i have looked thru a few of the older posts but wanted to start a new topic.

my hair is about down to my ass and stick straight, is it too late to start dreads? i ask because i was hearing that its best to start with short hair (please forgive my ignorance) i was reading on Dreadlocks pictures, information, products (http://www.dreadheadhq.com/) and it was saying how important residue free shampoo is. can those with dreads back this up? i dont want to buy any product if its not necessary. i might go ahead and backcomb a few but i am thinking about just going without brushing maybe doing some twisting after awhile and see how it goes. basically i want some low maintenance hair and am not ready to shave my head again (right now anyways).

so talk to me, give me some support please (becaus ei know i am not going to get it from my family lol)

Dawn (brooken) has GORGEOUS hair - you might want to ask her :D

Dawn (brooken) has GORGEOUS hair - you might want to ask her :D

it was actually her signature picture that got me thinking about them again (i haven wanted them for years), so i was posting in hopes that she would respond as well as chole :D

My friend locked her dd's hair and I know she didn't use any residue-free anything in that girl's hair. LOL They're not the type for all that. The dd has fine, thin, straight, blonde hair. Her locks look really good.

Personally, I think you should go for it. I don't have straight hair and I started with short hair, but I think if you really want to do it, go for it. Good luck!

My friend locked her dd's hair and I know she didn't use any residue-free anything in that girl's hair. LOL They're not the type for all that. The dd has fine, thin, straight, blonde hair. Her locks look really good.

Personally, I think you should go for it. I don't have straight hair and I started with short hair, but I think if you really want to do it, go for it. Good luck!

thanks :D i'm going to attempt it but im also going to put some of the fake dreads in to flesh out my hair a bit. maybe some coloured braids...

Its easier to mantain them in the early stages if they are shorter.
Residue free=flake free and clean on the inside dreadies, I vote yes to it for sure.
No wax, it makes things stick to the dreads and doesnt really help. Aloe is good for frizzies!

Twisting *may* work, but usually your hair has to have alot of texture. I like backcombing the best. I acutally did a girls hair today! It takes awhile but is totally worth it!

I have had 4 sets of dreads, all natural(no backcombing ect) and I am curently growing my hair out to get a set put in!

Good luck!

Yay! I love dreads, they are so much fun. And my reasons were a lot like yours Branwyn, I wanted something low-maintenance and natural, but also with built-in style. :smirk:
I don't think it's best to start w/ short hair. I had long hair half-way down my back. I was wearing it tied in a bandana every day and dreads just started to form, so I went with it. Your hair will shrink up a lot as it dreads.
I started washing my hair w/ Dr. Bronners, on the dreadlock forum I was lurking on that is the favorite. Years ago I started growing dreads, but didn't know about residue-free shampoo, and they didn't work half as well. So yes I'd say it's important. Or use baking soda/acv if it suits you.
Here's the forum:
Knotty Know-How Forum (http://hipforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=209)

Dawn (brooken) has GORGEOUS hair - you might want to ask her
:o thanks! That picture's from Feburary (as you can see in the calender, lol) so my hair's a lot knottier now.

re: Dread HQ - never tried their products, they seem pricey. But I love their photo gallery.

thanks dawn.

i am so excited. i love my long hair but hate brushing it etc. so okay i believe i will keep my shorty bangs, because well i love bettie bangs) and let the rest of my hair do whatever. well i might backcomb a few, get a few of the fake ones and braid them in. just to fill out my hair a bit and see what it will be like eventually.

yay i am so excited!

i am so excited. i love my long hair but hate brushing it etc. so okay i believe i will keep my shorty bangs, because well i love bettie bangs) and let the rest of my hair do whatever.

i bet that would look tight branwyn! i like the betty bang sso much with your dark hair. :)

my best friend has dreads, and they are so beautiful. long down her back, never frizzy, really great! she uses dr. bronners too and no other special products. ah and aloe for frizzies too.

i've thought about it doing it to my hair, but i am afraid i'd mess it up and end up with a shaved head, lol! i really like blonde dreads though, so still think about doing it on a whim sometime :)

i was just looking at the pictures on that site...dude, that little boy hayden's hair is soooo cute!

B- no offense, but with your OCD natural/neglect dreads are not the way to go.

with natural dreads there will be hairs out of place, no matter what you do, there will be lumps and bumps in the dreads no matter how much you palm roll, there will be dreads that are thinner or fatter than the others, there will be ends that refuse to dread, they will grow interminably slow when you want them long and will stick out in places that you didn't think hair could stick out. It's enough to make me crazy some days

If I was you I'd totally go with dread extensions. Because they are fake hair they are "perfect", no loose hairs, no inconsistencies in width, and you can make them as long or short as you want (A good installer will be able to box braid your natural hair around the extension well enough that someone with long hair can have short dread extensions). Plus you can get them in any color you want while coloring natural dreads is a messy, tricky process. DE's have just as little maintenance as natural hair dreads (just washing the scalp every week or so and reinstalling every 3-4 months as they grow out). If you were a Chicago girl I'd totally send you to the girl that did mine a few years ago.

Hair Alchemy Extension Services (http://www.hairalchemy.com/)

also check out these places
Guide to synthetic hair extensions (http://quinnster.fqdn.net/)
HAIRPOLICE international (http://www.hairpolice.com/)

Good luck.

Chole

Wool and yarn hair extensions (http://www.angrycaninelovestick.org/wool/index.html)

you could always felt up some dreads with wool yarn or roving

Wool and yarn hair extensions (http://www.angrycaninelovestick.org/wool/index.html)

you could always felt up some dreads with wool yarn or roving

loli actually posted asking about that the other day :)

B- no offense, but with your OCD natural/neglect dreads are not the way to go.

with natural dreads there will be hairs out of place, no matter what you do, there will be lumps and bumps in the dreads no matter how much you palm roll, there will be dreads that are thinner or fatter than the others, there will be ends that refuse to dread, they will grow interminably slow when you want them long and will stick out in places that you didn't think hair could stick out. It's enough to make me crazy some days

If I was you I'd totally go with dread extensions. Because they are fake hair they are "perfect", no loose hairs, no inconsistencies in width, and you can make them as long or short as you want (A good installer will be able to box braid your natural hair around the extension well enough that someone with long hair can have short dread extensions). Plus you can get them in any color you want while coloring natural dreads is a messy, tricky process. DE's have just as little maintenance as natural hair dreads (just washing the scalp every week or so and reinstalling every 3-4 months as they grow out). If you were a Chicago girl I'd totally send you to the girl that did mine a few years ago.

Hair Alchemy Extension Services (http://www.hairalchemy.com/)

also check out these places
Guide to synthetic hair extensions (http://quinnster.fqdn.net/)
HAIRPOLICE international (http://www.hairpolice.com/)

Good luck.

Chole

i was wondering about my ocd - of course my ocd usually manifests itself in behaviors like having to walk a certain path thru the house, having to touch things a certain amount of times, not being able to get out of the house because of a "feeling" that something will go wrong, having to have a certain loose schedule or i get hysterical, things like that - i dont really manifest the cleanliness and germ ocd thing (unless my immune system is really really low) and unless it has anything to do with animals.

but that said, i do think i would like the synthetic ones better (i tried putting some roving ones in my hair yesterday and hated them - it did uck me out that i had sheep hair in my hair and it was a different texture than the rest of my hair lol) so yeah im gonna save some money to get some braids and synthetic dreads put in, just a few to see if i can handle it.