Naturally Knotted

Sorry this took so long for me to reply to.

If you decide you no longer want to dread your hair, and you are less than three months in, you might be able to comb out your hair. It is a long and painful process, and you would want to use a flea comb and lots of conditioner to slowly comb everything out.

If you are past two and a half or three months you will likely have to cut out your hair. Dreads don’t dread all the way to your scalp, there is usually an inch or more of undreaded hair at the roots. You would cut off the dread right around that area, you could even try cutting off an inch before the loose hair, and see if you can comb out the first inch of dreading.

Dreads are a long term commitment, they take a long time to mature, and in general are not a “style” that one should consider putting in just for the summer.

Hope that helped!

I would use the twist and rip method. Sometimes having just one dread works for people, but other times people find little hairs keep getting caught up and sucked in to the dread.

You should still follow the usual guidelines of dreading, no wax, crocheting, things like that. Don’t use conditioner on that dread, though since it is just one you might be okay with regular shampoo. Though you could certainly try washing your entire year with the BS/ACV wash and see how that goes.

If you palm roll every day there is a chance you start breaking the hairs inside the dread. Over time this will just make the dreads weak and at risk of breaking.

The main reason I don’t encourage palm rolling is because it is completely pointless. Dreads are gonna be a bit frizzy, a bit messy, and kinda out there, and after a while palm rolling has no effect.

Interlocking is where you take the tip of the dread and pull it through the root of the dread. The creates a weak point in the dread, and the hair there will never dread up because of how it is twisted. Interlocking is the number one reason dreads fall off. 

Hello! Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I’m finally getting back on top of my life again.

As long as you haven’t been using wax or a crochet hook on your dreads I wouldn’t worry about them being to tight. Depending on your hair type, and how tightly you did the Twist n rip/split method they could be taking longer to loosen up and/or fall out, but I really wouldn’t worry too much.

What do you wash your hair with? Many people have found the BS/ACV wash is really helpful for baby dreads. Specifically adding lots of ACV (apple cider vinegar) promotes dreading, and that using less tends to give the hair a silkier feelings. Perhaps using just a bit of ACV could loosen up your dreads a bit.

Another thing you could try is to add a bit of Jojoba Oil to the baking soda wash. It is usually suggested for use on more mature dreads that need some moisturizing, but a small amount on baby dreads could help to loosen them up a bit too.

Overall though, I would try not to worry about it, and give your dreads a few more months before you start to try and loosen them up at all, because most likely they’ll take care of that themselves.

Hello there! First of all, I want to apologize for taking forever and a day to reply to this. My personal life got out of control and this bolg took a back seat. But I’m back now!

The first issue with dread wax is its chemical make-up. Wax is non-soluble in water, meaning it doesn’t wash out, at least not very well. Imagine all that wax just building up inside your dreads and staying in there for months. The accumulation of wax in your dreads will also keep your dreads wetter longer, increasing the risk of developing dread rot/mold.

Because wax is sticky you’ll find things stick to it when it sits on top of your hair, and as the chemical works its way into your dreads so do the bits of fluff, dirt, and cat hair that are stuck to the wax do too. I may love my cat, but I don’t want her hair in my dreads.

Dreads are sections of matted hair, hair rubs against your pillow, seat cushions, hats, and other hairs too. Wax coats the hair and holds it in place restricting the amount of movement to each individual strand of hair. In this way wax is limiting the movement of the hair and thus the progress it can make.

The biggest reason not to use wax though, is that it isn’t necessary.

Why spend time and money filling your hair with chemicals that won’t wash out and hider the process when you can let nature do just what it wants to do?

Great question!

Washing with the BS/ACV wash will strip your hair of dyes, especially if they are plant based dyes. But I believe it is mostly the Baking soda that strips your hair, not the ACV.

Dish soap is a little trickier. Some people have used dish soap to remove hair dye, but most reports say it only just fades plant based dyes, making them less shiny, but I think a chemical based dye would be alright —though I don’t recommend dying with chemical based dyes especially with dreadlocks.

Personally. I dye my hair with Henna ever six months or so, it gives my naturally red hair a nice boost in color, also makes it a little darker. I have washed with BS/ACV and noticed it will fade out my henna some in the first week of dying. But dish soap I’ve been using since dying my hair and has made it pretty shiny. Henna is different from most plant based dyes though, in that it will change the actual pigments of your hair, permanent change.

Overall though, I don’t think you should have any issues with Dish soap and ACV.

Side note, if you want, you should drop a note explaining why you use this combination, I’ve been considering using ACV after dish soap, and would be curious to have your opinion.

Yay! New Follower, Welcome!

Wash your hair when it feels dirty. That’s the short answer, the long answer is a bit longer, as would be expected I suppose. Most dreadheads wash their hair between three and five days a week, and usually get into a schedule. If you’re used to waching every day try working your way down to four or so. For a week or two just wash your hair every other day, then every three days. You’ll notice your scalp will adjust the amount of oil is produces as you adjust the amount you wash it.

Don’t use conditioner. The purpose of conditioner is to detangle your hair, and dreads are just a bunch of knots. If you find your hair is getting dry try the BS/ACV wash, the Apple Cider Vinegar will soften your hair without undoing the knots. I have an overview of this method here.

Air dry (or sun dry when the weather is nice) is best for your hair. But as your dreads mature it can take a VERY long time for your hair to dry, and you may find blow drying is really helpful. But I wouldn’t recommend to do this every time you dry your hair because it will dry your hair out, and there is very little you can do about that. Some people have sworn by shamie cloths to help dry their hair. This would be a much healthier way to dry your hair quickly than blow drying if it works for you.

You can totally out your hair up in a pony tail! You don’t want to keep it up all day and then sleep with it pulled back for days on end, that will hinder the dreading process, or rather, you may find you end up with one giant dread in the shape of said pony tail. Just make sure that when you pull your hair back that you aren’t running your fingers through your hair and undoing any knots/progress your hair has made.

You can control how think or think your dreads are, no matter how thin your hair. If you want thin dreads just separate the sections that you feel are too thick, and if you want thicker dreads just help sections you feel are too small to congo together —beads are really helpful with this.

Hope that answered all the questions you have for now. You think of anything else, or want clarification don’t hesitate to drop me a note!

Don’t worry about flat dreads. Sometimes dreads are flat and stay flat, but usually they round themselves out in due time. Some people find palm rolling really helpful, but in my experience the dreads just go back to being flat pretty quickly. So really you just end up wearing out your arms for nothing.

You’ll probably find the dreads on the back/top of your head are more likely to be flat, since they rest against things like your pillow and head rests, so they will usually take the longest to round out.

I know it can be a bit agonizing at times, but try to keep our chin up and just enjoy the process.

Yay! Congrats on your first month!

The BS wash is a great way to wash your dreads. Do you find your hair is really dry? If you do, and maybe even if you don’t, try an ACV rinse after the BS wash. Take a cup-ish of Apple Cider Vinegar, and mix it with a gallon-ish of water, and pour that over your head. Let it sit for less than a minute and then rinse. The ACV will help to soften up your hair, without undoing the knots that have formed.

The simple answer to how frequently you should wash your dreads is “when it feels dirty”. Most people wash their dreads every three to five days. If you are used to washing your hair every day this will make your hair really oily in the beginning. Work your way down slowly if you want —cold turkey is fine too though— washing every other day for a week or two, then every three days, then every four, you’ll notice your hair adjusts pretty easily.

Just listen to your hair and you’ll be fine.

Hello! You sound like you are really ready for this journey to begin, how exciting!

People often think the if you use the natural/neglect method you are just stuck with whatever size dreads nature throws at you, but as you’re figuring out, that isn’t really true.

As your hair sections itself off feel free to separate them into sizes you would prefer. In some places of your hair you may find your hair is really suborn and you have to separate them quite often, other areas will be less argumentative. If you need to feel free to throw on a bead if you think it would help.

Don’t worry too much, thin hair will dread, in fact some people find thin hair is better for thinner dreads. As long as you are not breaking off lots of hairs every time you separate it shouldn’t be harmful.

You’ll get to know your own head, and how to listen to what it wants. 

Don’t feel bad about using wax, there is a lot of misinformation out there. Be glad that now you know! (-:

Putting almost anything that isn’t natural in your dreads is bad, this clay stuff sounds like a sculpting/lifting product I used on my hair before I dreaded it. If you only used it once and on one dread I wouldn’t worry too much, but you should try to get the gunk out of your dread. Reason being, because you could find that that particular dread holds water longer, and thus is at a higher risk for developing dread rot.

What do you wash your hair with? the BS/ACV wash is really effective at getting residue out of your hair, and the longer I use dish soap the more I think it could be quite effective as well. If you are really concerned that the stuff isn’t coming out try a deep cleanse soak, any recipe with Baking soda will work just fine.

Blow drying the dread may also help. Blow dry the dread on high heat to melt the product, then dab and squeeze it with a paper towel or cloth. You may find that helps to pull out the clay, and this combined with washing with BS/ACV method will clear out most of the clay.

Good luck!

Heeeyy, Thanks for the follow up!

I’ve been washing with dish soap recently as well, and have to agree with you. My dreads feel lighter, stay cleaner longer, and I’ve even noticed my hair color is more vibrant! I’ve been swamped with work as of late, but in the next few days I should have the time to write up a tutorial on this method of washing. Thanks for your feed back!

As far as decorating reviews can be mixed.

Dread beads are great at any age. and can be quite helpful in rounding out large bumps you may not care for, encouraging congos, and sometimes taming loose hair.

Wrapping dreads is a little tricky. I have had followers on here say they wrapped their dreads as young as a few months old and they were fine. I think wrapping would not be too harmful in dreads only two or three months old, as long as they aren’t covered completely, and perhaps only wrapped for three moths or less at a time.

Dreads need room to move around and rub against things, if they are wrapped up they are restricted in the way they can move, it is difficult, if not impossible to loop up in typical dread fashion.

I would wait until your dreads are past the six month mark to wrap them completely for more than three weeks at a time. But the criss cross pattern is fun, and less restricting, and would be fine for baby dreads even just a month or two old.

So firstly, you should know that dreads are incredibly healthy, your hair will actually be better than undreaded hair because you aren’t constantly curling and using a straightener, aren’t filling your hair with products. When hair is left to do it’s own thing it is at its best.

Backcombing is fine, but it can be a pretty damaging way to start off. the Twist and Rip method, while it can be tricky to get the hang of for the first section or two, is gentler on your hair.

What ever method you decide on you have the right idea, to just let your hair do what it wants, no rubber bands, no hooks, no wax.