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feralnature
June 3rd, 2012, 10:19 AM
I am curious as to how many caucasian women here have dreadlocks. I am particularly interested in pictures of natural, free form, organic dreads. I would love to see pics of ethnic dreads as well. Thanks! :)

pes3108
June 3rd, 2012, 10:41 AM
I don't personally have dreads, but my boyfriend does. He is Caucasian and has really thick, course hair so it locked up pretty easily without any help. I have a picture of them on my profile :)

feralnature
June 3rd, 2012, 10:58 AM
Thanks, I'll go take a look. I had backcombed dreads about 6 years and they were horrible. The lady that put them in used a petro-based product and they were ruined from day one. So I grew my hair for 5 years and now have started a natural, free-form, organic set.

feralnature
June 3rd, 2012, 11:00 AM
Your boyfriend has sweet dreads!

pes3108
June 3rd, 2012, 11:02 AM
He used beeswax and backcombed! he has been growing them now for about 3.5 years and they have grown tremendously! since he's stopped washing his hair and chemically damaging it, he has had a TON of new growth and has new dreads forming every few months. wish i had more pictures up, but every time i try to upload some on here it messes up :(

Jing
June 3rd, 2012, 01:32 PM
I don't have dreadlocks, but some of my hair is in a dreadlock on someone else's head, and she's caucasian. :p She has "extensions" from all her friends in there.

feralnature
June 3rd, 2012, 04:05 PM
Why does he not wash his hair? Clean hair dreads faster and smells good.

afu
June 3rd, 2012, 04:12 PM
i'll be keeping my eye on this :) always fancied trying dreads at some point, i think i need to wait till i can accept not bleaching it though

pepperminttea
June 3rd, 2012, 05:55 PM
I don't have dreadlocks, but some of my hair is in a dreadlock on someone else's head, and she's caucasian. :p She has "extensions" from all her friends in there.

I love that, what a unique idea to carry a part of each of your friends with you in your dreads. :)

sarahbrownie
June 3rd, 2012, 06:06 PM
My friend has organic dreads.

They are pretty awesome, though she got them done when she was BSL, which meant it became chin length. She's had it for only 2 years and they've only grown an inch so far. She actually dreads the nape of someones neck, cuts it, and dreads it into her hair for added volume. She bleached them to a light brown so she manic panics them different colors once and a while.

truepeacenik
June 3rd, 2012, 06:14 PM
Why does he not wash his hair? Clean hair dreads faster and smells good.

Likely it means water only, or herbal rinses, no detergents.

I had a cluster of dreads, back combed, no wax or other additives aside from aloe to make them work friendly. They lived close to three years and I combed them out over a week long vacation.
I have very little wave in my hair.

I was friendly with a woman long ago who had curly blonde hair and her dreads were tailbone length. She cut them during a divorce and the need to get a job in a less than progressive place.

Her dreads were gorgeous and all natural. She used neglect with rip-twist.

Jing
June 4th, 2012, 08:07 AM
I love that, what a unique idea to carry a part of each of your friends with you in your dreads. :)

It looks awesome, too! Even her mother contributed the contents of her hair brush a couple of times, so there are two grey/white-tipped dreads in the middle of everything.

pink.sara
June 4th, 2012, 10:15 AM
I had dreads for years, the longest got to knee before I cut a they were just incredibly heavy and thinning my front hairline from the weight of wearing them up.

My hair was about waist when I dreaded using beeswax and backcombing, and this took them to just below shoulder so I used natural hair extensions (my own from a previous hair cut) to extend them back to waist +

Couldn't get my fine straight hair to dread naturally though.

I also dyed them black, pink purple and turquoise and wrapped felt or silver wire through them for interest.

Love the idea of using loved ones hair in your own though :)

feralnature
June 6th, 2012, 04:56 AM
Thanks for all the replies! Tomorrow will be two weeks since I combed my hair. I will update pics as I progress.

barely.there
June 6th, 2012, 10:03 AM
Check out any local art college. I can garuntee you that every other kid there will have dreds.

Sunny_Waits
June 6th, 2012, 11:11 AM
I really wanted dreadlocks about three years ago. I still do want them but I just don't think I have the hair for it. I went to someone who used wax in my hair to make them, but they weren't done right and I knew it. I went home and washed and combed them out. Maybe one day I'll figure out how to make it work!

NaiadOreiad
June 13th, 2012, 04:15 AM
I had dreads for a long time too, shaved them off and now that I am in between bsl and waist I just added a single dread, to help me bide my time til I hit waist, then I might add one more.

I like combing my hair, but I missed the decorative opportunities with dreads.

bte
June 13th, 2012, 05:04 AM
I have seen some amazing dreadlocks on Caucasian men and women over the years. There was a builder working locally a couple of years ago who had knee length organic dreads, and I have seen several women with very attractive hip length dreads. They have the advantage that there is no terminal length (unless you reach the point where you can't walk for the weight of hair!), but the disadvantage that it's not easy to change your mind.

cremenoir
June 13th, 2012, 08:32 AM
I had dreads for a few years, but they were back-combed, not all-natural. i used aloe gel to tighten them up and make them look neater before they locked up all the way. i washed them with shampoo about twice per week, which seemed to help them lock faster. i back-combed my new growth and threaded stray hairs into my dreads with a crochet hook and felting needle, which worked great.

i loved the way they looked, but cut them off eventually because the upkeep was too demanding. also, i live in a pretty cold climate, and keeping them clean and DRY (absolutely necessary to prevent mold) in the winter was just too much of a hassle. also they were very heavy!

how hair dreads all comes down to the degree of curl in the hair. straight to wavy hair definitely will lock up very tightly over time, BUT... it needs a lot of encouragement. i'm not sure if it's the best hair to let dread free-form. curly hair dreads very well naturally because the structure of the hair naturally winds around itself and separates into clumps. straight-to-wavy hair, however, tends to grow in un-knotted for the first few inches, then form giant mass-dreadlocks in the mid-lengths, and if they aren't encouraged to separate in some way, whether by crocheting, ripping, etc. then you end up with a huge mess. curly hair new-growth can be twisted easily into dreads because, again, it wants to twist naturally. straightt hair is a whole different story. stray hairs everywhere, very flat on top/new growth needs to be back-combed in order to dread rather than just growing out un-knotted, hairs constantly growing into the wrong dreads, etc.

in my experience i would say if you aren't at least a 3b, it's probably best to do at least some dread maintenance, rather than letting them grow in completely free-form. however, if you're willing to do a little upkeep, pretty much any hair type can be made into beautiful dreads.

Alexandriaweb
June 13th, 2012, 11:17 AM
Check out any local art college. I can garuntee you that every other kid there will have dreds.

I was an art student for seven years (college then university) and never met a single person with dreads :bigeyes:

theodora
June 25th, 2012, 02:20 PM
Enjoy your dread journey feralnature!
I've only just starting dreading my own hair, planning on using a combination of neglect and twist and rip. I've done 7 dreads so far at the bottom/underside of my hair, and I probably won't take pictures I've done a bit more. I have fine straight hair and I don't know how well it's all going to work, but I'm shooting for natural organic looking dreads, not the perfect manicured kind, so if they're loopy and full of wispy loose hair I really don't mind!
I'm excited to see how your journey goes and to see your progress pictures!

Elithia
June 26th, 2012, 11:07 AM
My dad had a full head of dreads for 4 years. They grew really fast -- from 2 inches to bsl (if you can use that on a man!). He cut them in February because my mother really wanted them to go. But they were gorgeous. Everyone started asking me if my dad was black (he IS dark-complexioned with black hair? but his ancestry is GERMAN. Stereotyping I guess). I'll try and dig up a picture because they were really nice ... we back-combed to begin with but he didn't wax them or anything.