Just starting, advice?

[avocado]

Hello all, I wouldn't say this is my first attempt at making dreads but it is my first serious attempt lol.

I recently purchased a new steamer, not sure how I feel about it. It's pressurized with 1500 watts, and it seems to me it isn't getting hot enough. I have a feeling I didn't tighten the cap enough as steam was leaking out, that may have something to do with it. Although it is an improvement of the last steamer I used.

The area I live in has tons and tons of beauty supply stores, I live just outside of Detroit and they're full of them. So i stocked up on some $2 packs of hair to test my skills with haha.

anyway, I decided to make a DE dreads in IKS peach color with my first attempt, because honestly im not too fond of the color/quality.

The problem I kept having was with my backcombing. I understand how important it is to do it properly but I sure was having a hard time with it. I was using a backcombing comb lol.the kind with 3 rows of teeth. no idea if those are bad for this or not. But anyway I could not find a way to not get bumps and could not fix the bumps. I tried backcombing in layers, and in sections. help! haha.

eventually I gave up and decided to do some weird wrappy thing with it since I couldnt fix the bumps. and this is what I ended up with.

pointers anyone? : p

[avocado]

Okay sooooo that last dread attempt was really irritating so I gave it another go, this time i made sure my steamer was sealed tightly, that fixed the heat problem/sealing, although I'm pretty sure it had a lot to do with the lower quality fiber. So I decided to use some burgundy colored biba brand kanekalon instead, and made a SE instead. It backcombed so much easier and turned out much better!



so now I just need to lurk to forums for a nice way to trim fuzzies since when I did it on this one it looks rather "spikey"
I didn't like the way the loops turned out either, which I was worried about in the beginning of the process, I followed Diversity Hair's tutorial and meh. I am going to try Merry's method from her blog next.

[poxabomination]

They both actually look really good! I think the peach is one of the specialty colors and I've heard they can be difficult to work with. Sometimes when the quality of the fiber is off the bumps are inevitable... I had a cobalt blue color that knotted up horribly even when I was just trying to separate it >.< If you aren't pulling it apart a few times while backcombing as well, that might help

The peach one actually looks kind of pretty and natural, I like it. As for fuzzies, it really is normal for them to be a bit fuzzy. And they get less fuzzy as you practice and get better at twisting and sealing as well.

p.s. I am so jealous that you have hair stores near you

[avocado]

Thank you :3 Yeah it is one of the specialty colors, and I knew when I bought it, it was lower quality, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway after seeing dreads LS made with this color. But her magic trumps my efforts lol. It's funny you say it looks natural because I was debating on turning it into a natural style dread or not, playing around with palm rolling it. So it still shows slightly. But at least I know now what fiber I don't like to use.

as for the fuzzies, maybe my photo isnt picking up on what I'm trying to say with the "spikes" ....like, I cut it pretty close to the edge so it had a lot of fiber ends just poking out and it makes it feel pokey too. I will have to practice more to avoid this, maybe just let it be. but thank you for the tips : )

oh and yes, I am so happy I found stores near me! It's a slight drive, but I just have to go down to 8 mile in Detroit and there's like 5906790356 beauty supply stores rofl. Now I just have to keep going back and convince them to carry more rainbow colors! I can get nearly any natural color, burgundy, red, and green, but that's it. : (

[poxabomination]

Do you mean it was spikey after you trimmed it? Cause thats why a lot of people avoid trimming altogether, I'd rather mine be fuzzy at the top than scratchy and pokey! Again, as you get more used to twisting they'll get smoother and you probably won't even feel the need to trim them Mine are... somewhat smoother... but I'm still practicing

I bet if you start becoming a regular customer they'll get fun colors in for you keep pestering them!

[twigletstar]

I know what you mean about the spikes - if you have too big of a loopy bit and cut it then it has that effect. You'll get better at that part, and most dreads when photographed in a group hardly show any fuzzies when actually, there's probably more than you'd realise

[NirvanaMarie]

Here's our tutorial for removing those fuzzies! You can never get rid of them all, and yours are looking great. You also might want to try going over it with a flat iron, that helps me with my last fuzzies sometimes.

http://www.doctoredlocks.com/catalog/Fuzzies.html