Hi, everybody My name is Nick, and I'm new here, but I've been lurking for a week or two. I've been considering growing dreads for a long time, but have been unsure about it because I know it's difficult. I think I've finally decided to do it, but I need some help to get off the fence. I'm not a fan of the baby-dread stage where your hair gets all crazy, as I catch a lot of crap already about having crazy hair. My hair is very thick and curly, it's kind of coarse and pretty frizzy. These pictures are some 7-8 hours after washing, towel-drying and then letting to air dry the rest of the way (what I always do). As you can see, it's pretty curly and frizzy. When it gets longer, unless I brush it constantly it turns into a weird mix of a bird's nest and ringlets, and then when gets shoulder-length or so, the weight seems to pull it down and give me an incredibly tangled rendition of Peter Frampton's hair. I'm considering the neglect method, and what I'm wondering is- and I know there is no such thing as a short time, since dreads are a labor of love- do you think that with my hair type, I will get through that awkward birds nest relatively quick, in terms of usual time? Also, sorry if the pics are gigantic...
Hi Nick Wouldn't have guessed. Its the easiest thing I've been doing for 4ish years You are an indecisive man Learn too not give a fuck Perfect Are you expecting some praise for letting your hair air dry? I'll take your word for it If you go any method other than neglect you lose at dreads. Their will be a 100% chance a tree will fall on you because you've insulted mother nature. wrong, I don't think twice about my dreads. I fucking hate them to be frank. Coming to think of it.. don't even get dreads. They are the worst. Bird nest stage isn't awkward. Having a mother bird regurgitating worms that she had eaten an hour prior into my hair was a nice experience. I didn't actually look.. but you wouldn't have been forgiven regardless
If you want it to be easy just go neglect. If you want to skip the bird's nest then use a method and maintain them, however all the upkeep won't be easy and concerning yourself with how your hair looks too much will make you frustrated when it takes 12 months before they start to keep themselves neat enough.
Lay off the tweak and smoke a joint, and they'll take care of themselves. How the fuck is it difficult to smoke weed and roll in bed? At least, I never found it hard.
Your hair is so short! I would say go for it, but wait a few months until it's longer... I just did mine, (my hair was over a foot long) and I lost half the length. Your "baby" dreads will look a little less crazy if you wait, if you do them now they will stick straight up off your head...
From what you've described, we have very similar hair textures, you and I. I started my third set, first time doing neglect, almost exactly a month ago. I've been just washing with Dr. Bronners, towel/air drying, and occasionally rubbing my hair with a piece of wool felt (which is just incredibly soothing and everyone should try it). At this point, I've got crazy Tim Burton hair and some very hard little baby dreads in what I would call the middle of my hair. I spend a lot of time wearing wide headbands for the full-on Tracy Turnblat look, or head wraps in order to not frighten children. However, I'm thankful that my hair locks up so fast, because I've seen people wait for six months to have the same kind of progress. I'm kind of predicting, if everything behaves as it should, I'll look less like a bird's nest and more like someone with dreads in about six months. But that's optimistic.
I think with dr. bronners everyone's hair locks fast. And wool rubbing really makes it fast. But, 6 months is optimistic. you won't have all your hair locked that quickly, IMO, no matter how fast it goes now. 8-10 months is where ALL my hair locked, using bronners and not wool rubbing, but a wool pillow cover. Realize that the last bits will be the most obviously unlocked, and the most stubborn about locking....
Yeah, I've done backcombed before for a set, and waaaaaay back in 1996 I had a dread perm. Both times, they had to almost completely unravel before they locked up correctly, both times it took about a year. I figured this time, I'll just do it natural, and it's almost like my hair likes it better. I won't poop on either method, because hey, different strokes and all that. Neglect is apparently the path I should tread. As for the six months figure, that's just when I think I'll no longer look like Helena Bonham Carter's hair and more like Amy Whinehouse: There's still a lot of mess going on, but at least there's a sort of unifying theme. Sorry to hijack the thread here, I just wanted to let dude know that yes, there will be a long time of people wondering if you're no longer capable of caring for your own basic grooming or if you're doing it on purpose. They will not all arrive at the same conclusion.
I must say, everyone's hair likes neglect better. Think about it, look at your neglect locks now: it's NOT the same thing you get from backcombing, it's the thing you get from fallen-out backcombs. All the backcombing does is waste time that your hair COULD be knotting, when it has to UN-knot first, instead.
Thank you for the response, it is good to know. I've been pretty much neglecting, washing with regular shampoo because I do not have much money, but only once a week or every other week, otherwise just rinsing with hot hot water, and haven't brushed it once since I posted this. I don't have the crazy look (Tim Burton describes it perfectly) that I would expect to have by now, but I also don't think my hair has grown a lot. I wouldn't call them baby dreads, but most of my hair is in to little sections that I only notice by following them down to the end; they all tangle towards the bottom to form long kinda loops. Overall, I think it's going well, but too early to tell, really. And to everybody that was sarcastic to me on the front page- I don't care, I'm here to talk to the nice people
