dreadlock journey

for some dreadlocks are just another hairstyle for others it's a journey of growth on the inside as well as the out... this is my journey... :)

1992... i had long hair and kind of wanted dreads, i got my friends paula & buey to plait it up and it started dreading at the roots after a few weeks. i brushed it out though, i don't think i was ready for my dread journey then!...

1995... i still had long hair & was more certain of wanting dreads. i didn't really know how to do them and so my friend, paula back combed sections and sprayed with hairspray lol they started falling out within days, you cant even see any in this pic but its the only one i have of this time...

1997... i had cut my hair really short after the failed attempt at dreads in 1995 but had kept some long bits at the front. i finally met someone who knew how to do dreads and he dreaded up the long hair creating 3 dreads :)...

1998... i kept the 3 dreads and short hair for a while but soon decided i wanted dreads all over. i spent the whole of 1999 and most of 2000 growing my hair :/...

2000... i finally dreaded up all over :) done by my ex bf and using beeswax. you can see the wax in the dreads and that ive started tying some up with string to keep them in :)...

2001... i had them tyed up with coloured cottons for ages, i don't think i realised they were actually dreaded up lol. i know beeswax is a common method of dreading but i think it probably made my hair take longer to dread up...

2003... i dont really have many pics from 2002/03. this is at my friend, kate's wedding. most of the coloured cottons had now fallen out and i actually felt like i had proper dreads!...

2004... i was now a hardened dread head lol i played around with bleaching and dying the front but mostly had a few red ones...

2005... 5 years of dread growth :)...

2005... the day i cut my dreads off, they were really heavy and long and something told me to cut them off. i had been thinking about it but it was done on a bit of a whim and i regretted it the next day :( i'm glad i did it now though, its all part of the journey after all :)...

2006... 5 months after cutting my 5 year dreads off i started the process again. i got paula to section off my hair but i did the rest myself. i was a bit more clued up by this point! i used a small amount of normal hair wax but i think the main thing was having them tyed up with cottons for 6 months or so...