Dreads and Farming

First off, a short update. Dreads look pretty much the same, as far as I can tell. At least they don't look like they have more loose hair. I've been trying to palm roll them all every day and then work on them a bit with the Lock Sculpta, like a tiny crochet hook for dreads. I basically just try to pull some of the loose hairs on the surface into the dread. There is another tool called the Loose Hair Tool 2.0 that is like a hook that you use to pull larger amounts of loose hair into the dread. First you roll the loose hair into a ball, then insert the Loose Hair Tool 2.0 into the point where the hair would reach if it were inside the dread. You pop the tool out the bottom, hook the ball on, and pull it up into the middle of the dread. I haven't been having much luck with that, partially because I find it difficult to operate without practice, and partially because some of my dreads are so skinny, the tool is thicker than they are. I don't really know what that is going to mean for the future. I also spray Locking Accelerator on my hair after showers, although I am getting kind of tired of my hair being sticky. I haven't added any more wax yet, but I'm probably due soon.

Now, about why farming is in the title. Don't get dreads if you live on a farm or something related (like a ranch). I do not live on a farm and until Thursday, was not worried about large amounts of dust, dirt, ash, straw, and other airborn menaces. I simply don't encounter that many.

But we went down to my husband's family's mini ranch (complete with about six or seven horses and five dogs) to do some work for them, what with our job situation and all. One of our jobs was to clean out the burn pile, pulling out all the metal and plastic and leaving all the wood and cardboard. Now I didn't know that half the metal had been deposited there a long long time ago and was under six inches of ash at the bottom, not to mention the dirt that had piled up on all the individual pieces in the burn pile.

My dreadies were just out, getting some light, and I was getting worried about the amount of dust in the air. My husband confirmed that I had dirt in my hair. On lunch break, I fetched my tam and put that on. That evening, I moved my hair-washing up one night and took a shower. Without the nylon, to make sure the dirt would rinse out. When I was palm rolling later, I could see a little bit of dirt stick to my hands. And I'm never even sure the tam would've saved me from all that fine ash. I had it in my nose, ears, and eyes too.

The next day, I found my tam still had ash on it. My mother-in-law promised to clean it, but meanwhile, I was going to try and avoid dirt. The burn pile had been finished, so maybe I'd be ok.

Or maybe not. We had to load the plastic (include a large section of Berber carpet) onto the cart with the metal to take to the dump. I put my hood up for that. Later, I managed to get my hands on a bandanna to cover up, but I was worried enough to keep my hood up. So bandanna and hood for the dirty bits.

Later we were moving some hay with our hands over to some cows (those cows were clinically insane) and I didn't even want to get near it. The dust from the hay could just fly up the sides of my hood.

Not to mention the flies from the cows, the gravel roads, the dirt from various ranch activities... crazy. We don't even think about that in the city.

So if you live on a farm and actually do anything on said farm... might want to wait to get dreads until you don't.