Dread Reprise (Someday)

Since summer started, I have been craving dreadlocks again.  I want to be able to drive with the windows down on the freeway and not worry about my hair.  I want to be able to camp, hike, backpack, climb, swim, and work out with my hair looking like I'm about to go on a date.  I want to meet my original dreadlocks goal, the one inked on my bucket-list: to have dreads for at least a year.  I want to see what it's like to have long dreads, I want to experience what dreads are like at six months, a year, or two.  I will get dreadlocks again.

But not yet.

I'm still researching, for one thing.  After last time's failure, I have a lot to think about and decisions to make. Second, I'm enjoying having long, classy, loose hair right now.  I like being able to braid it, curl it, do it in elaborate twists, and watch the highlights--absent for the two years I had a pixie cut--reappear and streak through my hair.  I enjoy being able run my fingers through my hair, or letting a boy play with my hair.  Third, it's probably that this time, I would get my dreads professionally done.  Last time the burden fell almost entirely on Di, for which I felt awful.  Then, when I had to take them out, I felt worse.  If I have my dreads locked at a studio, it will probably cost me several hundred dollars.  At this point, Japan, Boston, camping trips, etc., have cleaned out my disposable income and my savings.  Right now I'm telling myself that when I finally get my car paid off, I will get dreads again.  The earliest that might happen is next winter, but it might not be until next summer.  So I have six months to a year to make some money, pay off my car, and enjoy my hair while it grows.

But still, oh internet, this is your official notice.  Dreadlocks are coming back.

Since the dreadlock craving hit me, I've been once again feverishly researching dreadlocks and information about creating them.  This time, I'm approaching it with even more of an open mind than I did the first time.  I emerged from months of research last time convinced that I should backcomb, wax, and use rubber bands.  Now, having pulled out the gluey mess of disintegrated rubber bands out of my dreads, combed out my dreads to discover months old wax and dirt caked in the center, and having watched the knots that had been so painstakingly and friendship-strainingly created migrate out the ends and into nothingness, I intend to neither wax, use rubber bands, or backcomb.  I'm investigating other methods that sound promising.  Plus, my hair will be longer, and I'm willing to dread my locks a little thicker, all of which should contribute to healthier, longer-lasting dreads.

To remind you of why I want dreads, here are few memories: