Happy 2nd Birthday!

Today my wonderful dreads are two years old! Two years! It seems like I had them done yesterday  and that they’ve always been there at the same time. We have an ongoing relationship of getting to know each other and I swear they change every day. I wear them tied back either in a pony tail or in a bun for most of the time as I’m currently doing seasonal work in The Card Factory in Paignton and it keeps them out of the way.

This obviously leads to wear and tear so I’m experiencing lots of bobbling and periodic thinning as certain ones get stretched or snagged.

Only last night I was putting them into the scarf I wear at night and I spotted a skinny little dread I barely recognised! How do they do that without me noticing I wonder? But in the last six months I’ve become much more hands-on with my maintenance. This morning out came the crochet hook and it was a shorter but fatter happy dread in no time. 🙂

They’re still in desperate need of tidying at the roots but sadly my finances are no where near the point when I can travel to Kent to get the lovely Ali to work her magic. I’ve had a go myself at the front but they tend to relax again after a wash so it’s no substitute for a professional hand.

The extensions feel like they are getting old in a way that my own hair isn’t. They feel tired, dry and are beginning to break down and slowly fall apart. That’s invariably where the thinning occurs and crisis points happen at the join. I have the growing feeling they aren’t long for this head, but then I’m loving the length and the gradation of colour and I think, no, not yet. The ‘all-me’ period is definitely on the horizon though.

 

The dreads get thicker as they go upwards and become formed of my own hair which is a great – I can look forward to lovely thick locs at a later period. Well, thick for me anyway. As someone with fine hair I’ll never get really thick dreads and I’m not sure I’d want them anyway. MORE dreads would be amazing but I’ll have to wait for another lifetime for that. LOL.

And they’re enormous FUN!

They get dressed up in all sorts of beads these days and in this cold weather they make a snug nose-warmer!

So Happy Birthday dear Demeters (collective name for them) Two years today!

Breaking boundaries

Something else happened this week that made me ponder. I still get people stopping me in the street and complimenting me on my dreads, which is always a confidence boost. Three weeks ago a young lass in her twenties stopped me in Torquay and said “Excuse me, I love your outfit, you look awesome!” Who wouldn’t be chuffed with that kind of comment! Lovely!

But last week I was in a high street supermarket (which shall remain nameless), in Paignton and a female member of staff stopped, reached out and felt my dreads as she said, “I love your hair!” What is it about them that makes people, even a sales assistant on the shop floor, who really shouldn’t be – I’ll say ‘making uninvited physical contact’ rather than ‘mauling’- a member of the public? It didn’t bother me and I thanked her, as I always do when I get compliments, but in this day and age she was putting herself at risk! And she knew it – she snatched her hand away as soon as she realised what she had done, but the impulse was too much to resist, she did it instinctively. I find it fascinating.

A loss

For about three months now I’ve been concerned about a couple of my dreads that have been getting thin patches. It seemed to creep up all of a sudden and get worse quite rapidly. Well today (a wash day), with my dreads at 1 year, 4 months and 4 days old, I looked at the most poorly dread and pulled it- it drifted apart!

It has happened just below the join between my hair and the extension, which isn’t surprising as it would always be a weak spot.

I’m a bit sad, but Ali warned me it would happen naturally as time went on so I’m not too worried. I’ve also been very much aware of a significant amount of lint that I’ve picked up from my red woolly scarf this winter (CLEAN lint, Mr P!) so a gradual shedding is probably a good idea over time. Keep them fresh! It seems impossible to remove lint without damage being done to the dread so it’s a bit of a rock and a hard place situation. At least I now know that when they reach a certain ‘thinness’ it is better to take them off in a controlled manner rather than leaving it to chance.

Having become super-aware of the thicknesses of my dreads, I am very pleased to say that the part of each dread that is made up of the new growth over the last year and a third is much, much thicker than the lower extensions. Hurrah! Well it makes sense, if you think of all those hairs, 100 or so a day, roughly three thousand a month (!)  aren’t floating away willy-nilly to clog up the sink and make dust-bunnies under beds like non-dreaded ones, they’re staying at home and making themselves useful!

And the colour gradations are really cool too. The over-all look is so much like my original sketches I never cease to be surprised! (Well not quite as thick as my sketches perhaps, but colour-wise they’re very similar). Loving my Demeters! Awww, I don’t use that old name very often. That’s the name I gave them when they were formed. Sweet.

Another stage in the journey of my dreads. They never cease to amuse.

 

Second Tidy up

It’s been a long 9 1/2 months since my last tidy and boy oh boy was I whisp-city! It really  has been a struggle this last month: I’ve felt such a mess, but Ali says that it was so much easier, and we both agree, successful, having that amount of length to weave back in so it was worth the wait.

There wasn’t too much ripping apart this time but – ouch – it was painful, especially over the ears! A really good run though, a mere 4 hours! Here are few highlights:

The cool night air and slight drizzle felt so good on my scalp after that little lot! It’ll be sore for tonight I expect but it soon wears off.

Lovely job, thank you Ali!

Happy Birthday today!

My fabulous dreads are one year old today! Happy Birthday Dreads!

A good handful or two are as loopy as anything, especially around the back as I’ve had a wangy arm for most of the second half of the year (pulled something) and palm-rolling has been a real issue, but I’ve done what I can and generally I hope they’re going to pass muster with Ali. My life-long hair-player-around-with-person isn’t fond of them, and hair grooming has subtly become one-sided, which is sad, but that’s life. My sister can’t stand touching other people’s hair so she’s out and I haven’t really got anyone else, so until I move to Devon it’s just me on the maintenance front.

I’ve tried to keep them apart from each other and go over the ones I can reach to check their independence now and again, but I can’t really vouch for round the back.

Some have got thin areas where the join between my hair and the extension come but I’ve learned not to worry as they still seem pretty strong in those areas.

I am sooooooo wispy and in desperate need of a tidy up,

but that’s going to be in the New Year now. I am really looking forward to it or at least, looking forward to about a couple of weeks afterwards when they’ve loosened a wee bit and it doesn’t hurt anymore! Catching up with Ali and Jon will be lovely though!

And they’ve grown! Weirdly, or not weirdly if you get your head round the fact that parts of your head of hair grow quicker than others. Not really something I’d thought of before all this. The two-tone dread in the middle of my forehead, that has the natural anti-Mallon streak has only managed an inch whereas the one at the top back seems to have shot from 13 1/2 to 20 inches. Just started measuring the longest one on the right hand side, which is currently 18 1/2 inches. That one seems to be heading south quicker than it’s relative boob so it will be interesting to see what that does in the next few months compared to the others. Probably not a lot being the winter, but we’ll see. I am definitely aware of more silver in the over all appearance which is great and in line with what I’d envisaged. Compare today’s photo with the projection sketch, (for the 6-month stage), that I did before I had them done:

Not far off eh? Nice thing is that they are as thick as I’d hoped, or not far off. I knew, with my fine hair, that I’d never have luscious locs, but I’m very happy with how they turned out in that respect. I am slowly learning to love the loops, or at least I accepted them a long time ago as soon as I realised they weren’t leaving any time soon. Who knows, if I can get a willing palm-roller when a) I’m rich enough to pay them, and b) I’ve moved to Devon, maybe they will gradually become a bit more background than they are now. That would be nice.

I’m pleased with my scalp. It’s generally very well behaved and I only get itchy when I’ve had them up and the harsher hairs are sticking into it. I keep it well spritzed with essential oils, morning and night (lightly at night so as not to have damp hair). I still wear either my silly kid’s t-shirt on them or wrap them in a scarf at night as I don’t like the scratchiness on my face with them loose, and I like to protect the pillow case from the essential oils.

I’m usually ready to wash them after three weeks but that’s hell for organising, so I’ve tended to go for the dark and full moons in the summer, which are a good reminder, and longer in the autumn and winter. I try to reach a lunar month if I can. I’ve been a bit restricted with bathroom accommodation this year too. I’m living with friends and my attic bathroom doesn’t have a proper shower arrangement and I don’t like to ask to use their’s too often. I’ve used other friend’s showers on a couple of occasions and made the most of the hotel shower in Malta. The water was supposed to be desalinated but by the taste of it, I’d say not very well, so I wanted to see how it affected my hair. Not much as it happened but it was still lovely!

So at one year I love them more than ever. I still get complete strangers stop me and tell me how much they like them and to date I don’t remember any actual abuse, so that’s all positive. I wear them in a number of different ways and I just don’t get bored of them. It’s never a bad hair day unless a sea gull is involved!

Best hair decision I ever made! Thank you Ali for being their creator. xxx

 

6 Month tidy up

So the first picture was the state of my locs at 5 months and 2 weeks. Time to visit Ali for a first roughly half-year tidy. I’d noticed a lot of ‘looping’ occurring in the last two weeks (you can see them in the dread with the dark blue bead). I think it was because I hadn’t been palm-rolling often enough and I’d washed them twice within a month so they were getting quite loose and any pulls and hooks on things were forming loops. I’d got a lot of loose hair at the back of my head too.

Four hours later I was all neatened and crocheted back into place. Ali says she was very pleased with the general state of my scalp which was very healthy, and says that my hair has thickened up since she saw it last, probably due to the scalp stimulation of root rubbing and palm rolling. Ali reckons it’s grown a lot too and estimates I might be seeing the last of my extensions in as little as two years down the line! I’d estimated 6 years so that would be amazing.

It certainly feels good. Have to say the pain levels of being tidied up was pretty high. OUCH! And it still feels quite sore and very tight a day after. It feels great though, really vitalised and invigorated. I am neat!

Here’s a comparison with mid December. The ones at the front are definitely longer! The loops are still in evidence but a good deal of palm-rolling will get those under control. I will learn to ‘love them’ says Ali! 6 months on and not one single regret. Best hair decision I’ve ever made!

Lint

I have discovered today that sometime over the last however how long I have been visited by the cheeky little minx known as the ‘Lint Gnome”. I remember hearing people talk about lint but having stopped watching dread vlogs as soon as I got my own locks it slipped my mind. Indeed the Lint Gnome has been weaving little nests of coloured silk threads into the ends of my dreads, usually at the tip but this one’s at the side. Annoying as you end up pulling hairs out of place when trying to extricate it. Another thing to add to the maintenance list! Small price to pay for having pretty braids! LOL.

Never a bad hair day!

Four lunar months and five days old today and I wake up every day thinking “I love my dreads!” I’m getting into the rhythm now. A week tomorrow it’s wash day and still using my old shampoo up so I’ll have to wait at least another monht before I crack open the lovely shampoo bar.

I find the week after I wash them my scalp is quite itchy but I think that’s because it’s dry so I’m making sure I give it lots of essential oil sprays to balance myself up again. The itchiness comes from the lower parts of my dreads (the extension parts) which are a lot more scratchy than my own hair, coming into contact with my scalp; it’s not my scalp on it’s own that’s itchy. I’m also slightly sensitive to wool so contact from the woolly hats will have taken it’s toll. I wear a very fetching t-shirt on my head at night by way of a night cap to protect my face from scratchiness and my pillow from the essential oils and that doesn’t make my scalp itch at all so it must be the wool.

Last month I’d found by week three I was beginning to look forward to wash day, feeling a bit greasy. This month I’m surprised it’s come round so quickly and it’s hardly greasy at all. As the weather has let up very slightly and I’ve gone out without a woolly hat more often, I suppose I’m not getting so naturally oily. I’m still amazed my scalp has adapted so quickly.

I’m finding palm rolling round the back almost impossible so I was really grateful to Angus last Saturday evening for his efforts during our celebratory “Wine for pub quiz winners and mutual dread grooming” session on Jon and Ali’s boat. It was interesting rolling his dreads too. Angus’s are much more varied than mine and a lot thicker for the most part. So lovely to be among ‘dreaded’ friends. I really enjoy walking through town being ‘the odd one out’ and holding my head high, but it’s also really lovely to feel part of a ‘tribe’. And what a ‘tribe’ to be part of – fabulous.

 

Roots of the matter

A quick photo update of my roots at 8 weeks. Grey is growing through and is being incorporated, a little, into the palm-rolled dreaded roots end. The whispy ends are little buggers, always trying to join their neighbouring dread rather than their own but I’m going through them every few days to try and nip this in the bud. At this stage the new growth of the dreads feels very loose. I will ask Ali if these will get tightened up with crocheting as part of my 6 month check up or whether the nature of the dread will just be different as it grows naturally. As this root growth gets longer I’ll be able to palm-roll it more efficiently which will change their nature anyway. It’s fascinating seeing their slow progress. It seems so slow but I know they’ll be graduating from Uni and the extensions will be flying the nest before I know it!

Another random person in the street and someone at Eukelele class have said how much they like them  this week. Oh, and a passing comment from a bunch of teenage boys with a very bad Caribbean accent, which wasn’t exactly an insult, so still mostly positive. LOL.

A little bit of me wants to be all grey, to see the end of the process so to speak. That’s one of the main initial reasons for getting them done, to grow the grey out and live with it in a way that was acceptable to me, so it is my first goal: to be all natural and all my own hair. I wonder how long my anti-Mallen streak of brown at the front will last? (If a Mallen streak doesn’t mean anything to you ask your mother/grandmother/Google.) I suppose one day all the rest will be white and just that dread will be grey! Thanks to the lovely Laura for her camera work here- so nice to get something better than my usual blurry selfies! Thanks hun, you’re a star!

I love the way they fold over softly at the root, like a rolling wave at sea.

And you can see the two really long one’s on the first pic here- they do all the work of a scrunchie, holding up my big dread ponytail, two from either side. Loving my ‘elemental’ braids now too. I was sad I couldn’t put too many trinkets in them though. Anything more complicated than a bead or a round thing of sorts gets caught up in other dreads and does constant damage so I’ve had to take them out. These are pretty though. You can see my ‘sea’ one below which has three cowrie shells that go jingle jingle like the shells under the base of the walls of Castle Cornet on Guernsey at high tide. Lovely.

Awwww, they’re so cute! I don’t get to see them at this angle very often. Hurrah!

 

Once in a Blue Moon

My dreads are six weeks and six days old today.

I own up to having washed my dreads again on 31st January! I’m planning on only doing it once a month in the winter but felt I wanted to mark it with something special so I’ve aligned it with the full moon, and so now when people ask “how often do you wash them” (which usually comes after they’ve asked “Can you wash them?”), I can say “Once in a Blue moon… and usually every full moon after that!” Mind you Blue Moons are ten a penny this year or at least two a penny: we get another one on 31 March! LOL.

Even though it had only been two and a half weeks since the first wash the novelty had definitely not worn off. It is such a huge treat feeling the drops buzzing on my scalp. That’s how it feels, it’s so energising- I never want to get out! They get steamed nicely in a normal shower but it’s just not the same. Glorious! 3/4s of my old shampoo bottle to go and then I’m onto the shampoo bar. Can’t wait- another new experience.

It took the best part of the day to dry again and I definitely go more frizzy afterwards. I’ve noticed a lot of stray hairs, especially from the back where they get stretched every time I put them up to go out. I’m doing my best to palm roll them back in but it could just be something that happens and they get crocheted back in on my first ‘tidy up’ in May. I don’t mind them as long as they’re doing what they’re meant to be doing. I also quite like the soft growth coming through from the roots. I’m palm-rolling them, the ones I can reach and I’m sure I can see the ones at the front forming into new bits of dread already. It will be interesting to see how the nature of this new growth differs in texture as a dread to the old. I’m rather enjoying not being het up about my grey coming through for the first time ever! In the ‘old hair’ days I would be practically wearing a paper bag in public if I had an inch and a half of grey showing, I’d be so embarrassed! My dreads are, as you can see a constant source of entertainment and wonder for me.

Dunked them in my cup of tea yesterday by mistake! And before you ask, no, the end didn’t break off when they were half way to my mouth!  Actually I was going to do what came naturally and then I thought of two things: lavender oil flavoured tea – yuk – and then Mrs Joy telling us girls in primary school not to chew our hair!! I reached for a tissue instead! 🙂