Two Weeks Later

Two weeks ago, I wrote Fear and Dreads, timidly admitting that I may have to take out my dreadlocks.  I read the comments, considered the feedback, and looked long and hard on my dreads.  I decided to give my precious dreads another month.  Maybe they were just going through a phase, maybe I was just being panicky about the ends unraveling.  Two weeks later, it's official:  the ends are really and truly unraveling again.  Twenty days after taking the rubber bands of the tips, I would estimate that half of the redreading that Di, Nick, and I did in late July has unraveled.  Six hours of work by myself and my self-sacrificing friends, a month of patience with rubber bands again, and it seems to have made no difference.  With each washing my dreads get tighter, which is good, except my magic mom-hair rebels against being that tightly knotted and wound, so it pushes the knots out the ends.  My dreads are shiveling and unraveling.

The snarling and loose hair is also getting worse.  When I wrote two weeks ago, most of my dreads had at least one kink, the worst ones had two, and some had full-blown loops.  In the short space of fifteen days, they have continued to mutate.  Nearly all dreads now have two kinks, zig-zags, or loops.  The best have only one.  The worst ones now have three to five.

The larger loops have now started to cause hair to slip out of the end half of the dread, meaning I now have loose hair at the roots and more loose hair sticking out half way down.  The kinking and looping is worst on the dreads that spend all day underneath my headbands, but the way the dreads look, I can't go to school without wearing one.  

I don't know how much getting my dreads "repaired" at a salon would cost, but considering that getting them done initially costs $300-$500, I'm worried it will cost $100-$200 to get them repaired, which may just be another temporary fix.  I think fixing them myself is getting to be out of the question.  It would take more hours than I am willing to put in to fix them, and, once again, it would probably only be a temporary fix.  My hair is winning.  It's rejecting the dreads like a bad organ transplant.

However, my dreads still look pretty decent when they're pulled back, with the roots well hidden.  I'm still getting compliments on them nearly every day.  Many of the teachers at my school I considered conservative and "mommish," have come up to tell me how cute my hair is and how much it suits me.  Honestly, the dreads do suit me.  Even people who don't like the dreads admit that they fit who I am.  I still look in the mirror sometimes and think to myself, I love these dreads.  They look amazing and beautiful; I'll never change. Other days I look in the mirror and think to myself, Hell, those things have got to go.  They look awful, gross, and nasty.  Ew.  They have to go NOW.  Then I'll wake up the next day and have switched.  Sometimes my perspective switches partway through a day.

My dreads look good enough that the thought of their doom makes me grieve.  But I think it's time.  I'm still exploring a few last ditch options:  I bought a mini crochet hook, and I'll call a salon today to price out repair.  But if those options don't pan out, my dreads will probably be gone within a month.  Oh sorrow, sorrow.