Mold? In young dreads, is it possible?

[GratefulShred]

Hi everyone!

I have had a spot on a dreadlock that has been concerning me over the past 2 weeks. The dread was wound exceptionally tight near the root, and I didnt really notice until i started to see discoloration. It became white, but I decided it was dandruff build up.

I havent taken my eyes off it. It wasnt bad enough to be visible by my camera until this evening, when I noticed I could see the discoloration at a distance, while walking towards a mirror. If I pinch that spot, it smells like a musty towel sort of. But, with such young dreads and such loose hairs i figured mold was almost impossible. I blow dry my hair, and it is never covered by anything (unless I'm eating, then it goes up briefly). So i dunno what to think now, but something is deffinitly strange on that poor dread. I will drop a few pictures.. hopefully someone has seen something similar, somewhere along the lines





Hopefully all is well with my hair, but a faint smell in the shower of musty-ness put a fright in me for sure.

[saralcat]

It could just be a reaction from your scalp at the irritation it's undergone, in which case it'll settle down as it gets used to them. Alternately, when you wash your head is it just the scalp, or are you rubbing shampoo into the dreads too? If the latter then it could be a build up from not rinsing enough. Just focus on the scalp, wash it when it gets itchy and don't stress overly.

[willowbranches]

Second on everything saralcat said

[GratefulShred]

Yes i did apply my shampoo to the dreads as well. I will deffinitly put the breaks on and just shampoo my scalp while allowing the dreads to absorb whatever falls into them. I do a pretty good rinse so coupled with your advice I should be golden ^-^.

Would a deep clean help to tidy that spot up do you think? Been a month and 5 days since i got dreads, was gonna wait til 3 months but i dont want that spot getting much worse!

Thanks so much for the tips!

[willowbranches]

You can definitely do a deep clean now if you want, it won't to anything but good (though you might find you have to do a lot of separating after, just so you're aware, it can give your knotting a hefty boost)