Re: the last one

ok, here we go:
- make dreads only if you have a lot of hair, if not they look too poor to be really beautiful
- take a vacation to Thailand and have them knotted in Bangkok, in Kao San road, it is reasonably cheap and very well done (with thin crochet). I don't suggest to make the extentions though that they love so much. Keep your original hair and that's it, if they are short they will be awesome anyway, maybe a little more prone too get loose but also easier to take care of.
- preview some disconfort and boredom, it takes time and it is a lot of pulling
- make yourself a mixture of beeswax and oil, the ones sold are very artificial even if they don't declare it
- after Bangkok go to the seaside and take many baths in the ocean leaving the salt on the hair
- for the first year you have to work a lot on your dreads, they will tend to mess up a lot, but after it will be easier and easier. Now I have to do very little on them, like a one hour work every fourth month or so. I also need to wash them seldom (but they smell good!), like every month.
- I lately have experimented soaking them in the Epsom Salt bath when I take it. This cleans them deeply and makes them very crispy, which is bad for normal hair, but good for dreads. But don't soak the roots in front, it doesn't look that good
- at the beginning every day (yes, every day...) take a rubber band, make a pony tail and then take out them one by one, and turn it. One needs to be quite committed to do that but if you don't, at the beginning, they end up all loose. See that they are always saturated of beeswax
- once a week, when you turn them apply also the beeswax, you'll have traces of it on your clothes, but not so much after all because the dreads will suck it all up like sponges. Only if you have very curled hair you can avoid the beeswax, I don't suggest avoiding it anyway
- don't get too fixated about the roots, a bit loose is ok, too much is aweful. A great technique I have to put a remedy to too lose roots is to pass the tip through an opening in the roots...hmmm, how to explain? I'll look in the net if it is explained with pictures...here! http://www.dreadheadhq.com/make_dreadlocks_maintain_crocheting.php
here they say that with this method they don't dread but it isn't true, I have been doing it successfully for 4 years (before, i didn't know about it). Another way is to rub them between your hands but I hate doing it.
- every now and then take also a crochet and put the loose hair inside the dreads
- wash with bar soap and water, dry them well possibly in the sun before applying any beeswax. What you don't want absolutely to happen it that they get molded. This is also agood reason for not using shampoo, which leaves traces of chemicals inside and some softening agent that would easiæly get molded. Anyway you don't need to get paranoid about it. Soap, water, sun, air will prevent the mold from forming.
- when you have arrived to the point of not using anymore beswax, put some oil, maybe with essential oils, especially on the tips, to keep them nourished
- be systematic and patient the first year, think of how lazy you can be after
- the net is full of tips on how to keep the dreads, they normally make it nore difficult than it really is. The critical moment is the beginning, but if you have messed up you can still go to some african shop and ask them to be put in order. A bit pricy, but effective. I originally made them in an african shop and then put them in order in Kao San Road not because I needed it, but out of curiosity. As they didn't know what to do with them they tightened the roots really too much and I hated it. But they are very skillfull, some asiatics are really fond of freads and have had to develop good techniques to make them because their hair are just totally wrong for them. The Asiatics that succeed look super.
- after your dreads are done, go to a hairdresser and ask to cut them in a way they look good. Many have dreads which may be beautiful in themselves, but don't have much shape. Pity. I needed to do this only once, and it made a world of difference. After that Erik cut them for me another time, a few months ago. After you've cut them, if the dreads are still quite young, put a bit of trasparent glue in the tip, so that it doesn't get loose. I know it is not that natural but there's no good alternative. Some people not the point inside the dread, and I did the same, but then the dreads are really every length and don't look so good. It is beautiful, in my opinion, to keep the contrast between the wild look of the dread itself and some general tidiness of the head, as well as it is very nice to have dreads and a perfect transparent skin and brilliant eyes. At that point the dread assumes a quite spiritual look, I find. Well, sadus are not that tidy looking...
- I've had dreads for 6 years now and I like then more and more. I hope to becoime a dreads grandma, white dreads could be quite beautiful! don't listen to those who say that the hair suffocate and in time get messed up. I actually think that dread is the natural way of hair to be, and this is demonstrated by the fact that i almost never have to do anything for them and they are more and more beautiful. The only one that still doesn't like them is my mother, but she is a stubborn lady... when I made them, she shook her head and declared: oh my, you're never going to find a boyfriend messed up like that...3 months later i met Erik and one of the first things he told me was that he loved my hair.

chiron: "But then my scalp itches from not being brushed, or I just miss having it flow out flat and wet, in the bath. Do you ever miss that?"
well I've never been able to brush too much my hair anyway, as they are curly and they would get awful when I brushed them, so I used to comb them when washing, applying a cream to untie nots. Yeah, I miss that sensation, always have. The flat and wet is there, especially when you take a long bath, and wow, do you feel their weight and the water running through! but if you do it in the evening you'll have to feel wet all night, which isn't so pleasant, even the hairdrier can do little about it. I put a towel on the pillow and dry them as much as i can with towel and hairdrier, and it is ok enough. A pretty awful sensation is when you are in a hurry and can't dry them much, then you get dressed and go out, maybe putting them up not to wet the shirt, but they keep dripping along the neck. A good solution to this is to have them shorter, which I like a lot, mine are really beyond long now and although beautiful this makes them a bit more difficult to deal with.
Gel in not too good because it leaves traces inside and it gets hard, so the hair can't move inside and knot. Beeswax is perfect, and it smells divine. But at this point I don't need beeswax either, they do everything by themselves.