I've been thinking a lot about my dreads lately. They look kind of, well, shaggy and rough. I've got whispy bits sticking out everywhere. There are all kinds of crazy loops and bumps. I kind of like the loops and bumbs, but I wanted my hair to be neater, and those bumps were a lot of the reason my hair was able to pull loose. I keep hoping that sooner rather than later I'm going to have the beautiful dreads everyone says I'll some day have. Supposedly dreads start looking pretty beautiful after they've hit the one year mark. I'm hoping mine will do the same, but with only one month to go, I'm not so confident. I think it's going to take longer than that, but it may have to do with my dreads being so incredibly short when I started them out. I barely had enough hair to dread! Thankfully, though it's been a struggle, they're finally getting there.
Having gotten sick of looking at my dreads doing crazy things, I wasn't terribly thrilled with the overall effect. I just want my hair to start looking good. I love my dreads and all, but I'm tired of waking up every morning to having little wisps everywhere. It doesn't look very neat and it's only making it easier for the dreads to eat each other. I decided it was time to break my previous pattern and do some serious maintenance. As much as I wanted to let my dreads do their own things, something had to be done. I've been doing some palm rolling with each shower, but it hasn't been getting me anywhere, so it was time to take it up another level.
The other day, after getting out of the bath, palm rolling, and taking a "before" picture, I decided it was time for some serious work. I tried crocheting the dreads in front, but it didn't do anything. I've crocheted other people's dreads before just fine, but my own? Apparently that just can't happen. Instead I thought I would just bind up the roots so that I could go in and crochet them later. I started working in the front, working my way to the back where I knew it was going to be a nightmarish trouble spot. I would have to rip apart all those dreads and I wasn't looking forward to it.
I found out early on that my hair wasn't even going to co-operate with that. I had to bind my hair pretty much all the way down or it was just going to attempt to dread together the whole length. I'm impressed! My hair really wants to dread, it just doesn't want to do it the way I think it should! Even now, with just the ends loose, my hair still tries to dread together, but it's a little more well behaved. I bound them up pretty well through my hair. The back was a nightmare. It was all tangled in to each other, so it took twice as long as the rest of my hair. I was thrilled to see the results though. It looked fantastic! I just hope it helps all those scrappy bits clean up so my dreads will start looking pretty good. In a couple of months my dreads will be a year old. I really hope that they can start looking pretty fantastic before then!
In other news, I've found the perfect way to tie my hair back to keep it out of my face, yay! I have a fantastic bandana/scarf kind of thing that I bought at the local shop (Gaia's Garden) a year and a half ago. It's called a MayaWear Bandana
, and it's wonderful! It can be worn as a headband or pulled back like a more traditional scarf. It's very hippie and I love it. Mine is a beautiful aqua color, but they've got a variety of colors from African style woven patterns to solid colors. I wish I could buy a few more! They're so practical for every-day wear, especially with dreads! They're quick, easy, and convenient. Unfortunately, they do make it a good deal easier to pop the elastics in my hair, but I suppose that's just something I'll have to live with. I'd rather have my hair back and neat than worry about popping the elastics!
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