My 'baby' Dreads!

Who loves orange soda!! Kel does!! Its trrruueee i do i do i do-ooooooo 😉 sorry could not resist!!

i dont have any worth while advice =s but kneehigh susan may have some. my OH had baba dreads as well, then wrapped them so he looked like kenan from te kenan and kel show! lolz

Nirvana Girl your hair looks awesome, wish i had the guts to get dreads!! Girl who i used to wrk with had baby dreads and they just look so cool!!

random question, did you use wax when having them installed?

How have I missed this thread for a whole 3 days?!!!  I've been dying to see pics of these!  They look awesome!  It'll take a while for them to settle, so accessories are your friend until then! I personally don't use wax on my dreads, I tried it, but don't like the texture of it in my hair, so washed it out with a deep clean solution (here's a link: http://www.ragingrootsstudio.com/recipes.htm - I used the baking soda soak & ACV rinse - there's also some really good advice on dread maintenance on this site), and I just stick to palmrolling now, along with a couple of dread tightening products (I use Dreadhead HQ Dread Soap, Dreadhead HQ Locking Accelerator & Knotty Boy Tropical Tightening Gel - also, Knotty Boy do some really gorgeous smelling deodorizing sprays - I use the mandarin one, as well as Dreadhead HQ Vanilla dread spray).  Mine seem to be coming along fine, but if I feel the need to tighten up the roots a bit, I also use Dreadhead HQ Locking Peppa.
Hope this helps!

Thanks Mindi, great advice!

I have the dreadhead shampoo + the cherry spray, mmmm 🙂
Waiting on Lock peppa!

I've been wearing my hair bands, but its calmed down a lot!
Still fuzzy, but needs that 1st wash...also feeling the roots are loose :/
Got a crochet hook but not the nack yet!!

Really happy I got them tho..

Nope Pippa no wax for me, I didnt want any used,
Just the backcomb method with lock peppa.

Mindi are youre ends rounded off?
I dont like my paint brush effect tips.

No, mine aren't rounded off, I've got extra long wispy bits on the ends, which is what I wanted.  I had rounded tips last time I had dreads, but didn't really like them, so I went for the wisps this time.

Long did it take for them to settle or look remotely like hair again and not rats tails?

Mines are a mess! They dont sit right...and just look
Like messed up hair!

Dunno if theyre ment to look this bad or if mine are s**t basically :/

Don't panic, you haven't gotten them that long ago and they do need time to settle. Not to worry you, but it could take a couple of months, maybe even more. It'll all be worth it in the end, think of it as an exercise in patience!

It doesn't mean they're s**t, it's just the way they've been done.  Mine were crocheted, which makes the dreads look much more like mature dreads straight away.  From the pics, it looks like yours were backcombed and rolled, but not crocheted, in which case, they'll take a lot longer to look like formed and mature dreads.  Keep at the palmrolling, and they will start to look good, but without the crocheting, this can take months, not weeks!

Have a look at the galleries here: www.knottyboy.com and you'll see lots of people in the first few months whose dreads look alot similar to yours!

Thanks Mindi. I tried the crochet myself on them but cant manage it.
Gonna get some maintenance done on them when a move down to Newcastle.
I want them crochet hooked all the loose hair, tightened and tips rounded off!
Gonna use alteted states dreads, they do maintenance.

As you said I did have them backcombed + rolled but I did expect crochet too!

Just gonna have to persivere...as a dont wanna give up on them!

They look great so far, please don't worry, they take a while to mature. I would really advise against maintenence at this stage, it really is best to leave them be for a couple of months at least. Patience is key. 🙂

Loose hair is going to be a part of your life for a while, and around an inch of loose roots is totally normal. My roots are abnormally tight naturally and can be somewhat uncomfortable,
your dreads will tighten on their own in time, you may feel that they are loosening but they will sort themselves out, if you are really worried, put up a picture 🙂

I do use crochet carefully to start dreads but it is very easy to damage your hair with a crochet needle, especially if you can't see what you are doing.

*Disclaimer* I hope this post does not come off as rude or anything, I am just going to share my views as per my experience, and you are of course free to do what you feel is best 🙂

I had a look at the salon you mentioned, and it would appear that they use rubber bands as a maintenance technique.
Bands can cause weak spots and break down in your hair, leaving little gluey bits of partially dissolved rubber. Properly done dreadfixes should not rely on any products or bands/thread to hold the roots in place. Hair needs friction to dread, and forcibly holding it in the same place won't allow this to happen.
I would personally avoid this place, they don't say what their methods of maintenance are, but as they sell wax, it is assumed they use it also.

Wax is really detrimental to dread formation and attracts all kinds of rubbish into your hair as well as weighing it down. It will also hold moisture in your hair hair after washing and can lead to mould. I have used wax on people in the past and really wish I had known this stuff at the time. I have also had to fix wax and dread perm disasters and I feel that it really isn't the way to go.  I know you don't use wax, but I didn't want to just say 'wax is bad' without some background.

I am personally really against 'products' for dreads, scented sprays etc are fine, locking accelorator is okay to a degree, but it is basically just a high price for some salty water.  I would avoid lock peppa too as it is just powdered clay.

I think the shampoos are fine, but I greatly dislike the attitude pushed by these companies that you must at all costs use a residue free shampoo then fill your hair with wax and clay.

Please note I am not trying to say I am better than anyone else with my methods and opinions etc, but I have seen first hand the damage this stuff can cause. I just really don't want you to waste your time and money and possibly end up unhappy with your hair.  I hope this has been helpful 🙂

Thanks Susan or youre advice, i'll read it again later when I get home so it sinks in!
I will also add a photo of them today!

Basically my main worry is that theyre going tits up!
Partly cos I cant keep on top of them!
Ive broke 2 crochet hooks trying to fiddle with them and i'm just leaving holes in them!
Cant get the loose hairs to stick in...roots need done bad, really slack with loose hair.
Some are also going kinda flat, not rounded and theres 1 at the back I think its went mated LOL

Just all in all cos I cant compare to anyone or ask for advice I wonder if they are ok...
I'm so worrird i'm ruining them 🙁

Post a pic soon

Relax 🙂 If you are breaking crochet hooks you are doing it too hard, were they plastic? What size are they?  I would bin the crochet idea for now, if you are making holes you're fiddling with the structure and that won't help you.
You may be breaking the individual hairs as well, and your dreads are only as strong as the sum of their parts. 
If it's any consolation you will do more to ruin them by trying to maintain at this stage than you will by leaving them alone.
Take loads of pictures and we'll see what's happening, please don't be upset, it will all be all right one way or another 🙂

Loads of my dreads are flat too even at over two years 😛 You shouldn't need to keep on top of them at this point, they are still very young and will go through stages of looking like absolute arse sometimes. Sometimes they do encroach upon each other, and they need pulling apart, but that is all you should be doing at this point.
Who did them for you?

i second the wax thing. ryan has wax in his and it looks mingin' inside! looks like mould(it isnt, as doesnt smell, is just like LOADS of dust & crap collected=s) so i totally back up susan on wax being yucky

I'm with the other ladies on the wax issue - I really don't like it at all!  I also agree with KneeHighSusan in the fact that spending loads of money on specialty dread shampoos isn't really necessary - I use the DreadheadHQ one purely because I like the way it makes my hair feel after shampooing, but I also rotate it with Neutrogena's T-Gel shampoo because I get dandruff if I don't use something like that at least once in a while.  I have also heard that Lush's solid shampoo bars (particularly the blue one - I think it's called 'Seanik') are really good for washing dreads.  As for the lock accelerator and lock peppa, I bought them because they came in a multipack with two bottles of the Dreadhead shampoo which was actually cheaper than just buying the two bottles of shampoo!  😀  I also use the Knotty boy tropical tightening gel mostly because I love the smell and it doesn't leave anything behind in my that doesn't wash out when I next wash them.
As far as crocheting goes, I've been crocheting loose hairs for a couple of months, but it is important not to overdo the crocheting as maintenance - I only do it once a month, and use the smallest crochet hook I can find!
I also have quite a bit of loose hair at the roots, but I find that if I just leave it alone most of the time, and try to separate the hairs into which dread they should be in and then give the roots a bit of a crochet to coax them into the right place once a month when I do my maintenance, that they pretty much sort themselves out!

This is them now...