heya not posted in ages. had my dreads for over 7 months and they have been knotting which is brilliant because i had super fine hair before. anyway after 7 months my dreads have knotted only about half the way down...or a few inches on some. and the rest is sort of held together hair with millions of loose strands so it looks like normal hair. bit of a bugger really im hoping after another 7 months my hair will have adapted more and begin to dread at the bottom...
i kno what you meen, man. except with me, it's the roots that are loose and the bottoms that are tight. hopefully in a few months...
i also know what you mean, however i cheated and bleached my dreads and then dyed them back to the colours they were before, and it helped immensely.
i have some dreads that are super tight and knotty, and others that barely have any knots at all. it's just part of the process, methinks.
yeah totally, glad im not the only one lol. its a long process....and about the dying- it does help a bit i have brown dreads and i dyed the tips blonde- looks sweet. ill get new pics up soon
im at 8 months and going strong. Some of the knotts have come out, my hair is 1/2 back combed 1/2 natural, they do so many different things in 8 months from going really tight, to loose, to tight again to dropping a bit as well. Leave them and they should sort themselfs out, if your hair is kind of growing between 2 dreads you could rip them but that hurts
in a way i'm 'happy' to read about your process so far, mine are around 2.5 months and they're really getting nasty now, all the locks are still there and some have even tightened up a bit but its like 2 layers...there are the locks ad then a whole bunch of loose frizzes on top of the dreads that make them look really 'lazy' and broken, but knowing they'll get better eventually makes me not worry, although it's hard to imagine how the heck are they supposed to get better and i'm still at 2.5 months. pretty much all or most of the dreadheads here use or have used wax and whenever i happen to talk to one they always mention i should do something to my dreads (meaning crochet and wax) and i can't really say much back since their dreads mostly all look awesome with minimum ammount of frizzes, and other people agree with them since they judge them by their looks and have no idea what's going on in those seemingly perfect candles. it seems we the non-waxers are pretty much all from this forum and other people just don't have a clue...or could it be the other way around? anyway good luck with your process and know that you aint alone.
i would MUCH rather have a few extra months of frizzies than to have my hair molding on the inside from melted wax collecting in my hair. i'm just glad i found this forum before i ruined my hair with that crap!
katie, your lucky you found the forum before... unlike me who found it after but oh well the wax is almost all gone now
i agree. i ken a few folk wi dreads and when i explain to them why i dont have wax and how dreads acually knot up they just stare at me with a glazed expression as if theyre thinkin "wtf r u on about?" but ach well i have clean dreads, they have mouldy candles =D
yar, same here...when i decide to take the time and explain that dreading is a natural process and that your hair will dread a lot better without wax and bullshit like that everyone has a really hard time believing that and they just start all over with the "but but my dreads look better than yours" talk, that's usually the point where i say f**k it and move along. i have to mention that i've never heard anyone having problems with mould though, so that's almost a myth (yes i saw the pics in the beware thread), thats probably only possible if you wax wet dreads so the water gets stuck in them and then it gets really bad.
i occasionally hear that i am supposed to use wax, and 'so-and-so's' dread's look better than mine and that 'so-and-so' used wax.... just tell em to come back in a year and a half and we can compare then
yeah, in 2 years time they will have a head full of mould and several species, we will have clean dreads =D
i would imagine most of the people who have waxy dreads won't even have dreads in two years. a majority of them are the ones who just want perfect-looking dreads immediately and in three months change their style again. of course, that's a gross generalization and there are plenty of people who are just misinformed, but look how many people we get here who say, "but my friend uses wax and they look SO GOOD!" haha.
i'm not supporting wax in any way here, but people here have over hyped it...i know a person with 6 year old dreads for an example...he waxed for the first 4-5 months and from there he stopped and his have looked awesome and healthy ever since. and then there's a bunch of people with 2-3 year old dreads with pretty much the same story. what im saying is that the 'waxheads' don't use wax forever, its just used to give them a head start or something, but this is where i stop underestanding stuff...if wax hinders the dreading process, how does it give a head start? but yet it seems to do it. i just plain dont like wax, its all icky sticky blahblah, i like it natural now even though i look like mowgli
it doesn't give a headstart. it gives the appearance of a headstart. the actual dreading process requires the hair being lose and free to knot up, whereas the wax just sticks it all together, without any chance of being able to form a "proper" dread until the wax is gone.
i agree with phen that people here are a bit harsh on wax users. but if your melting it into your hair, then thats bad. but if you use it right, its not likely to form mold though i really believe that it does nothing for the dreading process. it just sticks your hair together. i used to use a very very tiny amount of wax on my first dreads to try to tame frizzies and it did nothing to damage my dreads. but one dread that my friend made had so much freaking wax in it, it was disgusting. it never changed shape or knotted up and it felt incredibly gross- like a gooey candle. i ended up combing it out (ouch-i had long hair) and washing the hell out of it and redoing it myself. i really see nothing wrong with a little bit on each dread to try to keep frizzies down, but it totaly doesnt help that for sure. it just makes them look a little bit better i guess. although i dont remember seeing much of a difference in my old dreads.
