MirandaJoy's Short Hair Dreads

[MirandaJoy]

Hello Folks.

I've seen very few timelines where dreads were started when the hair was short. There is probably a very good reason for that... I might be setting myself up for grief. But I am very excited about setting off on my dreadlock journey.

HAIR HISTORY:

This photo was taken in 2014, just before I cut my hair short. It had taken me about two years to grow my hair out to that length from a pixie cut. So I figure it's going to take YEARS if I ever want long dreads.


This is from the day I cut it.


Fast forward to this year, 2016. I love my hair short, but also had gotten quite bored with it so I started experimenting a lot with different cuts and colors. This year I've done all my hair modifications myself. Cut. Color. All from home. ( BTW I am not a professional so don't judge).







This was my hair the week before I started my partial dreads

FIRST SET OF PARTIALS:

On May 4th 2016 I twist and ripped my first two "test" dreads. I did them while I was bored at work and waiting in the car to pick up my sister. So they weren't the most professional looking. But so far they have held.

I put a third dread in May 5th.



May 6th I washed my dreads for the first time and they came a bit loose at the tips, but the sections held together ok.

I twist and ripped them again and back combed the tips to tighten them back up.

On May 7th I decided that I caught the dreadlock bug and started to make plans with my friend to help me dread my whole head. I put in one more twist and rip that day.

Since I put in my partials I've only finger combed my loose hair, because I've been afraid to snag the roots of my baby dreads. As a result my hair has become SUPER curly, which has never really happened to me in my memory. This was my bed head this morning.

I'm really curious to see how my dreads progress when my hair is just so dang short. My siblings (who live with me) don't really get my desire to have dreads. Yesterday my youngest sister asked me, "Why?? Why now when your hair is the shortest it has EVER been?" Well, I don't really have an answer for that. But I know that if I don't try I will always wonder "What if?" And that's something I never want to ask myself.

UPDATE 5-10-2016

So I had a bit of a hair disaster this morning. I showered and tried using Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap as shampoo for the first time. Even though I diluted it 1 part soap to about 12 parts water, I still couldn't get it all out of my hair. After my shower I dried my hair and it just felt chalky and dirty. Not greasy just... Gross. And my baby dreads were starting to fall apart. I couldn't stand the feeling of my hair so I got back in the shower and used normal shampoo to get the yuck out. I had to wash my hair THREE times before it felt clean again. And my hair felt so stripped at that point I used conditioner. Once it was all said and done, my baby dreads were completely disintegrated.

I'm so sad, now I need to start all over again.

SECOND SET OF PARTIALS:

Update June 7 2016:

This morning I put in another partial dread. I've been trying to wait for my hair to grow out more to start my full set of dreads. But I really have missed my partials, so in going to try them again.


This afternoon I put in four more. So now I have five partial dreads. They don't take me very long to put in because my hair is so short. I might just keep going.


I finished this day with seven baby dreadlocks. Seven dreads born on the 7th of June. Seems suiting.


UPDATE JUNE 11th 2016

So I think ten might be an unlucky number for my dreads. On June 9th I put in three more dreads to come to a total of ten.


The next morning I needed to wash my hair. Most of my dreads held pretty well, though they all loosened at the roots and tips some. But for the life of me, I could not find dread number 10. It was gone without a trace.

So last night, June 10th, I put in one more dread to make them ten again. Well I woke up this morning and that dread was sticking out in the most awkward way. Upon inspection I realized that I had been really lazy with the sectioning of that dread. A large chunk of hair not a part of the original section had snuck in while I was t & ring resulting in a long root instead of a round or squarish one. I have no pictures of this, but I decided to go ahead and take it out. I have to say, it's a little unsettling how easy it is to take the baby dreads out at this point. I only used my fingers and it took only a minute. They just seem so fragile right now.

UPDATE JUNE 13th 2016

Today was my day off so I spent a good amount of time adding dreads. This morning I had 11. Now I think I have 20. I'm starting to loose count which is crazy to me! Because they are so short they do stick out in weird ways. But I tied a bandana around my head when I went out today and I think I looked pretty darn cute.



These last two photos I just took after confirming a count of 20 baby dreads.



They are a hot mess right now, but I am so excited to see how they change and mature. I am now more than half way towards a full head of dreads!

UPDATE JUNE 14th 2016

It is finished! I now have my full head of dreads. I know have 30 dreads, plus a couple really skinny ones that might not survive. I intentionally left some loose hair in front, and some of my hair in back is too short still to dread, but I will continue to dread it as it grows. It looks so ridiculous right now, but I love them and I am so excited!



UPDATE JUNE 20th 2016

I'm fully committed at this point. I've had my new set of partial dreads for less than two weeks now and I'm already completely annoyed with the hair I intentionally left loose. So today I decided to dread the rest of it. Now the only hair that is loose is the hair in the back that is still too short (and my sidecuts of course). Im so excited! I feel like a real dreadhead now.

Shortly after I started dreading the last of my loose hair this morning.


All done!


Fun shots.





UPDATE JUNE 27th 2016
Today I made a YouTube video talking about my decision to create dreadlocks. I thought this would be the best place to share this.


JULY 4th 2016
My hair is at that crazy fluffy stage right now. Every morning I wake up with this great big cloud on my head. So much of my hair keeps coming loose. Throughout the day I have to finger twist the loose hairs back around their sections and even re twist and rip many of them. Thankfully, because my hair is so short that doesn't take long. But still it's annoying. I don't mind having some loose hair, especially at the tips. But I do want to make sure the hair stays in their sections and not come completely loose. That's the struggle right now. I'm looking forward to the point when I can just let it go a little more.


MONTH 1 (JULY 2016):

I've had a full head of dreads for just over a month now. I love them so much! Though trying to form dreads with such short hair presents its own challenges, it's been a success so far. They stay in their sections for the most part now. I still have to deal with loose hair and they get really fluffy after I wash them. But knots are forming and I'm starting to believe that dreadlocks really are forming.




MONTH 2 (AUGUST 2016)

I was not very good at documenting my dread progress in month 2. But here are some snapshots from the month.








MONTH 3 (September 2016)



So this happened. I've missed having blue hair. Blue dreads are going to be even more fun.




Thanks for joining me on my journey.

[jxbx]

My first set of dreads started with just finger combing my hair.
I wonder if @dutchdreads is still on here. She had one of the best examples of towel rubbing short hair into dreads.

[morri]

There are looking great

[MirandaJoy]

May 9, 2016 15:59:48 GMT jxbx said:

My first set of dreads started with just finger combing my hair.
I wonder if @dutchdreads is still on here. She had one of the best examples of towel rubbing short hair into dreads.

Hmmm... Towel rubbing. I don't know much about that. Someone said it only works for naturally nappy hair, so I haven't really researched that. My hair is naturally pretty straight to slightly wavy and pretty smooth and silky. I'll look into this more.

[wells]

my last two sets I started with short hairs. the first one I did a lot of wool/towel rubbing. I can attest that it works in straight hair types. I got a square of wool from the arts crafts store that I would just rub the shit out of my head with it.

and yes!!! keep it up they will be rad!

[jxbx]

Nah...actually the first time I ever saw someone with dreads were these two English guys on vacation in Hawaii circa 1985. I asked them how they did it and they told me that they rubbed their palms on their head in a clockwise and counterclockwise motion until it got dreaded.

I've seen it described as both towel run or palm rub...I think wool rub too. Anyhow, their hair was short and straight as well. I admit, I tried with my nappy hair and it wouldn't take for some reason...probably the lack of patience.

[kondzio]

wool rubbing can be effective method, but should be used wisely and regularly because You can oveerub hair

watched some pictures on the Internet and it gives lots of thin locks what has great outcome

[Deleted]

that's actually what I've been doing (with my stick straight hair)...towel rubbing, but without the towel!

it's similar to root rubbing, but you just get your whole lock up in there! Actually, with your short hair, this would work great...but yeah, you can probably overdo it easier with short hair. Only do it until you get a bit of knotting, then wait a day or so to do it again (maybe someone else has more specific instructions on how much to do or how often...but you can use your best judgment most of the time)

love the curls!

[MirandaJoy]

Wow, thanks for all the input guys! I'm super curious about towel rubbing now. I think I've been doing it unintentionally already. I already play with my hair so much. I was actually afraid that would be bad for the forming of my dreads.

[MirandaJoy]

I'm so sad. I just made an update. I explain in the main post, but long story short, I had a disastrous experience using Dr. Bronner's and now my baby dreads have completely fallen apart. I'm back at square one.

[alethionaut]

You can take all you have learnt and move forward though. Now you can enlist your friend to help you do them all at once!! Bright side

[Deleted]

that's so positive, I love it!

seriously Miranda, this happens to a lot of us! I think I even redid my t&r ones...ohhh but that's when I ended up doing them too close to the scalp...have you seen LazyDread's video on this method? Like, you really have to "rip" them tight (on each other, not to the scalp). hmm, I wonder if I still have this bookmarked...ok, i didn't, but here it is...

(gah, I always laugh..."what you need for this method...hands!" *wiggles hands in front of the camera! )

[MirandaJoy]

May 10, 2016 19:52:14 GMT alethionaut said:

You can take all you have learnt and move forward though. Now you can enlist your friend to help you do them all at once!! Bright side

That is true. I've already talked to her about helping me. In the end, do feel like this will be for the best.

[MirandaJoy]

Mini update. I put in one new partial this morning. I might put a couple more in this afternoon.

[MirandaJoy]

And I just added four more this afternoon, so now I have five partial dreads. Shall I keep going?