Good day!

[patches]

I've been lurking for a couple months now. My hair is only around three inches long at the moment. Originally I was going to wait until I got a bit more length before joining, but decided there was really no point in waiting so here I am! I've already learned a lot and been inspired by the people on these forums.

So back in March of 2014 I decided I wanted dreadlocks. The nearly three years I had them was the happiest I've ever been with my hair. It made me truly appreciate my hair and I found that for the first time I actually enjoyed taking proper care of it. Before then my hair was just there, I basically just ignored it for the most part, hence the dreadlocks. I decided to just stop brushing and let them take hold. I was trying to grow it out to hip length but only made it to around mid back.

Early February of this year I shaved my head in solidarity for my mother. I kept it shaved until about mid May and now am just letting it grow while continuing to keep it as healthy as I can. I've decided I'd like to find my terminal length and figure the best way to go about that is with brush-able hair. A much closer goal is to have enough length to start trying out all the cool braids and such I've seen here. I can't even get French braids to stay in it at the moment.

Currently I'm trying to resist the urge to trim up the back and just power through the weird mullet looking phase so I've been wearing scarves quite often and braiding their tails. Usually I'll just do a simple rope braid, but since finding this community I've been playing around with layering or adding additional scarves and attempting fancier ones.

I believe my hair type is around 2a/m/ii. Though it's been quite some time since I've had any decent length of brush-able hair, so I guess we'll see how accurate that is. I'm looking forward to continuing to learn how to take even better care of my hair and seeing just how long I can get it to grow.

[TatsuOni]

Welcome! :)

[Lady Stardust]

Hello and welcome. It sounds like you enjoy experimenting and aren't afraid to try out anything at all so I look forward to seeing your progress! Happy growing!

[lapushka]

Welcome! :)

[Garnetgem]

Hello and welcome! :)

[patches]

Thanks everyone! I'm feeling at home already.

[Corvana]

Welcome! I love your avatar!

Have you tested Dutch braids yet? While they may not hold just yet, I personally found that they held earlier than French braids did while in the super-short stages (I started with a pixie that I turned into a mohawk for like half a year before deciding to grow everything).

[QueenMab]

Hey! I feel your pain on the weird mullet phase, I grew my hair out from shaved as well. Power through it, it'll be worth the awkward phase in the end. Besides... the 80s are cool again, that could be your saving grace :p

[patches]

Welcome! I love your avatar!

Have you tested Dutch braids yet? While they may not hold just yet, I personally found that they held earlier than French braids did while in the super-short stages (I started with a pixie that I turned into a mohawk for like half a year before deciding to grow everything).

Thanks, that's one of my scarf braids I've been doing. And I'll have to give Dutch braids a try. Honestly I didn't even think to try them.


Hey! I feel your pain on the weird mullet phase, I grew my hair out from shaved as well. Power through it, it'll be worth the awkward phase in the end. Besides... the 80s are cool again, that could be your saving grace :p

Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself. That it will be worth it in the end. Really it doesn't bother me all that much most of the time. The support is much appreciated though.

[SparkleGal]

Hi Patches. Think we've met on my intro post, your name sounds familiar.

I've never had dreads but I've had braided extensions. I went into the salon with hair at the nape of my neck and came out with braids halfway down my back. They pull on the scalp though. The girls in that particular salon were the only ones I've ever met who could work with hair as short as mine.

I went to another woman who worked from home and she actually put bits of wool in my hair so the extensions had something to grab on to I suppose. omg I had to get them taken out because the itching from the wool was driving me crazy. I put up with it for about 2 weeks and she took them out. Talk about a waste of time and money! *blush*

[leayellena]

hi patches,
welcome to lhc!

haha I wanted dredlocks too when my hair was damage and fuzzy, like 3 years ago lol. but somehow I never got the chance to have dreadlocks because of the price at saloons and the time I´d spent to do them myself.
until I discovered lhc. I vented offline to for half a year haha.

hmm I never knew my hair was at bra strap/mid-back damaged a lot before I found lhc. so I never knew about conditioner and braids. the only thing I could do was a ponytail. so I can´t help you with the akward stage, but I can give you a youtube channel of a woman who has er... some kind of akward stage for me. please don´t adopt the heat damaging methods from her channel lol
she works with a lot of small french braids to accentuate her face, or imitate the undercut, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Milabu09
PS: I can´t do her hairstyles, it takes millions of years and backpains because I have back pains anyways.
or
you can hide your hair in different scarfs, beanies, accent braids with thin parandas...

[patches]

Welcome! I love your avatar!

Have you tested Dutch braids yet? While they may not hold just yet, I personally found that they held earlier than French braids did while in the super-short stages (I started with a pixie that I turned into a mohawk for like half a year before deciding to grow everything).

I finally got around to testing out Dutch braids the other day. They actually hold! Mostly at least. There's still a lot of bits that come loose and stick out, but I think at least some of that is the fact that I really suck at braiding. I'm going to keep practicing though. One day I'll be decent at it.


Hi Patches. Think we've met on my intro post, your name sounds familiar.

I've never had dreads but I've had braided extensions. I went into the salon with hair at the nape of my neck and came out with braids halfway down my back. They pull on the scalp though. The girls in that particular salon were the only ones I've ever met who could work with hair as short as mine.

I went to another woman who worked from home and she actually put bits of wool in my hair so the extensions had something to grab on to I suppose. omg I had to get them taken out because the itching from the wool was driving me crazy. I put up with it for about 2 weeks and she took them out. Talk about a waste of time and money! *blush*

I actually have briefly considered braided extensions. I would worry they would have to be way too tight to stay in though. My dreadlocks were actually kind of loose up near the roots so they were nice and comfy. My other main worry would be it would make me miss my dreadlocks too much and I'd just let them lock up. Maybe one day. I really want to get to to hip length at the very least with brush-able hair first though.


hi patches,
welcome to lhc!

haha I wanted dredlocks too when my hair was damage and fuzzy, like 3 years ago lol. but somehow I never got the chance to have dreadlocks because of the price at saloons and the time I´d spent to do them myself.
until I discovered lhc. I vented offline to for half a year haha.

hmm I never knew my hair was at bra strap/mid-back damaged a lot before I found lhc. so I never knew about conditioner and braids. the only thing I could do was a ponytail. so I can´t help you with the akward stage, but I can give you a youtube channel of a woman who has er... some kind of akward stage for me. please don´t adopt the heat damaging methods from her channel lol
she works with a lot of small french braids to accentuate her face, or imitate the undercut, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Milabu09
PS: I can´t do her hairstyles, it takes millions of years and backpains because I have back pains anyways.
or
you can hide your hair in different scarfs, beanies, accent braids with thin parandas...

When I did my dreadlocks I started them myself and it did take a long time. If I remember right it was parts of like three days. And even after that most of them came out and re-sectioned themselves, which I just let them do their thing. I totally understand not wanting to do that. As much as I loved them I still don't want to do that again. At least not for a long, long while yet.

I'm hoping to learn of bunch of braids and such and get at least decent at them. I used to pretty much only ever wear a ponytail as well. Thank you for the youtube channel link. I'll definitely be trying some of her styles out, though don't worry no heat use for me. I don't even own a blow-dryer anymore and I've never owned a curling iron or anything like that.

Scarfs and hats are always good. Especially going to to winter. And thank you for the thin parandas in accent braids suggestion. I didn't even think of trying those. I only recently learned of parandas and have been really wanting to try them out, but just assumed I'd have to wait until my hair was quite a bit longer to do so.

[Corvana]

I finally got around to testing out Dutch braids the other day. They actually hold! Mostly at least. There's still a lot of bits that come loose and stick out, but I think at least some of that is the fact that I really suck at braiding. I'm going to keep practicing though. One day I'll be decent at it.

That's good! It's the only real tip I've got for the awkward stages of "basically no hair" to "I can make a ponytail" :laugh: My hypothesis for Dutch braids holding better with shorter hair than French is that the tension of the twists are under the braid for the Dutch, and therefore have to go less far before they're "locked" in. But for all I know that's baloney! I'm just guessing because I've always found them to consistently hold sooner than French braids do.