Dreaded: Part 1 - Rip and Tear

In an effort to keep things "to the point" I'll tell you the what, when, where and how of my dread story. Questions are always welcome. In fact, being a person who had dreads I welcomed the questions more than I did the gawking stares that followed my nine locks of hair.

WHAT | Rip and Tear

There are many ways to dread one's hair. Quite a few friends of mine, familiar with dreads, thought I'd done backcombing because of how "locked up" my dreads appeared. I did not. During the duration of having dreads I never backcombed and occasionally I "tried" to crochet (another method) but that proved a tiresome way to spend a Saturday so I didn't do that very often. The only reason I wanted to crochet my dreads was because they looped, meaning some hairs would loop out of the locked hair, making for an untidy appearance. Some people like loops, I did not.

I chose to do rip and tear because it left me with the most potential to one day brush out my dreads. It's natural. Less intense/traumatic. And my friends who dreaded my hair (also had dreads) used the rip and tear method and I liked how her dreads looked. 

WHEN | July 2014

I don't remember the date specifically. I do remember it being ridiculously cold, hello Johannesburg winter, and it being shortly after the 4th of July. 

WHERE | Johannesburg, South Africa

In my previous post I mentioned that I wanted dreads but corporate America didn't like that. When I'd gotten the job with the non-profit, among my list of new experiences and goals included: getting dreads. I'd only been in Africa for nearly 4 months, and dreads seemed like a good idea right about then. 

HOW | Perseverance, Good Friends and Some Movies

The rip and tear method is simple but tedious. You can youtube it if you'd like, but simply explained, you're taking the hair and splitting it, twisting it, and spreading it up (pulling it up and away) towards the root. Like a terribly messy, terribly dis-proportioned braid, one is simply knotting the hair. Originally I was going to dread my whole head, but after a few hours and 9 dreads later, and two women working on those dreads at one time, at a similar pace, I'd decided to call it quits for the night. A few days passed and I realized I actually liked the partially dreaded look and I didn't want to dread the rest of my head.

*  *  *

Some of the biggest challenges I faced with having dreads in the beginning was learning to maintenance them, accept them, and not expect too much of them. 

For maintenance I couldn't figure out how to best wash them. In the beginning I would wash them 2-3 times a week with an oil mixture I'd created, baking soda and apple cider vinegar. For whatever reason this method wreaked havoc on my scalp. I finally got a dread shampoo from a company called "Knotty Boy" and this was my best bet and by far my favorite shampoo to use. People always wondered what I did to maintenance my dreads and honestly it's silly when I say this, but for the past 4.5 years when I didn't want to wash my dreads I just bent over and washed the top half. Super annoying and inconvenient. I got used to it though. 

By accepting them, I had to accept the way they looked because in the beginning they did not look like dreads. They looked like fluffy braids. Disappointed in their appearance, I would not-so-simply wrap them in colorful strings, incorporating fun designs, often covering the "loops". People loved this and to an extent this method helped dread the hair around the wraps quicker, but on the downside it would keep my hair wet longer after they'd been washed.

My expectations were too high. I'd expect them to look like dreads, be easy to style, not destroy my scalp, and not add so much on to my general hygiene routine. I'd say it took them 6-7 months to look like dreads. They never became easy to style. I did figure out some routines with styling and hygiene but not without trial and error.

*  *  *

A year after I'd gotten my dreads and they'd finally "locked up" I'd released a not-so-subtle dread pic as one of my Facebook cover photos. I love this photo because it captured the essence of my journey with dreads thus far and while I'm not trying to over-spiritualize hair, it was a defining moment of acceptance for who the Lord made me to be. Creative. Determined. Unique. Committed. I was all these things and more before dreads but the picture had about a thousand more words to add.

Cape Town, South Africa -  July 2015