Dreaded Day, part two

I don't know if I mentioned how much of my own hair was coming out. But I can say with surety, "a lot." Especially in the beginning. Backcombing, or at least what my husband and friends are doing, seems to result in the loss of a lot of hair. And my scalp never achieved blissful numbness, which I was hoping for.

Kyle keeps asking, "Do you regret your decision yet?" and my answer is, "somewhat." But there is no going back at this point.

Why do I regret? Well, for one they are calling it a night, and I still have about 32 braids that still need dreading. I refuse to go to church tomorrow if I still have braids. It really wouldn't matter that much because I'd be sporting a tam, but still. Also, I did not know I was going to look as absurd as I do. And thirdly, I think maybe my sections should have been larger. Some of my dreads are soooo tiny... I'm not sure I like how they look.

Does it get better? Some people seem pretty pumped right after they finish, ready to go out and show off to the world. Right now, I look more like a cautionary tale. I don't think I did anything wrong... I kind of wish someone would have told me I'd look so crazy. I knew it was going to take a while and a lot of work, but I didn't want to look so bad for so long.

Maybe the wax will help it out. I'm not putting it in until we finish the dreads. Maybe I'm just deluding myself and Mom was right.

The Dreaded Day (ha...ha...ha)

So! We are...1/4th done? The guys have taken a break and are playing a LoL game.

Now, to be honest, I am kind of scared. My dreads are all a mess, some are REALLY thin, even though I thought the section sizes were accurate, and David has succeeded in pulling out half my hair. By all indications, they should get better... but I am a doubter. And wondering if I should spend the next three months hiding my head. I feel like my mom will at the very least be thinking "I told you so" and if she looks at my head at all, she will give a look of despair.

I don't want to see that. Hence the tam. I'm just going to keep something on my head and deny everyone. Yes, my head looks that weird. The locks are kind of tending toward Sideshow Bobness.

Also, nobody told me how painful this would be. Sure, I read it was going to be some pulling when you take the rubberbands out (cept I didn't have them at the roots cause I have braids) and a little pain when people are trying to get the hair knotted close to the roots. Well, Kyle is doing a bang-up job at getting the hair knotted close to the roots and it hurts like hell. At the very least, it feels like two people pulling hair straight out from my head and going at it with a blunt saw. At the most, I want to sink my fingernails in something, bite my lip, and cry.

I haven't cried yet. But we are only 1/4th done. This is going to take forever.

Sectioned-ed!

So, I decided to get my hair sectioned by MasterCuts. They cited $15 an hour to section and braid each section. I was getting the braids partially to hold the section and partially because the waviness that is left is supposed to help it dread.

Moral of the story is don't get braids. I was there three hours. It was $15 an hour, so $45. I think it would have been much cheaper (and much less painful) to just get it sectioned. I had no idea how small 3/4ths an inch actually is, and how tiny the resulting braids are.

I had to bike there, so I brought along a bandanna to hide my checkerboard braided head. Here is me incognito:


Annnnndd... here is how I look with my silly braided sections:


I hope those are 3/4ths an inch, because I was informed that size was perfect and I really don't want them any smaller.

My scalp feels really weird now. But, I am now sectioned and ready to start dreading in the morning, as soon as I get the food/snack situation figured out. I have no intentions of leaving the apartment until I am fully dreaded.

[I'd like to note that I am choosing the "small" option for the photos and this is the result. I'd also like to note that I am not a big fan of my nose.]

Edit: I have gone through and cut most of the pictures sizes in half... manually by typing in new pixel sizes on all the code.

Be Prepared!

Be preeeepaaaared! Think Scar from Lion King. Actually, go to YouTube.com and watch all the good Disney villain songs from Be Prepared to Kill the Beast to Hellfire to Poor Unfortunate Souls... You'll enjoy it.

There are a couple of ways to get prepared for dreadlocks, and I have been working on them. One of the first is, you need to have hair. And that hair needs to be at least three inches long. Seeing my before picture, you know that my hair is obviously longer than three inches... in the front. I said it was stacked (or layered) in the back. It's taken a bit to get some of that grown out. But three inches is the minimum, at four inches DreadHeadHQ can promise it will lock (with their kit), and six to eight is preferred.

Another way to prepare is to start washing your hair with Dread Soap to get your hair used to it and to get it really clean from all the other stuff (with residue) you have been washing it with.

New dreads can be washed frequently, but it helps them if they aren't. Washing will pull hair out of it and the more infrequently they are washed the more chance it gets to lock. That said, we still want our hair to be clean. So when dreads are started, it is advisable to wash them every three to four days. When they mature, every two to three days. Unlike normal hair, the oils on the scalp don't filter into the dreads, it just stays on the scalp. So you'll really be rinsing your dreads and washing your scalp. So another way to prepare is get your hair used to only being washed every three days. It was a struggle with my hair (it went all itchy on the day before I needed to wash it), but I think it is finally getting used to it. Of course, that is just my hair. I have taken to rinsing showers where I don't get my hair wet. It may be March, but it feels like late spring/early summer out there, and I like being CLEAN.

So, hopefully my scalp is prepared.

Before dreading:
-Prepare scalp (check)
-Get stuff (check)
-Sectioning

Sectioning can be done at the dread party, right before the dreadlocks. It probably should be done (instead of opting for random pieces of hair) since that gives you control over how the dreads look and what size they are. Some people may want the crazy random look, but I am going for the neatest dreads possible. So sectioning. I want my hair sectioned into 3/4s inch squares (which Jonny Clean from DreadHeadHQ swears are PERFECT). I am planning to actually have a salon do this, and then just braid my hair out from my scalp. That will keep the hair in sections, and then I'll sleep on them that night, wash them the next day, and the waviness that the braids create could actually help making dreadlocks. And when my friends come, I'll just point at my head and be like, "We need to make this many."

So, biking to MasterCuts tomorrow to have them do it. I had lost my faith in MasterCuts (which is why my haircuts started costing $30 instead of $20, cause I changed salons), but 1) my husband is away with the car and 2) this should be simple enough they can't really mess it up. I mean, I'm not asking them to cut anything... *crosses fingers* I am also bringing a hat or bandanna to cover up a bunch of ridiculous-looking braids on my bike back. Then I'll have to go figure out snacks for my dread party.

And that is all the preparation I have. Other than trying to mentally prepare for when I see my relatives on Easter (in a week), or my Steampunk group the Saturday before Easter, or my small group this Sunday... Lots of ridicule potential.

Oh! The other thing to do to prepare. This is not a requirement, but advisable from DreadHeadHQ. Making a dread pact. The dread pact is promising that, barring all disaster, you will keep your dreads for one year. They should be mature by then and will give you a chance to really see what having dreads are like. It is meant to get you past some of the early months when they seem almost stuck looking bad and not making any progress and you just want to hang it all and comb them out. Well, if you promise you'll keep them for one year, gotta hang with it. That is another way of preparing. I will sign mine the day I put them in.

SWAG! (Apparently, I mean STUFFS)

Now it's about the stuffs!

Ok, wait a second, what does SWAG even mean? I've seen it all over the place and frankly I thought it mean something along the lines of "booty" as in the pirate variation. One second.

Aha. My usage of it in the title of this post is entirely wrong. Swag is apparently partially how one carries oneself and could also relate to "free stuff" that is given out promotionally.(Urban Dictionary)

Well then. Not swag. Stuffs. Gear. Essentials.

As I am obsessed with DreadHeadHQ, I ordered their kit, a few of their tools, and some extra shampoo and style stuff.

Here is a helpful list of stuff I got from DreadHeadHQ:
-Dreadlock soap (no-residue shampoo)
-Backcombing combs
-Rubberbands
-Dread wax
-Dread butta (like lotion... for dreads!)
-Lock Accelerator (still not sure what this is, but it should help)
-Lock Peppa (same as above)
-Head Honcho (a head scratcher)
-Lock Sculpta (like a tiny tiny crochet hook)
-Loose Hair Tool 2.0 (Uh.. it has a hook. To pull hair in.)
-A brimmed tam (simply because I like the brim)
-A Dread Band (honcho headband of sorts)
-A small baggie of beads
-Stickers! (I didn't say I paid for everything. Stickers are swag!)

Stuff I got from Wal-Mart:
-Cheapest blowdryer money can buy (which at Wal-Mart is about $9.67)
-Simple, colorful headbands
-Nylons
-Body wash, but that really has nothing to do with this. I was running short.

So, adding all that stuff up. Price wise, dread kit and all accessories got a little pricey, but over all, it will be less than I paid on haircuts. I stopped getting my hair stacked in the back for $30 a cut when David lost his job. Partially why I started looking for alternate options. The dread beads, three small black wooden beads with tiny fake diamonds on them were free because there was a mixup with my order and they were kind enough to send that along with the missing stuff. So I have beads! Only problem with black beads is that my hair is almost black the way it is. So they will disappear, except for the bedazzle. Which could actually be kind of cool.

My husband, David, is like, "So, you could put them in when you wanted to look nice."
I'm like, [highly sarcastic] "Yeah, to look nice, I'll put BEADS in my DREADS..." Not something you think of, seeing how most people seem to have the opinion that if I am pretty now, I won't be with dreads. However, I did say I wanted to change stereotypes. Bring on the bling beads for my Sunday Best!

But, adding that stuff up, not related to price. I am putting my dreads in by backcombing. The combs are sturdy, straight combs good for that. The Lock Accelerator is supposed to help the hair... lock... better. The Dread Soap is residue free and also helps hair lock. The residue free part is important because 1) residue makes your hair less likely to knot (that's how conditioner works) and 2) if residue builds up inside your dreads, it could mold and rot and stink. And that sucks. Lock Peppa is a powder that you put on your hair that helps it knot really well while backcombing. Rubberbands are for holding the ends. Wax is to help hold the knots inside the dread and let them acclimatize to being knotted. Dread Butta is to keep your hair healthy in the dread. The Lock Sculpta and Loose Hair Tool 2.0 are both for getting hair outside your dread back in your dread. Dread Band is to keep the dreads back without hiding them, the tam is to hide them around all of my relatives who are sure to make fun of me.

Then from Wal-Mart, the hair dryer is for melting the wax into my hair and drying dreads when they get more mature. They will take longer to dry at that stage, but I am aiming for getting thinner dreads, which shouldn't be too bad. It's rather sad, I went for years without a hair dryer and now I have to get one. The nylons are to wear on my head in the shower and while sleeping in the early days before my dreads lock. It helps keep the hair in and makes me look stupid at the same time. I'm sure you'll get pictures. And the colorful headbands are just for holding my hair back when it's too warm for the fleece Dread Band and I don't want to wear a tam. And currently all these goodies are sitting in a box just waiting for me to use them!

One moment while I inhale the wonderful aromas of both the wax and the Dread Butta. At least I can be sure my dreads will smell good. I just hope I don't eat them in my sleep. Then I'd have to put the nylon over my face and there'd be no way you are getting pictures of that.

So I basically bought everything I think I need to make the dreads, and then everything I need to maintain them... for a while. Once I get past the initial waxing phase, I shouldn't need that anymore. I'll still use the Dread Butta (actually, the wax can moisturize, so technically I don't even need the Butta before I finish with the wax) for possibly as long as I have dreads. Dreads hold all the hair that has fallen out (I won't shed anymore!) and as such, needs nutrients and moisturizing to keep the hair healthy. The tools will help upkeep my dreads. All that I should need now is more of the soap (eventually. I have a lot of soap), more of the Butta, and then when I have money to maybe go crazy and buy like two more tams and some beads.

"Preparing your mind for Dreadlocks"

Title is in quotes 'cause I snitched it from the DreadHeadHQ site. They say you have to have a reason for getting dreadlocks, and you have to know your reason because things are about to get rough. It seems that a vast majority of the public seem to think that getting dreadlocks is akin to growing a hippie bum on your head. Jonny Clean, from DreadHeadHQ, calls people's perceptions of you "dirty hippie burnout bum." Among other things, I intend to prove dreadlocks can be clean. I very much like being clean, and as such, me and camping don't always get along.

But, I need a reason. Also recommended is making a "dread resolution." To quote, directly from the site, "Since Dreadlocks are a journey that you're starting, a changing point in your life, now is a great time to start other long-term journeys that have been on your mind."

So reason, dread resolution, and stuff. You can't forget the stuff.

First, let's go into why I want to get dreadlocks. And please, if you stumble across this blog and just totally don't agree, be civil about it. This is my reason. I want dreadlocks partially because once they mature, they don't ever need to be brushed or styled and they always look good! That is my opinion, I realize some may find that debatable. I also realize I have to go through months of not looking good to reach this. In this stuff section, you will find "tam" for the bad days.

Those are the practical ones. I also want dreads because I think they are cool, and I want to be different and step out in a direction that I encounter resistance. I am essentially a pansy. I was scared to quit my job even though I hated it, scared to tell Mom I was getting dreads, and I still haven't said a word on that point to my father, though I'm sure he will know. I just couldn't stand up to the lecture about being a "responsible young woman." So I want to overcome my fear of people, and this will also thrust me out into, possibly, notoriety. I will suddenly be more remembered (hard to forget someone with dreads in Iowa) and therefore more accountable. And while I find that scary (I do have a bit of a temper), I also find it a challenge. An unofficial resolution is to cling to God more... because if I am going to be more accountable, I really need His help. Perhaps I can become a better witness because of it. Also, I want to change social stereotypes. I want to prove someone can have dreadlocks and be responsible, creative, political, whatever. I am harboring dreams of entering politics someday. I'm not promising I'd do it with dreads, but if I do, I'd like dreads to not be a factor. Age, race, sex, hairstyle, clothing style, I don't want any of that to matter. I want to change norms.

And as for my dread resolution, I want to be more healthy. I'm biking a lot in preparation for RAGBRAI, the annual Iowa bike marathon. It's a long stretch and I need to be prepared. (Oh! Threadless has biking t-shirts! I love Threadless!) Also, I am trying to cut unnecessary calories, eat more fruits and veggies, and stop drinking Dr Pepper... as much. I have actually made it through, like, three days without Dr Pepper. You should be proud.

Jonny Clean said you knew you were ready for dreadlocks when you pretty much became obsessed with them... and I've been obsessed with them since I wrote a short story where the imaginative side of me encountered the side of me that had no inhibitions on a train... and the side of me with no inhibitions had dreadlocks. I found DreadHeadHQ just checking to see if white people with my hair type could grow dreads... and been thinking about it ever since.

In the beginning...

First off, I better explain, the title is at the same time both no longer an issue and yet still true. I was actually dreading telling my mom (although I assumed she'd guess once I showed up to Easter wearing a tam and a sheepish face), but I actually told her today. Now I just dread any continued conversation to the effect.

Secondly, I don't have dreads yet. I figured if I was to chronicle my journey of getting dreadlocks, I had better start from the beginning. Even this isn't the true beginning. I've been thinking about getting dreadlocks since the beginning of the year. But I'm hardly going to start a blog on thinking about getting dreadlocks just to have it fall to the wayside if I decided not to get dreads... it would be a bit ahead of myself, I do believe.

So, the dreadlock party is this Saturday! Barring disaster (like car accidents or Mom suddenly bribes me with lots of money), I will be getting dreadlocks this Saturday. My two friends (carefully selected from the list of people who weren't against it) and my husband will be backcombing my dreadlocks in and then it will be all downhill and hate mail from there.

My husband keeps telling me I am making too big a deal about this, that my family isn't going to disown me (Mom said it would take more than dreads to disown me, but she then asked if I was getting a tattoo, so I guess not much more), people aren't going to freak out, and the world will keep moving. I had about convinced myself of that before I went online to see if I could still wear a bike helmet. Another guy asked the same question, saying he wanted to get dreadlocks to represent a change in his life and was merely inquiring as to a helmet fitting. The amount of disrespect for this poor guy's life choices and dreads in general made me sad. In the end, it really is just hair and if people can get Skrillex cuts, then why not dreads?

So, by nature of beginning, here is a before photo:


Don't I look like a goober? That was totally unintentional, I am not trying to twist before and after results like some of those weight loss or whatever by not wearing makeup and being drunk or whatever they do to those before photos. I don't wear makeup anyway. That is what my hair does on it's own, when clean. I usually straighten it or put it into pigtails, because I honestly can't stand this look. Well... looking at that picture, it actually doesn't look so bad. It doesn't seem as poofy under the ears as it normally is.

So. Saturday. It begins. And I want to chronicle this journey because I believe it could be a helpful tool in helping other people choose dreads (or perhaps a cautionary tale against?) and I would have liked to read something of this nature when choosing myself.

I would like to note that I am using almost all DreadHeadHQ products and information in the starting of these dreadlocks. I was first attracted to their site by the promise of dreadlocks "in any hair type" and I stayed there because of the vast wealth of information, the humorous easy tone, the many many good reviews, and the fact that while they recommend their products, they aren't all "this is the only way to do this!" on you. I will refer to their site frequently.