January 27th, 2008!

Just 3 days before my one month dread anniversary. :) I can't wait. THIS is what my hair looks like now. Many people believe dreads are associated with Marijuana (let me tell you i've been in too many DARE programs to associate myself with ANY type of drug that doesn't come in a prescription bottle.) and many people also condemn beings with dreads because they say they dont wash their hair. Dreads take much more maintenance than you think. OF COURSE we wash our hair! Are you serious?? "Natty Dreads" are "Natural Dreads" No washing, combing, NOTHING. Just sunlight and salt water (the Beach). I wash my hair with homemade remedies and lemme tell you, it WORKS.

people say " You wash your hair with what??"
Yes people, this is what I use for Shampoo (Depending on how dirty your hair is, you will need to repeat the rinse at least 3 or 4 times. Especially new dreadies since you have wax and a whole bunch of other crap in your hair:
4cups of Warm water (or a giant bowl)
2tablespoons of Baking Soda (for every cup of water, put two tablespoons of Baking Soda - TRUST ME, you can even look it up)
1tablespoon of Salt (Dont ask why, I just put it in, lol)
2 Drops of Tea Tree Oil
Stir until it dissolves and pour into your hair. massage into your scalp and let sit for atleast 15-20 minutes (Thats what I do). Again, depending on how long its been since you washed, repeat the rinse. Now for the Conditioner, after you've washed out all the dirt. If the water from your hair is clear and not the color of the bottom of your shoe, lol, you can move to conditioning to keep your hair healthy and moisturized. AND SMELLING GOOD!

4 Cups of water
2 Tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar
3 Drops of Tea Tree Oil
2 or 3 cap-fulls of Rosemary or whatever scented oil you have (You can find these at Walmart for about 3 or 4 dollars. They're those scented oils you burn with candles. I personally love the smell of "Eternal". The scented oil gets rid of the Vinegar smell, trust me, you dont want that in your hair)
Mix it until it dissolves and again, pour it into your dreads. Massage and let it sit for another 20-30 minutes. Then wash it all out.
TRY NOT TO GET THESE MIXTURES IN YOUR EYES!
Now once all that is done and your head feels 110% fresher and you have that loving smile on your face, dry your dreads with a towel as much as you can and let it air dry for about 8-10 hours. or if you want it to be a bit faster, use a blowdryer.
When you're done with that, palm roll those beauts again and be on your way.

These are my back-combed dreads almost into a one month anniversay (3 more days 2 go!)







Yes, yes, i'm aware that my ends (or body) of the dreads are poofy-looking and not all slimmed and nice (it is, after all, the first month) I retwisted them yesterday thats why the roots are more pretty. I have to do some more palm rolling to get them looking good. You can imagine that I CANNOT WAIT for my hair to fully lock. just 4 more months or so and 6 weeks of palm rolling/twisting in between that time. (I palm roll every other week. and i use a blow dryer to dry them.) And this is what it looks like while I do them. I use these clips to hold the roots:

Well, another change...BLAH

It's Now January of 08 ( Wednesday the 23rd to be exact. 12:56am). Last month sometime (can't recall the exact day but i imagine it was on a weekend, december 29th and 30th when i decided to re-attempt my dreads. Now, the first time I did it, back in '05, i went the "consumer" way by going to hairdresser thinking they'd give me dreads when in actuallity what they did was fancy up my hair with some shiny oily crap and used a comb to create "twists" that looked like peas on the top of my head and stuck me under a drier for four hours. WRONG WRONG! NOT the way to go! thats for those "polished" dreads that are always kept neat that are in add magazines and tv commercials and such.

To save me the trouble of having to go through the whole 6 months phase of twisting twisting and twisting, i decided to look for other ways to start dreads. I didn't want the "NATURAL" technique that'd take years to dread on its own. with the type of hair i have it'd take infinity and a day for it to just START to lock (my hair is thin and curly - Indian in my family??) so i found that back-combing did wonders.

One month in, hell, the first day I did them, they looked like dreads but here's a warning for those wanting to start. WAX IS NOT A LIFE SAVER. IT LEAVES BUILDUP! so after about two, three weeks, i washed out the wax. (I should have known better. it completely undid all of my locks, making them look like puffy sticks (kinda looked like Side Show Bob's hair when wet as it was falling down into a mop fashion) but i was able to redoe them in a short amount of time after air drying/blowdrying. (rubberbands at the roots did help keep them seperate btw.) I purchased some Jamaican Mango and Lime Resistant locking Gel (I LOVE THIS STUFF) from an urban beauty supply store - they are all over Miami. And it is my best friend!

It's been almost one full month (A week to go!). And 5 more months to go before it fully locks. :) I'll be sure to keep you posted with my hair journey. Every month i'll take a picture of my hair.

here's some recent pictures of my hair pulled back:






.Kiana.