Starting neglect dreads -- bird's nest question

Hello! I registered to the forum specifically to ask about dreads, just because of this awesome subforum with so many knowledgeable members! =)

FYI: I am technically caucasian, but my hair is super frizzy, and starts to form big matted knotty tangles within 24 hours. So I probably dread a lot more easily than most white people.

I stopped conditioning / brushing my hair, maybe about a week ago. This was out of sheer laziness. But now I'm thinking I want it to be the beginning of neglect dreadlocks. The problem is, I wasn't ripping it apart, so instead of locking in sections, I've got this massive bird's nest on the back of my head.

My question is, can I safely rip the big ball of hair into sections? Or do I have to comb it out and start all over again? (This would take hours, I am hoping to avoid the work.)

Any advice is deeply appreciated! <3

 

After a week you can most probably just pull it apart without damaging it yeah

 

^Seconded, there's no way that they could be that locked together that you can't pull them apart with your hands, no matter how dread friendly your hair is. Just go carefully to pull them into the sections you want.

 

No time like the present! You'll probably have to do it a few more times, just a heads up.

 

let it grow

 

You want to take the birds nest out, put it in a tree and separate the dreeads to the size you want them

 

....:iamwithstupid:....



Cheers Glen.

 

Yes. I would do it over a few day's time so that your head doesn't get sore. Also, try to avoid breakage if possible.

Nice work. Post pics if you can!

 

Thanks for the tips! =)

I finally got around to separating my hair today. I used a little conditioner to ease the process a bit.

In the future, when should I separate my hair? Dry, in the shower, after shower?

 

It's usually easier when the hair's wet.

 

yeah. i rip mine post washing if they need it

 

Hmm.

Can someone please explain to me what exactly "ripping" entails? Everyone talks about ripping, just not how you do it.

Here's the thing. After I've slept on my hair, and all the individual sections start hopelessly intertwining and conglomerating, there just doesn't seem to be any way to simply "rip" them apart, unless I wanted to use the strength of a gorilla and wreak massive destruction on my hair, haha. The only way to separate the sections is to start to undo the knotting, which means I'm starting all over again.

Any help is appreciated! <3

 

You basically have 4 options...

1) You can grab each individual dread and pull them apart, to create sections. This probably won't separate them completly and hurts the most of the four options (imo), but will be enough to keep them more or less apart whilst they're growing and does the least damage. Almost all of mine are connected right at the roots to each other, it's no big deal.

2) You can feel around with your thumb and finger working towards the root and pull each individual hair until it comes out, or breaks. If it breaks, the chances are is that the broken hairs will stay in the dread. If you manage to pull it out without it breaking you'll get the loose strand of hair effect sticking out from the dread, again no big deal (I like that). Or it'll start to congo again a few washes later.

3) You can feel around with your finger and thumb from where it starts to join and the root and then cut through with scissors. This is only necessary if you've left it too long and they're properly congoed. I admit I do not know how much unravelling it'll cause with non-mature dreads I use scissors on mine, but mine are mature. You may not want to try this until they're more mature.

4) Don't rip at all, grow a beaver tail

At the end of the day ripping will cause some breakage whatever some people might say. Ripping means breaking hairs pretty much. As they get more settled you probably won't need to rip as much. I do it very little these days.

 

Thanks a lot! Really helpful post.

I think I need to just comb my hair out and start all over. I didn't know what I was doing, didn't rip properly, and now it's just a mess. Sigh -- just gotta be patient! =)

 

I'm sure they'll be fine, I don't see what you could have done to screw them up too bad.

 

So, another question.

My sections of hair seem to be knotting up in a way so that the ends of the "dreads" are all bunched up and thick, but by the time you trace them to the root, they're much more thin. So, they're not really uniform dreads, they're kind of... bulbous... LOL. Some of them, anyhow.

Is this normal?

 

You get what you get with neglect! I'm sure they'll constantly change for at least 6 months

 

Rip if you wanna rip, don't if you don't.

I expect that you could go at least a month before you needed to rip. It just seems that way because you currently have no idea how much knotting your hair can do.

 

i got fat-at-the-end and skinny-at-the-root dreads and mine are nearly 3 years old. happens