40 Year Old Dreadlocks (video)

[vampyyri]

Has anyone seen this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkd1zjgSZJ8)?

I immediately thought to come back and post it here! Either this man has the longest terminal length ever, or those dreads are holding his terminal length twisted in with his new growth.

What do you guys think?

[Obsidian]

I think a lot of the dreads are formed of shed hair.

[gthlvrmx]

Most likely he has a whole bunch of shed hair in the dreads. It looks awesome!

[Calypso]

Yeah, dreads will just keep on growing because the shed hair gets caught up in them. I used to have dreads and they got so thick from shed hair! His are amazing. :)

[PixieP]

Dreads don't break off like hair usually do. They are so tightly woven, the only way to shortem them is to cut them.

A friend of mine had dreads, and then cutthem off, leaving her with a pixie, Two years or so she wanted her dreads back. She'd kept her old ones. So she made new dreads in her shirt dreads, and then connected her old dreads to her new ones. She also on at least one occasion made her dreads longer by buying hair extensions made from real hair, and dreading those and adding to the ends of ther existing dreads.

I find dreads very fascinating, I have several friends who have or have had them. What's really fascinating is the difference when they decide they don't want them anymore. My earlier mentioned friend had to cut hers off, because there was no chance in hell to unwind them. While my two best friends got theirs combed out (soak head in fabric softener and gradually start combing them out at the bottom). That leaves a lot of broken hair of course, but it's better than cutting them straight off!

[Calypso]

I tried to comb mine out, and some of the skinny ones came out much more easily than I expected (although it took a lot of time and conditioner!). But I had some really fat ones that were just taking forever, so I ended up chopping them off to a pixie. That's when my growing journey began! But there a lot of misconceptions about dreads, one of them being that you absolutely have to cut them off if you get fed up of them. Combing them out is doable.

[ephemeri]

Wow! He must have neck muscles of steel to hold all that up! Amazing.

[Hairkay]

I've seen longer. That guiness world record holder. See here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjOAv0esEo8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hcpQWKxIM

That's just over 25 years of hair and all that shed hair is stuck there. In this case I think it's taking it too far because the weight of the hair is slowly crushing her neck according to what the doctors have told her.

[lapushka]

Sorry, but I don't call that "hair" anymore. :no: Not for me.

[PixieP]

Sorry, but I don't call that "hair" anymore. :no: Not for me.

Each to their own, IMO. Dreads is a lifestyle as much as long hair, it takes a lot of upkeep and you need to know how to treat your hair or it'll fail.

What isn't hair anymore is when you use chemicals to make dreads. That completly and utterly ruins the hair. Then you have no choice but to chop them off.

[Adorkable One]

Not a fan of dreads either, but I have to admit, this is still pretty impressive. Just the thought of the history behind it, and the story, is just interesting to me. It's just such the opposite of what I think of when I think of hair.

Also, about reattaching old dread, made me think of this video with synthetic dreads. It's so pretty!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld2p0vIti-0

[Calypso]

What isn't hair anymore is when you use chemicals to make dreads. That completly and utterly ruins the hair. Then you have no choice but to chop them off.

I hate that too! And when people 'make' dreads with wax and things that just stick hair together and get loads of dirt and mould stuck in there. I always thought that a big part of dreads was the patience of letting them grow and tangle on their own.

[PixieP]

My friends all had their dreads made; using a crochet needle, and yes a little bit of beeswax in the beginning to make them hold together. But only on the outside of the dreads; some people build up layers of wax and hair and then you get mouldy hair. You can also get mouldy hair if you wash it too often, so that the dreads never have time to dry completly.

But crocheting is how you get dreads that are easier to brush out after a while, because you can control the thickness of them. You need really long hair to make them thick though! My bestie had hip+ hair when she dreaded hers, she had 90 (!) dreads and her hair ended up at CL after dreading. It was so awesome, it was huuuuge! She ended up cutting down on the amount of them as the years went, they just got too heavy. I think she had them for about 4 or 5 years, and went from 90 to around 45 dreads (dreading regrowth into her existing dreads as it grew out). Her hair still grew super fast! Her dreads was almost down to hip again before she cut off most of the length and brushed out the rest.

[mina01]

Sorry, but I don't call that "hair" anymore. :no: Not for me.

Exactly, I could not even watch the video completely..

[lapis_lazuli]

Amazing!!! :agape:
I love how the ends have colour and you can see where/when he started greying :D

[kelseyxface]

I love this! He;s had them since he was 15 it's like a whole timeline of his life!
His hair has seen everything in his life and that's pretty amazing to me :lol:
I like the way different cultures celebrate hair :flower:

[truepeacenik]

The respect wth which he held his locs after detangling was beautiful to see.
I saw the pattern when they were up and I'm curious how he puts them up.
It looked like a weaving pattern.

[Vivalagina]

I love the color gradient. That must be quite a heavy weight!

[nakima]

she was on Dr. Oz and her dreads are amazingly long! Very pretty!

[maborosi]

I've seen longer. That guiness world record holder. See here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjOAv0esEo8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hcpQWKxIM

That's just over 25 years of hair and all that shed hair is stuck there. In this case I think it's taking it too far because the weight of the hair is slowly crushing her neck according to what the doctors have told her.

Yeah, I agree. That's not good if it's causing such problems physically. Her dreads are absolutely gorgeous, though. But wow, 39 lbs!!

[spidermom]

I like the look on others but it's not for me. Imagine the weight!

[Whirled_peas]

That's certainly commitment.

[Chromis]

Reminder: KNIT.

In the immortal words of Thumper, If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.

We have several members here with lovely dreadlocks of their own.

[Wusel]

Sorry, but I don't call that "hair" anymore. :no: Not for me.

Same here.