things like rubbing or flipping them is obviously not needed, and as such may actually hurt, since those who do it seem to see a continued need or looseness in their roots. indeed, I had some roots that would not STOP locking, and got ALMOST painfully close to the scalp.

So, there's MOST of my full rant against doing silly things to your hair. If you need, i can reload and come back with more.

*edit* YES I said "second generation of locks". If you DO stuff hair into the base of other locks, you ONLY fuck up the locking process, because it's a continuum, not a one time thing. Hair both gets sucked into locks, AND forms successive generations of locks, which then congo (if allowed to) into the original generation(or other generations, depending on the age of your locks) SO, no, you can never have healthy proper locks without a little bit of frizz and disorder, that's just the reality of locks, that's HOW THEY WORK. They only form by frizz and disorder, and only stay healthy by frizz and disorder. You can make them look totally strait laced and whatnot for a day, or a week, or whatever, by getting an aloe plant and putting it on them, but if you do it ALL the time them they can't form and you WILL have loose root problems, not to mention the excessive frizz bothering you will never be sucked in for the same reason wax sucks, remember: movement makes locks. Alternatively, IF YOUR LOCKS ARE WELL FORMED (but as wild in style as you please), you can make them look quite presentable by just putting them in a ponytail or updo of some sort. But make sure to give them some time down to move around when you're home, and sleep with them down and free.


So yeah, that's it, that's about everything you could ever want to know about forming proper locks, if you're too OCD to listen when told to simply wait a year.

 

I probably put 20mins into it each week max while watching the latest family guy or something, I wouldn't say it's a huge amount of time!

I'm assuming you haven't crocheted your hair before, but I know empirically that my dreads will turn out awesome, the only people that won't (don't) approve are other dreadheads, who only neglect, and have enquired enough to find out I crocheted at all.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7wDkmNmUhQ&feature=related"]YouTube - fixing dreadlocks myself

That was a year ago, I wonder if all those thin, tortured roots have broken yet, leaving her bald?

I realize there's different levels of crocheting, but you just don't need to do ANY level of it. Your hair will take care of itself.

If you're saying you plan on having that set of locks for a very long time, do you see yourself having the same ones in 10 years? in 20 years? in..... 30 years? And if you think that's even a possibility, do you care to multiply 20x52x30? Because I don't, but that's how many minutes you will have spent crocheting when your hair would have done the same thing on it's own, only better

*edit* I was bored, and did multiply it out.... that's 31200 fucking minutes, or 520 hours, or 21.67 days.... That's EVEN more time than I've spent telling people off for crocheting!

*edit2* I hope to have locks this epic when I'm 41 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUWNLGHbk-Q&NR=1&feature=fvwp"]YouTube - 20 year old natural neglect dreadlocks no wax no products no methods

 

No idea how long I'll have them to be honest. Last set lasted 2 years or so. Gotta say that vid is an extreme example.

For me, it's 20mins a week to keep the frizz looking neat (I'm talking top of the head frizz only), vs risking having to cut them for sake of my career.

I'd like to go au naturale due to laziness more than anything, but this is good for me, and I don't believe my hair will be any worse off in the future if I keep doing what I'm doing.

 

There's only one solution to this career conundrum.

Set it all on fire. That way you can have your dreads, AND your red swingline stapler.

:leaving: