*~~~Dready Mamas 2010~~~* - Page 31

[Midwitch]

Originally Posted by MoonStarFalling 



My dreads never went through a shrinking stage I think because they locked up so slowly (2 years until they were fully locked up). I guess my hair was growing fast enough to make up for it plus a little. Midwitch your dreads look great. What method did you use to start them? I always thought it would be hard to start with super long hair.

Yes, I think mine might be low on shrinkage as well, as it is locking slowly, with small loops instead of huge ones. I started them with TnR (twist&rip) and then since then nothing, just keeping them clean and healthy :-)

[CrunchyMama19]

Dreads have reached major POOF stage! Wow, I need to take a picture and maybe even do a timeline at some point. Keeping my hair in pulled back until poof stage susbsides!

[dinan6]

Hey there dready mama's. Hope you all are doing well. I have not checked in for a while so here goes. I'm going on 17 months with my dreads. I started them when my hair was pretty short, above my shoulders. Hopefully when I post the pictures it works. This is a pic with my oldest. This was the best one with most recent dreads. I can't wait until they start getting long.

[MoonStarFalling]

They are so lovely and great colors! They look really nice on you.

[JessimaTheisen]

It is actually really easy to start dreads with really long hair. My hair was to the middle of my back when I started letting it dread up. My dreadies are 100% natty--I did nothing to them except rip them apart as they matted up.

[Sharlla]

guess it depends on how long.  my friend started with waist length hair and didn't lock up for  a year.  she was surprised that my neglect dreads were only 5 months old

[Sharlla]

23 weeks

[inkedmamajama]

Its been 11 months since I started this dread journey...the only thing that frustrates me is my psoriasis. I have flaky/crusty/scaly spots all over. Usually when I have brushable hair my scalp goes through cycles-I have never had to deal with nonstop flaking. I think the only thing that is really different in that I do not use conditioner anymore-I wonder if that was actually doing my scalp some good? 

I still have a crazy amount of loose hairs that need worked in...but I have been having a hard time doing that myself.

As far as psoriasis treatments, I have used so many different things-GSE, Tea Tree oil, prescription medicated lotions, coal tar shampoos, every version of head n shoulders/selson blue/neutrogena shampoos, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, no poo regimes, even using my own urine as a scalp treatment (i was advised by a person with horrid psoriasis that this keeps her scalp healthy. did not work out for me)

I just don't know what to do next.  I no longer have medical insurance, so thats out.  I dont care about the itching, that I can manage-its the FLAKES that is killing me-I have black hair and flakes show really well-its quite annoying.

Help? anything I havent thought of?

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Other than that, I absolutely love my dreads.

[CrunchyMama19]

Neutragena T-Gel works really well for flakes and psoriasis scalp. I know a few dreadies that swear by it. I use it too and it works great!

[inkedmamajama]

Originally Posted by CrunchyMama19 

Neutragena T-Gel works really well for flakes and psoriasis scalp. I know a few dreadies that swear by it. I use it too and it works great!

thank you for the suggestion, I have tried that shampoo like I said-but my sister just told me she is going to send me some pascalite clay to try, so I will try that next! "just keep swimming" lol

[yippiehippie]

inkedmama- I have the same issue. I've heard hydrogen peroxide can work. I've only tried it once and it didn't seem to do much, but might try again. It's cheap enough! Update after you use the clay!

[inkedmamajama]

hydrogen peroxide scares me-I have jet black (and grey!) roots and I would worry that it would bleach my hair. Also, the BURNING!! I have a some raw spots (one morning I woke up to my scalp on fire and my fingernails drenched in blood because I had been furiously scratching in my sleep!) and the peroxide canb be quite burning.

But hey, If i can use my own urine on my scalp for a month, maybe peroxide shouldn't scare me so!

[yippiehippie]

Originally Posted by inkedmamajama 

hydrogen peroxide scares me-I have jet black (and grey!) roots and I would worry that it would bleach my hair. Also, the BURNING!! I have a some raw spots (one morning I woke up to my scalp on fire and my fingernails drenched in blood because I had been furiously scratching in my sleep!) and the peroxide canb be quite burning.

But hey, If i can use my own urine on my scalp for a month, maybe peroxide shouldn't scare me so!

Yikes, mine's not that bad, but I do have very dark brown hair and the h2o2 didn't dye it at all:)

I really need help, I'm close to cutting mine out, they've looked so bad the last couple months I can't go anywhere w/out covering my head AND tying my hair in a knot (and I don't normally care at all what ppl think, but this is BAD).

Here's the problems...I'm at 6 months, began w/T&R with smaller than average sections. I have huge loops everywhere and stray hairs and it's completely frizzy. The top of my head looks like someone sprinkled a bunch of powder on it, not just b/c of the mild psoriasis, but when the dead hairs (that normally fall off your head) come out and stay in the dreads you can see the white roots. How have I never heard of this issue? Does anyone else have this? I have lots of little white roots on the top of my head:(

I know I could palm roll more and crochet strays in more, but, really I chose dreads b/c I didn't want to have to mess w/my hair. I just don't have the time to keep up with it. Please tell me this stage goes away fast? I feel like I have a rat's nest on my head. Those of you that chose neglect, how in the world did you do it??

Oh, and when the hell do the ends start dreading up? If I cut it will it look better or just unravel? I've had ppl ask me "I thought you dreaded your hair?" and Are you trying to dread your hair? Oh, it's dreaded alright, the top is tight with tons and tons of huge loops. It's just so ugly...
 

[Chicky2]

yippiehippie, for the loops, I found that palm rolling in the shower works very well.  Also, that video from farrensquare that's been posted on here more than once works great for loops, too, esp. in the skinnier dreads, I've found! 

Other than that, for the loops, you can wrap the loops w/embroidery floss and leave it for months and it will help the worst loops. 

No clue about the white roots, except to carefully trim them out?  I never noticed any in mine. 

Oh, and for the ends, I ended up taking some of the  longest ones and folded them up towards the rest of the dread, wrapped the long end around the dread (like I was using embroidery floss) and then palmrolling the snot outta them while wet.  If they were ready, they stayed.  The others I just pulled up thru the middle of the dread w/a child's plastic beading needle ('cause you can open up the eye). You may have to do a bit of extra palm rolling for a few washes, but really, when they are ready, they'll stay.

By the time I hit 8 mos dready mine all of the sudden were very low maintenance!

This too shall pass, Dreaded One!

[yippiehippie]

Originally Posted by Chicky2 

yippiehippie, for the loops, I found that palm rolling in the shower works very well.  Also, that video from farrensquare that's been posted on here more than once works great for loops, too, esp. in the skinnier dreads, I've found! 

Other than that, for the loops, you can wrap the loops w/embroidery floss and leave it for months and it will help the worst loops. 

No clue about the white roots, except to carefully trim them out?  I never noticed any in mine. 

Oh, and for the ends, I ended up taking some of the  longest ones and folded them up towards the rest of the dread, wrapped the long end around the dread (like I was using embroidery floss) and then palmrolling the snot outta them while wet.  If they were ready, they stayed.  The others I just pulled up thru the middle of the dread w/a child's plastic beading needle ('cause you can open up the eye). You may have to do a bit of extra palm rolling for a few washes, but really, when they are ready, they'll stay.

By the time I hit 8 mos dready mine all of the sudden were very low maintenance!

This too shall pass, Dreaded One!

Sweet, thanks. I'm gonna try all this. Thanks for the encouragement too, I need it! After I posted this I told DH and he said he loves them anyway so that was good to hear too.

Do you know is the video on this thread?
 

[Chicky2]

http://youtu.be/nuHmVeVbIys

You can do this all up and down the dread, and I promise you it is fantastic for making your dreads look a bit more tidy and for the loops.  It works better for loops in skinnier dreads, unless your hands are stronger than mine, lol.  Do it when they are wet, or you have a bowl of water and wet your fingers before each round.  also, when I switched our pool to salt water my dreads shrunk up about 2 more inches in a day or two!  Soak your head in sea salt water and let it dry and do some palmrolling/thingy in the video...  And do some wrapping on those really stubborn BIG loops!  Besides, it'll add some cute colors!

I'm so glad your hubby said he likes them.  I know how big a difference it makes to have your so onboard!  My dh loves mine.  He just wants them to be longer already (we both love my long hair).  I told him I'm going to do 2 things when they are really long.  1) I'm going headbangin', and 2) I'm going to get a cute cowgirl hat and boots 'cause no one can slap just one label on my butt!  (see siggie)

I wish you'd post a pic of your dreads!  I'll bet they look just like everyone else's at that stage!

[CrunchyMama19]

I am in a landlocked state but would love to try the salt water treatment. Anyone know how much sea salt to add to water to get the right concentration?

[Chicky2]

I don't know that the ratio is super important, but someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.  I'd just put a tsp or two in a spray bottle and go to sprayin'.

[Chicky2]

Ok, so now that I'm 13 months dready (I can't believe it!), I feel my dreads are probably plenty "done" enough to condition.  What is recommended?

[inkedmamajama]

I have dreads the same age, and I used some conditioner last week on a few of the really bad psoriasis spots of my scalp. It was just some regular conditioner that I rubbed into the spots-I had no issues with any sort of 'undreading' 

If I were to use conditioner on the bulk of my dreads I would use either avocado peels (we go through a lot of avo around here and I am always rubbing the peels on everyone-waste not want not!) or perhaps some coconut oil.

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Meanwhile, on the psoriasis front, I have won an important battle and hopefully this means the war will soon be won! I am using pascalite clay. I have started making a paste with it, and rubbing it into the worst spots. The redness, scaling and flaking have all improved and gone away in some spots! The stuff is a godsend. The place I got it from is http://www.pascalite.com/ and they also have a Pasca-Pak that has Pascalite powder, water, glycerine, aloe vera and rosemary oil.  No preservatives added. It has been great.  

I would suggest this to anyone with a scalp condition! (Read the website, it has also been great for my chronic ibs-d, my daughters eczema, my kids acne, my husbands hemorhoids, and the psoriasis on my face)