Combing out dredlocks - tips for you :)

[whitestiletto]

Just wanted to share some tips from the past month where I've been combing out dreds and getting ready to embark on a henna and growing-out project!

Combing out works best on dry hair, not wet - water helps it break off

Rub your slipperiest (not creamiest) leave-in conditioner into the dred, adding more as you take it out

I used a needle to get mine out. Start from the very bottom of the dred and use it like a comb with one tooth...

I also used a "ferminator," which is a specialty dog brush... That thing combed out a full dred in one hour. The teeth on this brush are really close together and fine, and really get into the dred to break it open.

My dreds are all out now and blended in with the rest of my hair.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

[Earelia]

Good stuff! I also find that combing out with wet hair isn't good... a lot of hair was breaking and I was making a huge mess with all that watered down conditioner.

Another thing... when they're all gone your hair will more than likely feel and look like half of it is gone because it's so damn thin. But I swear that after a month my pony tail has doubled or maybe even tripled in thickness.

[Panth]

I've combed out a friend's dreads before when he had to go from dreads to "interview hair" after graduation, but wanted to have maybe an inch of hair rather than a skinhead look.

We used lots of bottles of thin-ish conditioner on dry hair and ... a fork. We broke several combs before coming up with that plan. It works really well, seeing as you only need to comb a very small piece of hair at any one time, so the narrowness isn't a problem, and they're really sturdy.

It took just over a week of sessions, where I, he or his girlfriend would comb it out whilst watching a film or something. Part of why it took that long is because his scalp would get sore. We also got at least a carrier bag-full of shed hair that was matted into the dreads. But, it did work!

[theodora]

I combed out a full head of quite small dreadlocks (ie. there was a lot of them) when I was 16. It took a few hours and I just used pure shea butter which my aunt had brought back from Africa (can't specify which country sorry).

My hair was not even that damaged! Okay I did lose a lot of hair but it was in pretty good condition considering the massacre of combing out dreads.
I wish I could find some of that shea butter, the one I use at the minute is okay, pure etc, but it's not as good for some reason. I'm thinking it might be that it's refined.

[virgo75]

I've combed out a friend's dreads before when he had to go from dreads to "interview hair" after graduation, but wanted to have maybe an inch of hair rather than a skinhead look.

We used lots of bottles of thin-ish conditioner on dry hair and ... a fork. We broke several combs before coming up with that plan. It works really well, seeing as you only need to comb a very small piece of hair at any one time, so the narrowness isn't a problem, and they're really sturdy.

It took just over a week of sessions, where I, he or his girlfriend would comb it out whilst watching a film or something. Part of why it took that long is because his scalp would get sore. We also got at least a carrier bag-full of shed hair that was matted into the dreads. But, it did work!


That's just about how I took down someone's 3 year old locs - which if you know anything about locs, the longer you have them in the more 'loced' they get. So they were "permanent" locs. It took me several days and my hands were cramped for a week!

The only difference is that I used Pantene mixed with a little water as Pantene is the slipperiest conditioner I knew of. I would saturated the loc and smoosh & massage it in. And I bent a fork so that only 1 of the prongs was sticking up and would stick that in the bottom of the loc and wiggle it around in different places to help loosen it up before actually taking the loc down.

I would also suggest that if anyone had locs for more than a year to shampoo well and do a couple of deep conditioning treatments after taking them down to restore moisture and elasticity. :flower:

[metricfuture]

Mine were over 4 years old (and well past BSL) when I combed them out. I wish I would have thought of the fork trick, as I destroyed about 6 combs in the process, and actually had to run to the drugstore for new ones with a quarter of my head done. It took me an entire 3 day weekend and my arms were killing me by day 2. I was only able to salvage about 6-10 inches, but considering how old they were, I was just thrilled that I didn't have to resort to shaving them off.

[Panth]

That's just about how I took down someone's 3 year old locs - which if you know anything about locs, the longer you have them in the more 'loced' they get. So they were "permanent" locs. It took me several days and my hands were cramped for a week!

Yeah, his locs were maybe a year old. So, pretty set in their ways. ^_^

The hair wasn't great when it came out of there, but we did manage to get enough length that the hairdresser could clip it back to about 1" all over instead of <1mm.

[Mannaz]

I took mine out with a needle too. I did it little by little in maybe two weeks, they we're about three years old at that point. Most of my hair were about SL but it was so irregular/damaged that I cut myself a bob. I realise now that hair wont take endless bleachings/dyes even if it's in dreads, it will get damaged and the dreads can break, that's what happened to some of my dreads.

I'm sporting one dread at the back of my head atm, and although it is only a couple months old it seems very "mature" (my hair is VERY dread-welcoming)... It came by neglect and braiding the knot a bit to keep it sectioned, I'm loving the process and it keeps me from letting the whole head knot itself up... It will be interesting to see how the dread will grow compared to the straight hair! Whoops, I went OT, sorry :D

[Tuntenut]

This is very interesting. I've always been told that dreads have to be cut out, so I never considered that it is possible to comb them out. Does anyone have before and after pictures they'd like to share? I'm really curious as what the resuls are like, especially if the dreads have been in for years.

How does it affect the length of the hair overall? Having dreads made eats up a lot of length, so how much of that would you gain back? And how does it affect the hair's structure and health? I sort of imagine it would be quite a shock for the poor little hairs to be seperated after snuggling so close together for a long time.

Sorry for all questions, but all this is news to me, and that turns me into a really annoying 5-year old. :D

[Earelia]

This is very interesting. I've always been told that dreads have to be cut out, so I never considered that it is possible to comb them out. Does anyone have before and after pictures they'd like to share? I'm really curious as what the resuls are like, especially if the dreads have been in for years.

How does it affect the length of the hair overall? Having dreads made eats up a lot of length, so how much of that would you gain back? And how does it affect the hair's structure and health? I sort of imagine it would be quite a shock for the poor little hairs to be seperated after snuggling so close together for a long time.

Sorry for all questions, but all this is news to me, and that turns me into a really annoying 5-year old. :D

Well, cutting is the easiest way to go and a lot of people look at it as their only option if they can't handle the sore hands and looong hours of work. It's hard to imagine combing out a whole head of knots when you know how hard it is to untangle a brush from a kids hair. =)

I had mine for a couple months short of two years and I was surprised at how locked up they were when I tried to comb them. Some spots didn't wanna even budge.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Silivrenia/downsized_1231102258b.jpg
Here they are on New Years, maybe and inch past collarbone. I don't have many good pictures that show the length.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Silivrenia/0204011544.jpg
And this is in the middle of combing them out a few months later. The longest hairs were seriously nip length! But you see how thin and fuzzy it looked.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Silivrenia/GEDC0629.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Silivrenia/GEDC0628.jpg
these are a few weeks ago. I still have my lone dread to keep me company... which is now over two years old.

Combing dreads out did wreak havoc on my hair's texture, but after a couple months of conditioning like crazy and an occasional trim my hair is pretty much back to normal. It seems that when I put my hair up my pony tail is still getting thicker a bit and the frizz is gone and I've got my straight shiny hair again. I was afraid at first because my hair was so thin that I felt self-conscious putting it in a pony tail for work but with a little bit of time and patience it bounced back with no problem.

Hope this helps. =)

[UltraBella]

Just wanted to share some tips from the past month where I've been combing out dreds and getting ready to embark on a henna and growing-out project!

Combing out works best on dry hair, not wet - water helps it break off

Rub your slipperiest (not creamiest) leave-in conditioner into the dred, adding more as you take it out

I used a needle to get mine out. Start from the very bottom of the dred and use it like a comb with one tooth...

I also used a "ferminator," which is a specialty dog brush... That thing combed out a full dred in one hour. The teeth on this brush are really close together and fine, and really get into the dred to break it open.

My dreds are all out now and blended in with the rest of my hair.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

What length of hair do you have and how is the condition of it now that you have removed the dreadlocks ? Did you experience much breakage ??