Washed Locs and a Product Update

I washed my dreads on Monday. Even though I'd left them to form for a month I was still wary of how my dreads would cope... Oh yeah, remember when I said I had dandruff a week after the salon? Well it was the aloe gel I chose to retwist with. Once it was dry it flaked. I wasn't too upset about it. I'd rather it flake off than stay gooey, matting into my hair. I'm no longer using it.

The aim was to wash my scalp thoroughly with minimal agitation to my hair. Natural Afrodisiac has a brilliant post on washing baby locs and one of her tips was to use a canter bottle instead of a pressure shower. She also recommends using rubber bands to section off the dreads. I saturated my hair making sure to pat the water in instead of letting it hit me full force. Then I squeezed the water through several times. I then filled my spray bottle with a bit of shampoo (more on that below), witch hazel, and lots of warm water. once I'd sectioned my hair into loose ponytails I held the bottle about an inch from my scalp and sprayed the solution through each row avoiding my hair completely. After that I went about massaging and scrubbing in small motions and left my hair saturated for around 10 minutes. Following that I washed out the spray bottle and filled it with plain warm water. Without the lid I poured the contents over my head several times until the shampoo mixture was all gone and squeezed my hair in a bath towel to get it mostly dry.

I started retwisting and palm-rolling from root to tip so they'd stay in for another month. For the locs that had unravelled a lot I comb coiled from the roots down to where some matting had started. I didn't use extra products to retwist them and after a less than comfortable night's rest I removed the clips the next day. I'm very pleased.  Now they shake whenever I move my head and some were even hanging in my eye before they shrank a little. Washing them still gave me that unravelled fro look even after waiting a month but I accept that, that's how they'll be until they choose to knit together properly. The thicker locs have unravelled a little already (day two) but I've retwisted them back and clipped them down until they were bone dry.

Moisture-wise they feel so soft and smooth. I started using shampoo just before Christmas and stopped using oil and water to moisturise them. I just found it wasn't working. I'd spray them with water and oil but they'd be dry and crisp within a few hours. I did a ton of research into products and looked into Damien Walter's YT series. He offers lots information on hair care which enables anyone to take from it what they require. I concluded that his philosophy for clean dreadlocks was to: cleanse, condition and moisturise consistently using a cleansing shampoo and moisturising shampoo. He expresses that there is no 'all in 1' product but that a good arsenal of relible products are essential.

So that's when I decided to find a good product. I wasn't confident about using conditioners just yet and several contained alcohol for some reason. I did feel confident that ACV rinses were a good substitute for "clarifying shampoos", which I haven't used in quite some time, so my focus went toward finding a genuinely "moisturising shampoo". I read up on the effects of proteins and sulphates and what to look for in any ingredients list. I found Creme of Nature's Kiwi & Citrus Ultra Moisturizing Shampoo. This is definitely my shampoo of choice. My hair feels clean and conditioned and I love running my fingers through it. The softness lasts for several days.

I took a ton of photos during and after washing. I'll put them in a following post since this one's already word heavy.

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DO NOT use without permission. All videography is freely available on Youtube**

Stocking Cap Rinse

The battle against post-wash unravelling may have just come to an end. I believe this was the third wash and I wanted to try using a stocking cap. In my attempts to make this journey as cost free as possible I always have a look around the house before purchasing any new items. I cut the legs from a pair of tights and tied a knot once the cap was on.

make shift stocking cap

I then wet my hair thoroughly and applied baking soda pressing it into the cap and massaging gently. It seemed to absorb fairly well so I rinsed and repeated the process one more time. I followed up with distilled witch hazel and rinsed with plain water to finish. Here are the results:

 

An overall success! It wasn't as squeaky clean as previous washes and I still had to re-twist in the back but when I pulled the coils out of the matted shape it was clear they had stayed intact.

Compare here with my first attempt.

Dreadlocks are a lifestyle

**Photography ownership is with the blog account holder, DONOT use without permission,**

Week 3: ...and a bit

Time really does fly. Already on day 23 and heading up to the first dreading milestone. The past 7 days have moved very fast and been quite stress-free on the hair front.

Many coils in the upper back and sides started to firm up and they've been thick and springy all over. It was good to rock them for a while. The EVOO and water spritz works a treat so I decided to leave my hair alone for as long as possible. It was actually 13 days before I washed it this afternoon. I think I wanted to wash it because the rain (happy April showers) made it feel "heavy". I used baking soda and witch hazel because I haven't settled on an appropriate shampoo yet. There was very little buildup so I'll have to find something gentler to wash my hair.

I'm very happy with the growth and fuzzy thickness and glad I was able to wait it out in the hopes of them knitting together and little better but unfortunately I am still suffering from severe post-wash unravelling which I suspect is due to the short length. 

From now on I'll have to wash with a stocking cap and push each wash date to once a fortnight to prevent a total re-do every time.

So yeah, I was absolutely loving my hair this week, the thickness and low maintanence felt like a win-win situation. Nonetheless I was truely disappointed after washing and not in the mood for the 2 hour re-twist ahead, I will admit the infamous  Q. "why am I doing this?" A. "Cheaper than a perm!" was all I could think of . . .

I was planning on a visit to the salon for my one month mark next week but as my hair was cleaned and freshly re-twisted today I may hold off until the next wash is due and I have more to work with.

Plan:

1. Choose a dread washing product
2. Continue re-twisting with olive oil
3. Choose a natural oil that smells nice to add to my spritz
4. Check in at the salon sometime in May
5. RELAX!

Photos from the past 7 days:

on a trip to North Wales

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder, DO NOT use without permission,**

Week 1: First Wash

Hurray for the first wash. I decided to wash my hair last night for a few reasons. One, the flaking was showing more and more and moving from the scalp to the hair, two, I'd been to the gym for the second night running and three, my coils just felt plain gross.

I wanted to wait it out for another week at the least and until the end of the month at the most but with the recent perspiration activities and going back to work in a few days I just had to rescue the situation.