Willow's Long-Hair Short-Dreads: 2 Years 08/16
Aug 28, 2016 20:20:35 GMT
dave, MamaKittyLove, and 5 more like this
Post by willowbranches on Aug 28, 2016 20:20:35 GMT
Since mid-August was my 2-year Dreadiversary, I figured it was finally time to get around to posting my timeline. I kept no regular track of anything, but I took lots of photos, generally, when I did--in an effort to keep this from being ridiculously pic-heavy, the majority of my photos can be found through the Timeline link in my signature.
Dread Specs:
Starting length: ~3 feet
Method: TnR
Sectioning: Bricklay
Number: ~130
Size: ~5mm to 10mm dia at base, starting
Before Dreads
My hair was ridiculously long--this photo is a couple years outdated, my hair was a few inches longer when I actually started, but this is essentially it. And in sore need of a wash
Before with Braids
That episode in New Zealand and my final inspiration to go dreads.
2 Months
I didn't photo document after installation, since I planned to keep a video diary--which of course I utterly failed to follow through. No matter, they didn't change a whit for probably the first 6 months anyway--something to do with my baking soda wash/vinegar rinse routine that didn't agree with my particular hard water. It's a crap photo, but they were pretty boring anyway.
3-ish Months
Also crap photo, and still immobile. But you can somewhat better see how tiny I made them--I have somewhere in the area of 130 dreads, give or take a couple.
7 Months
I have more photos, though still random in times, from here on out because at this point they really took off. I switched to a nasty detergent-based shampoo and it solved all the stagnation problems ^_^
8 Months
Pretty significant progress happening, they're all starting to go gnarly. I really miss this stage.
1 Year
I really should have gotten more shots of the 3-4 months in between, they changed a lot, but I was in the process of trying to move while working full time so had little attention to spare to my hair. but at this point they've mostly caught up with each other--throughout the first year they'd shrink in layers from the top down so I still had a lot of my length for most of that time since the bottom back shrunk last. Much more even now, and much shorter
14 Months
Falling back into keeping terrible track of my hair, for the next year I have only a few random shots by other people, some obviously of wretched quality
16 Months
My hair's gotten ridiculously big... (and grr)
17 Months
Evening out a lot though.
19 Months
For good measure...
22 Months
At this point I decided they were finally ready to have the ends trimmed and brushed out a little. I have super blobulous ends, which I don't mind, but I didn't want them blunted and had been waiting until they were good and solid before starting to hack at them. Also, early on all the dreads at the sides in front of my ears had fallen out--the only ones that did--and I let them freeform from there so they're significantly behind the rest. The skinny lengths are drawing up on themselves, so even though my hair is already huge it's going to get even bigger, and here we have my terminal shrinkage--from 3 feet loose to dreads ranging from 5 inches to a rare 1 foot
2 Years
Finally almost all the tips are brushed out, save a few I thought were too cool to change. The stuff at the sides has made a great deal of progress, between the shrinkage there and the added length from brushed tips they're finally about even with the rest.
This guy is one of my many favorites, but also an excellent example of how the skinnier lengths are thickening from the blobs up.
As stated above, there are a lot more photos in the link in my signature. I make no promises how often this will be updated from now on, probably only at points when I think my hair is doing something particularly nifty, as I don't imagine any significant changes will be taking place from here out... they'll get thicker, and possibly longer--though I doubt that will happen for a while, they seem to be staying where they are while the continued shrinking cancels out the growth. So for a while this'll do ^_^
Dread Specs:
Starting length: ~3 feet
Method: TnR
Sectioning: Bricklay
Number: ~130
Size: ~5mm to 10mm dia at base, starting
Before Dreads
My hair was ridiculously long--this photo is a couple years outdated, my hair was a few inches longer when I actually started, but this is essentially it. And in sore need of a wash
Before with Braids
That episode in New Zealand and my final inspiration to go dreads.
2 Months
I didn't photo document after installation, since I planned to keep a video diary--which of course I utterly failed to follow through. No matter, they didn't change a whit for probably the first 6 months anyway--something to do with my baking soda wash/vinegar rinse routine that didn't agree with my particular hard water. It's a crap photo, but they were pretty boring anyway.
3-ish Months
Also crap photo, and still immobile. But you can somewhat better see how tiny I made them--I have somewhere in the area of 130 dreads, give or take a couple.
7 Months
I have more photos, though still random in times, from here on out because at this point they really took off. I switched to a nasty detergent-based shampoo and it solved all the stagnation problems ^_^
8 Months
Pretty significant progress happening, they're all starting to go gnarly. I really miss this stage.
1 Year
I really should have gotten more shots of the 3-4 months in between, they changed a lot, but I was in the process of trying to move while working full time so had little attention to spare to my hair. but at this point they've mostly caught up with each other--throughout the first year they'd shrink in layers from the top down so I still had a lot of my length for most of that time since the bottom back shrunk last. Much more even now, and much shorter
14 Months
Falling back into keeping terrible track of my hair, for the next year I have only a few random shots by other people, some obviously of wretched quality
16 Months
My hair's gotten ridiculously big... (and grr)
17 Months
Evening out a lot though.
19 Months
For good measure...
22 Months
At this point I decided they were finally ready to have the ends trimmed and brushed out a little. I have super blobulous ends, which I don't mind, but I didn't want them blunted and had been waiting until they were good and solid before starting to hack at them. Also, early on all the dreads at the sides in front of my ears had fallen out--the only ones that did--and I let them freeform from there so they're significantly behind the rest. The skinny lengths are drawing up on themselves, so even though my hair is already huge it's going to get even bigger, and here we have my terminal shrinkage--from 3 feet loose to dreads ranging from 5 inches to a rare 1 foot
2 Years
Finally almost all the tips are brushed out, save a few I thought were too cool to change. The stuff at the sides has made a great deal of progress, between the shrinkage there and the added length from brushed tips they're finally about even with the rest.
This guy is one of my many favorites, but also an excellent example of how the skinnier lengths are thickening from the blobs up.
As stated above, there are a lot more photos in the link in my signature. I make no promises how often this will be updated from now on, probably only at points when I think my hair is doing something particularly nifty, as I don't imagine any significant changes will be taking place from here out... they'll get thicker, and possibly longer--though I doubt that will happen for a while, they seem to be staying where they are while the continued shrinking cancels out the growth. So for a while this'll do ^_^