Getting my hair dreaded for the first time! Advice pls?

[CandySecretion]

It's been a while since my last post and I'm happy to say that I'll be getting my hair knotted up Monday! I'm really excited as I've been contemplating taking the plunge for many years, and despite people trying to sway me in my decision I'm finally making the commitment :] I've taught a school friend how I'd like her to do it (backcombing & palm rolling), I've also let her dread up one of my mannequin heads and she did really well! I'm so proud lol. Anyway, theres just a few things I'd like to ask you lovely ladies with experience in the natural dread department as this will be my first time

1- I'm wondering what type of sectioning would be the best (I was thinking a bricklay pattern)?
2- My hair is currently an inch or two below my shoulders, with grown out layers mainly in the back of my head (grown out terribly cut graduation) would this really affect the outcome of my dreads?
3- I'm a smoker & I plan on shampooing my dreads rather frequently. ATM I shampoo 1-2 times a week (my hair becomes dry if I do it more than that) Would it be okay to shampoo them once a week? Or would every 2 weeks be better? I'll be using a clarifying shampoo. Should I water that down a bit? & how exactly would you go about washing them, focus more on the scalp area or the entire length of the dread?
4- How do most of you go about drying them? I've seen a few people say they whip their hair around lol I've seen some say when they sleep they lay them out above their head to let them dry overnight but wouldn't the water sit there, usually when I boil dreads they'll stay wet longer if they're horizontal then if they were hanging vertically. Could I use a blow dryer maybe?
5- I've heard/read a few different ways of maintaining dreads, root rubbing, crocheting, palm rolling, running your fingers down the sectioning to make sure they stay individual... should I do all of these things or would it be too much? How often should you maintain them?

I think that's it... I feel like I've just written a short story lol I'm sorry if all this has been answered 837264 times, but any answers/advice/tips are really appreciated. I look forward to posting a picture of them once they're done! XD

[trippytroll]

ive just rcently cut off my natural dreads, but i always washed them 2-3 times a week, with watered down shampoo, id scrub the scalp area first then rinse off and then wash the actual dread rinse off then put tea tree oil over them, and i also washed them in the morning then hairdryer them off to stop them dripping then theyd have the rest of the day to try, i personally never washed them at night as i was worried of going to bed with them wet and having that wwet dog smell

when you first have them done, its reaally tempting to fiddle about with them but my best advicee is just dont!! it is tempting big time but you just gotta leavee them andd ddo there thing, once in a while i would tidy up some of the roots with a crochet hook but didnt hardly touch them i just let them do their thing.

and i think the best sectioning is the honeycomb sectioning way (think its called) cos it looks so bad when youve got that gap down the middle where your parting is, its looks bad so you wwant to avoid that

i dont really get what your are trying to ask in your question number 2

hope this a helps a bit for you

[CandySecretion]

Thanks for the tips on washing, that's really helpful :] I don't think I'll be doing much to them after they're done, I do plan on adding extenders though because I'm sure they'll end up being pretty short & hedgehog-like lol As for my second question, I was told by a fellow classmate that since my hair had wonky layers that my dreads wouldn't be uniform, so I was just wondering if anyones heard of that or anything. I'm not overly concerned about it. Would there be a photo of some sort of that honeycomb sectioning you mentioned so I can show my friend? Thank you for all the advice as well!

[trippytroll]

if you have layers that are all different lenghts, then no they wont be uniform, but who wants dreads that all look the same?it adds to their appeal and uniqness by having them different, but if you are adding extenders and you wanted themm all the same thats easy enough,
sorry i dont know where there are any pics of that sectioning, maybe google images
or you could try get up dread up on live journal, read the memories,
the comminity isnt overly friendly but the memories does have good info
just scroll down to the sectioning bit, think there are a few entries about it
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memori ... p_dread_up

[xxkinzixx]

1- For sectioning, the bricklay pattern will work fine... except instead of taking square-shaped sections, try to make them more round on the corners. I think that's pretty much the idea of the honeycomb pattern trippytroll mentioned.

2- Your dreads won't all be the same length, but once they start locking up they will be all different lengths anyways (they shrink a bit) so it shouldn't matter what your hair starts out like.

3- My bf washes his dreads about once a week, sometimes more if needed, and that works well for him. Wash your hair as often as you need to, it's mostly personal preference I think. Obviously you don't want a dirty head, but washing them won't hurt them... actually dry hair will knot up better! You will probably want to water down your shampoo just so you don't have globs of soap getting stuck in your dreads. I'd say focus on the scalp mostly, when you rinse the shampoo out it should run through the dreads enough to keep them from getting too icky.

4- A blowdryer should work fine since it's your own hair...

5- I am a big fan of crocheting dreads! My bf wanted to do the "neglect method" but after a few months we found that they were getting a bit too wild and unruly so I crocheted them and they looked MUCH neater and more solid. I think all those things you listed are good things to do but you don't necessarily have to do all of that every day to have beautiful dreads. It all depends on what you want your dreads to look like too. I try to crochet his hair at least once a month... they are only about 8 months old but I mostly just have to do maintenance on the roots now as the dreads don't get as fuzzy/messy anymore. I also encourage him to at least go through and pull them apart from each other every so often to make sure the roots don't lock together with the other dreads (it's happened before and it really sucked for him when I had to separate them all). He also likes to palmroll them with some pure aloe vera gel which helps them lock up and makes them soft as well.

Hope that answered your questions well enough! I'm not an expert on this but my opinion is mostly based off what I've seen with my bf's dreads over the past few months. Of course, everyone has different hair and wants different looking dreads so you just need to pay attention to your babies and they will tell you what they need Good luck with your new dreadies!