The Crunchy Life

Okay, so I know I already did a blog on dread adornment, but I was so excited by my newest purchase (so new, in fact, that I haven’t even received it in the mail yet) that I felt compelled to make another post about them! Unfortunately, the bead that had purchased that inspired the original post about dread adornment had to be returned. The hole was just too big… as much as I didn’t want it to be, LOL.

I have come up with a ‘theme’ for the next several dread adornments I purchase. With the knowledge that dreadlocks are a sponge for energy and in the interest of balance I decided I want to acquire four beads (maybe five?) to represent the four/five elements; water, air, fire, and earth. For whatever reason I had been really drawn to beads incorporating a theme of the ocean or water so I figured that was a prime place to start.

I was THRILLED when I happened across the awesomely awesome Etsy shop, Beatle Baby Glass Works. whose work, in my humble opinion just completely personifies the element of water. She has mastered the ability to capture the depth of water, using dichroic glass to mimick the effect of sunlight glittering on its surface. The organic, free-flowing shape of her work seemed to communicate the amazing power and force of water. It was just so breath-takingly beautiful and perfect that I had to send her a message asking if she would custom-make me a dread bead. She didn’t have anything with a hole that size so I didn’t know if it would be possible, but she immediately jumped at the opportunity and ideas that I had.

Within 24 hours she had created a bead for me that was just gorgeous, but I stupidly said that it wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind and asked her if she would be willing to try again. Her second try was a no-go… not up to her standards. The third and fourth tries were also beautiful, but by the time she had come around to those I had fallen further in love with the first bead she had made. Although I loved the others, I was ready to take the first bead. In the end it was just too perfect not to!

In the process I inspired her to create a section in her shop for large hole/dread beads, so if you have dreadies yourself you should give her shop a look-see as her stuff is just AMAZING. She told me she is thinking of trying to make fire beads, too, which I’m SUPER excited about in lieu of my idea of a decorating ‘theme’ for my dreads.

On top of that I have also commissioned KnottySleeves on Etsy to create a peyote stitch dread tube for me. Her peyote stitching is the highest quality, most creative ones I’ve been able to locate online. I will post photos of that when I get them, too!

So, to round things out here I am going to wrap up with a video I created on how to use your Loose Hair Tool to help you put on dread adornments. (I wrote a whole other blog entry about the LHT and how to use it to tidy up your dreads.... check it out, too!)^_^ Enjoy!!!

God must have smiled on Knotty Johnny Clean and all dread heads around the world when he developed the wonderous thing that is the DreadHeadHQ Loose Hair Tool (version 2.0). In my opinion, it is the single most useful dread-related item ever invented. However in my travels across the interwebs, I have received multiple messages and e-mails requesting that I post a blog about how to use it. So, here it is!

The DreadHeadHQ Loose Hair Tool is pretty much a latch hook with a pointed end to help the user to insert it neatly into the dread. Some sites have claimed that, especially in mature dreads, using it can create holes. My dreads are only 11 weeks old, but I haven’t had any issues with holes yet. Considering that it isn’t recommended to use crochet hooks bigger than 1 mm for the same reason, it only makes logical sense that the Loose Hair Tool would do the same. Naturally either they cause holes or they don’t, but I haven’t heard any complaints from anyone on the DHHQ Facebook page yet. I plan to continue using it unless there comes a serious hole issue.

I mentioned in my entry about crochet that I don’t recommend doing it anymore frequently than every 4 weeks. More frequently can cause breakage (which adversely affects the overall strength of the dread as its strength comes from the long fibers) and prevent the dreads from locking (because you are continuously moving the hair around instead of letting it do its own thing). So, these techniques, particularly in the middle of my dreads, is how I tide myself over between crocheting, which honestly I do VERY little of at this point. More or less, this is ALL I’m doing now, so pay close attention so you can put the Loose Hair Tool magic to work for you!

Ultimately, there are three different places you can use a loose hair tool: the tips of your dreads, the middle of your dreads, the roots of your dreads. If you have dreads you either are of two general philosophies; loose hairs are unsightly, or loose hairs add the character of the dread. If you are of the latter school of thought than read no further and leave those loose hairs alone. I personally like my dreads to look really neat and this technique helps me achieve just that. Anyway, three different places. No matter what part of the dread you are working on with your tool, the technique is the same. The only difference being the manipulation of the tool because of your head being in the way, LOL.

I already have a video I posted on YouTube about how to blunt the tips of your dreads. Here is the first video I posted to help you out. The second one, which I recorded just last night, talks about it, too, but in less detail. If you are just starting out pulling in your ends I suggest the first. If you are just doing touch-ups where you already pulled in the tips the second video will suffice. If you are super bored you could, of course, just watch both.



Now, of course the first step of using your Loose Hair Tool is to find the dread(s) that need some work done. Usually I do my maintenance when I am in the bathroom after doing my business. I usually will start to inspect my dreads and subsequently find some hairs that I absolutely MUST fix right then and there before I loose track of them. This results in a nearly endless quest to find every single loose hair to pull in and fix…. I could get stuck in front of the mirror for hours, I swear. So, I’m not really picking out every dread that needs it in advance. I just do it as I find where its needed.

Now, I HIGHLY recommend Lock Peppa. As I say in the beginning of this second video, the Loose Hair Tool and Lock Peppa are my absolutely FAVORITE maintenance tools. How anyone can live without them in their maintenance routine is mystifying to me. Lock Peppa just makes everyone so much easier and helps all that hard work you are doing to stay put instead of just coming undone. (Keep in mind, though, that your natural hair texture can make maintenance and dreads in generally harder work -- silky, slippery hair being a good example.)

Once you have those things set up you can get started. Here is the video I created to illustrate to you how to use your Loose Hair Tool. Per usual, there are text directions after the video, although honestly I think it would be PRETTY hard to grasp this technique without the visual examples shown in the video.

1. Find a dread that needs loose hair pulled in.
2. Isolate the hairs and hold them in place while dipping your fingers (thumb and index finger) into some Lock Peppa. Use the covered fingers to twist the strands into a small knotty lock and hold them in place while getting your Loose Hair Tool so you don’t loose track of them.
3. Pick up your Loose Hair Tool. Guesstimate how far up the dread the loose hairs would be pulled and insert your Loose Hair Tool into that spot, feeding it down towards the loose hair lock.
4. You want the Loose Hair Tool to poke out in the middle of all the hairs you are trying to pull in.
5. Feed the loose hairs into the latch hoop and close the latch hook around them. While holding the Loose Hair Tool, pull the loose hairs taut within the hook to make sure the entire strand is pulled in.
6. While keeping very gentle pressure on the strand to make sure it is entirely pulled in, pull the Loose Hair Tool back through the dread the way it was inserted bringing the loose hairs with it!

I recognize in the video and will re-iterate here that the hardest part of learning to use your Loose Hair Tool is discovering how to comfortably and efficiently manipulate the tool to operate it. I think many people have difficulty getting the hair into the small loop, (1), and (2) have a problem closing the latch over it once they do. All I can say here is that like many other things in life, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!!! If people still have major issues with this after viewing this blog entry and the included videos, I will attempt to do another video that captures more detail (closer up) of how I get the hair into the tool while I am using it.

So, the Loose Hair Tool is a godsend. It is the best tool ever created for the maintenance of dreadlocks, in my humble opinion. For those who have crocheted and are going crazy with all the frizzies and loose hairs that have come loose since your last crochet, give these techniques a try and I think you will find it makes a HUGE difference and make for some kick-ass, tight dreadlocks!!!`

I have been away for so long! I have to apologize for those of you who may have been following along religiously for my absence. However, I assure you that said absence was not in vain! I spent Sunday night through Thursday night putting dreadlocks in for a friend. He has/had beautiful, long naturally blonde hair.... and a big head, literally! To add insult to injury, he wanted to have skinny dreads... about 75 of them. So, I told him when he arrived that by the end of that night I wanted to at least finish his sectioning. Well, it turns out that my 15 month-old daughter did NOT want my friend to be hogging all of my attention, so it took me THREE hours to section his hair into 3/4 inch sections. (Using my trusty rat-tail comb and polyband elastics.) After all of that it was time to hit the hay.
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The next night we only got through 9 dreads after I got out of work and we fell asleep. He had just come back from an extended stay in Thailand so, still jet lagged, he was about passing out while I was working on his hair. So, I took the opportunity to take a nap myself and ended up falling asleep for the whole night! At the right, here, you can see how far we got before falling asleep!

The next day we started dreading in earnest. We worked from the time I woke up in the morning (from about 9:30 through bedtime around 9:30 that night). We had gotten about halfway through his head to having about 32 done. That makes 23 dreads in 12 hours. I was averaging two an hour, but that includes breaks to eat, stretch, and hit the restrooms. It didn't help that in the chair he sat in his @$$ kept falling asleep, LOL. That night my back was killing me and I was grateful for a night's rest before having to go back at it again. To complicate matters I was on a deadline. My friend only came through on his way back home to Erie, PA and his ride was coming to get him Thursday night. This was last minute Tuesday and I was really concerned about getting them all done in time!


The following day we started in the early afternoon after getting through with a half day of work and got through half of the top of his head leaving me with 16 left to complete the following day before having to be ready for his ride to pick him up. In the photo you can see how the hair on his right side of his head is still pinned up.

The next day we got through the whole rest, but his ride decided to come the next day to make sure that we weren't rushed in finishing. So, here are the final photos including the one and only one of ME actually working on his hair!






































The last image is a shameless plug for the dread coils I've started making! You can find them on my Etsy Shop! This is one of the Five Element Dread Coils. Please check them out! My next blog entry (to be posted tomorrow) will be about how to use the DreadHeadHQ Loose Hair Tool as so many people have requested a blog about it! So, stay tuned for that!

Blessings and Happy Dreading!!!

Okay so its been a few days since I updated and I thought I'd let y'all know what I've been up to. I guess the most pertinent news is that I *finally* got my application to apply for DreadHeadHQ Sponsorship. I'm WICKED psyched to finish that up and send it back to KJC. I'm just waiting for Meg (whose hair I dreaded last weekend and it came out AWESOME) to post the photos from her dread party to send along with the application. I am looking forward to seeing where that will take me.

As I just mentioned last weekend I helped Meg put her dreads in. She now has 55 suh-weet dreads. We backcombed and crochet 'em all and pulled all of her ends in right at the get-go. She knows that she will have to frequently touch up the ends as the dreads begin maturing and doing their own thing. It took us, over the course of two days, probably a total of 16 hours or so to put in her dreads. It would have likely taken us much less time if we had just backcombed without the crochet. She started by washing her hair with DreadHeadHQ Dread Soap and then sprayed it with Locking Accelerator. She toweled off much of the excess moisture and blow-dried her hair so we could section it. We did approximately 1 inch sections with the ones around her hair line a little smaller so she can style it a little more easily (like the people who put in my dreads did). Meg has pretty thin hair that's prone to breakage so we wanted to make sure we didn't give her dreads that were TOO skinny. I think their size is JUST right! We used the DreadHeadHQ Dread Comb and Lock Peppa to backcomb and I used my 0.6 mm crochet hook to get 'em nice and tight! Like I said, we took pics on her friend, Elizabeth's camera... I'm just waiting for them to upload and post them on facebook so I can share some of them. ^_^

This past week has been pretty non-eventful. Our condo was shown once with mediocre results. We signed a pre-foreclosure agreement last Thursday saying that if we don't manage to sell this property (short-sale or otherwise) by July 30th they will foreclose on us. Here's hoping it doesn't come to that, but I have to admit I'm not particularly optimistic about it. I did have a dream a few nights ago that we received two offers, one for $90,000 and the other for $96,250 (oddly specific, I know!).... so maybe it was a sign... here's hoping!!!

My mom made an official offer on the house that was accepted for $118,000, and it was inspected a couple days ago. They found termites and some structural damage equaling about $2,000 which I guess the owner is taking care of. And I hear the closing is probably going to be at the end of June. I was kind of hoping she would close a little sooner so we could start moving our already packed stuff into the new basement. We will be, as previously mentioned, moving into her garage. Glamorous, I know. But... as my mother so poignantly put it, it's better than being homeless.

In other news, I have finally gotten off my butt and starting making some dread coils! They are listed in my Etsy shop; Sylph Wings Designs. I created a Seven Chakra Dread Coil with gemstones to represent each chakra. I think I want to tweak it some... but they are currently available! So, check it out! I have plans to also make one with gemstones to represent the five elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit), and another with gemstones to represent the four directions of the medicine wheel (East, South, West, and North). Keep an eye out for those!

In other exciting news we have a friend coming over to stay for a few days on his way through to Sherman, NY for me to put dreads in HIS hair! I will take plenty of photos to share!

Thanks for reading!

Blessings

~ KnottyMama

A surprising number of people have indicated in my poll that they would like me to make an entry about washing your dreads. I have been doing some more reading and I really wanted to address a couple of other issues in this entry as well. I want to address not only HOW to clean and shampoo your dreads, but also how frequently you should wash, and I want to address the stereotype that dreads are dirty or gross.

Firstly, the biggest questions people usually have is ‘how often should I wash my dreads’? There are several factors to consider in this question. On the DreadHeadHQ website they say to wash your dreads every 2-3 days. Honestly, I think this is way too frequent, ESPECIALLY for new dreads! The wonderfully helpful people at DHHQ correctly explain that clean, dry hair locks and matures faster than dirty hair. However, washing also loosens loose hairs and can cause a lot of frizz. The theory here is that the oils from your scalp will loosen dreads and prevent them from locking. However, it is entirely relative. If you washed and brushed your hair (and stimulated your scalp) every day before dreads at first things might get a bit greasy. This is because your scalp is used to getting a certain amount of stimulation and when it doesn’t it begins to produce more oil. Even with ‘regular’ hair they say that you only need to wash your hair however often as you do, because your scalp will adjust its oil production accordingly. If you regularly wash daily than after two days you will have greasy hair. If you only washed every 2-3 days, after 3 days you’ll be oily, and so on and so forth. Having dreadlocks is no different. Hair is hair!

The biggest complaint I get about washing less frequently is that the itch is unbearable! This, too, is a result of less scalp stimulation. Without dreadlocks, you are brushing or combing your hair and stimulating it every day (or at least I assume you did!). Once the dreads go in that comes to a screeching halt and the scalp needs time to adjust. The itch is your scalp craving stimulation and there are two major ways to get it: wash your hair, or scratch it and DON’T wash your hair! I can’t say enough for the DreadHeadHQ Head Honcho! This was an invaluable tool for me for the first few weeks of dread-hood while I was still in my itchy period. Another option if you haven’t ordered your Head Honcho yet is to clock-wise rub… not only does it stimulate the scalp and quell the itch, but it helps to encourage knotting and locking at your roots! If you continue to wash your hair every 2-3 days you will never be able to space out your shampooing, and at the beginning of your dread journey especially frequent washing can be a real downer as far as fuzz, loose hair, and frizz!

After your dreads are established you CAN wash more frequently if you want to, but at that point why bother, IMHO! LOL. When my dreads were first put in by my wonderful dready friends, they told me right off the bat DO NOT WASH YOUR DREADS FOR A WEEK! Occasionally, someone will send me a message asking me what I do to maintain my dreads for them to look as decent as they do considering their young age and I firmly believe my washing frequency and technique has a big part to play in that. Although things get itchy and sometimes oily, it gives the body of the dreads more opportunity to lock in between shampoos. I have never shampooed more frequently than once a week since getting my dreads in. In fact, many dread heads only wash every TWO weeks, which I am building myself up to slowly. Although some of us like to be dirty hippies, just because you only shampoo every week or so doesn’t mean you can’t shower in between! Invest in a good shower cap to wear to prevent dreads from getting wet on non-washing days. And, another important thing to note, I didn’t wash the dreads themselves until just last week (8 weeks old). When your dreadies are just starting out and aren’t established yet all you really have to do is wash your scalp/roots. Realistically, that’s where all the crud, oil, and grime is, anyway and it feels fantastic!

As far as scalp itch goes there are some other things you can do to minimize it. If you are using any products (Read: Lock Accelerator) that specifies NOT to get it on the scalp, follow the directions and DON’T do it! Any products that use sea salt, in particular, can make scalp itch worse and cause dandruff. Also, if I haven’t mentioned it yet, make sure you’re using a shampoo that is residue free! The DreadHeadHQ Dread Soap is top-notch and comes highly recommended by this dready mama! Residue is also a big cause of scalp itch in even non-dreaded hair.

So it took some finagling, but I manage to get a video of myself shampooing my own dreads to give you an idea of how you can go about it yourselves. Below the video is some text directions on how to wash, too!




HOW TO WASH YOUR DREADLOCKS:

1. Naturally, if your going to wash those dreadies you gotta get ‘em wet first! So step in the shower and soak those dreads before you get started. (Okay… read the whole instruction list first…. THEN hop in the shower!)
2. Squeeze some of that DreadHeadHQ Dread Soap into your hand… I usually start with a full palm-full about the size of a half dollar or more.
3. Start lathering it up on the top of your head, using your fingers on the scalp to massage it in between all your dreads.
4. Squeeze more Dread Soap into your hand (about the same amount) and rub your hands together and lather up the sides of your head the same way as the top of your head.
5. Finally, squeeze just a bit more soap into your hands and lather up the back of your head and give the whole scalp a good, stimulating massage.
6. Next, which I only recommend if your dreads are AT LEAST a month old, preferably closer to 6-8 weeks old, you can begin rolling sections of your dreads in between your hands like palm rolling. Roll down the entire section of dreads to get ‘em good and clean.
7. Repeat the above step until you have gotten every dread.
8. Rinse! Make sure you rinse them out REALLY good. You do NOT want a soap left behind inside the dreads themselves OR on your scalp.
9. Squeeze your dreads to get the excess water out. You will probably have to do this a couple of times to get all the water out.

Drying your dreads is beyond the scope of this article, although DreadHeadHQ has a great section on their website about how to dry your dreads. At this point, once I step out of the shower, I will wrap my dreads up in a towel to get some of the excess water out, spray with Lock Accelerator, and put the towel back on my head until I’m finished getting dressed for the morning (about 5 - 10 minutes… since usually my shirt won’t fit over the towel). Then I take the towel off and let ‘em air dry! I didn’t mention this in my blog about dread beads but if you have them, make sure you shift them around throughout the day to make sure that the dreads underneath them dry really well, too!

Now, another thing I want to address before I sign off for the night is the cleanliness issue. There are some people who claim that people with dreads have dirty hair because we shampoo less frequently. That is simply NOT the case! Like I talked about earlier, the less often you wash your hair the less oil your scalp will produce. So, if you have dreadlocks and only wash your hair every 1-2 weeks your scalp is producing a negligible amount of oil. That, in addition to the fact that dread heads religiously use (or should use) residue-free soap, means that in all actuality, people with dreadlocks actually can have CLEANER hair than our non-dreaded brothers and sisters who use shampoos and conditioners with all kinds of fragrances and moisturizers. I repeat: DREADS ARE NOT DIRTY! DREADS ARE PROBABLY CLEANER THAN REGULAR HAIR! I am not aware of any official studies on this issue, but I think logically, you’ll agree that it’s the case!

The only thing that can stop misconceptions and ignorance about dreadlocks and cleanliness is EDUCATION! I love answering questions about dreads and encourage all my dreaded friends be prepared to field questions from all kinds of people who are fascinated by your awesome dreadlocks! I hope this article has helped you all out and I look forward to your comments! Happy Washing!

So, I've been doing some research. I've been wanting to do some more reading abut the case against crocheting dreads and I feel like I have enough information now that I can write an informative and intelligent article about it here! As most you probably know I have crocheted my dreads and really liked the results as it left them all nice and tight and really tightened them up especially at the roots where they are often resistant to locking, especially so young.

The long and short of crochet is that no matter how careful you are you will be breaking hairs when you use this technique. Your expertise and awareness of what you are doing will certainly affect how badly it breaks, however. The second more important factor is to make sure that you are using a SMALL crochet hook, that means 1mm or less!! At the time I started to crochet (and in the video I have included below) I was using a 1.3 mm hook because it was the smallest I could find at my local craft store. After doing more research last night I decided to spring on a 0.6 mm hook with a nice, fat handle to prevent fatigue for when I do touch-up my dreads.

The general consensus about crocheting is that it is difficult to stop once you start. Because crochet does have a tendency to cause broken hair once the tightness you get from crochet begins to wear off the broken hairs become more visible as frizz and loose hairs. This means that crocheting begets crocheting and it's probably not wise to start doing it unless you plan on doing it regularly and relatively often. You can stop, of course, anytime you want but you may have to deal with a lot of frizz before your dreads start to lock up naturally again. TOO much crocheting, especially if done incorrectly, can actually break dreads so badly that you will seriously compromise the strength of the entire dread. The strength of a dread or rope comes from the length of the fibers, which is why hemp is so much stronger than wood fiber. However, if you begin breaking the fibers you compromise the overall tensile strength.

My official opinion on crochet at this point is that crocheting is okay IN MODERATION! I wouldn't recommend crocheting any more frequently than once a month. More than that and I think you seriously need to worry about the breakage you may be causing. Granted, for some people they are willing to compromise a little strength for tight, neat looking dreads. That is a personal decision that I can't make for you, of course, but I CAN warn you about the pros and cons and encourage you to think long and hard before you decide one way or the other! Ultimately, don't start crocheting unless you are aware of how often and how long it will take you to maintain it that way. I can tell you that it took me about a total of 15 hours over the course of a three day weekend to crochet all my dreads like you will see in the video below. I plan to touch-up in a week or so any that really need it, but I am trying to really minimize how much I do. Crochet is a great way to get neat, well-manicured dreads, but be prepared to keep up with it or things might get a little crazy!

If you still really want to crochet (and I still am so I haven't been totally scared off by what I've read!) I have posted a video I took of myself crocheting my dreads so you can see how crocheting tightens the dread and how to do the technique. When you first start do it in front of a mirror so you can see what you're doing and definitely do it in silence. This way you will be able to hear and feel hair breaking if you are being excessively rough and adjust accordingly! And, this is important, DON'T make your dreads super tight! It prevents them from locking, not to mention how rough it is on your scalp! Below, in case the audio is too low for some to hear are the basic instructions on how to crochet your dreads.



MATERIALS NEEDED:

1) Crochet hook (1mm or smaller) - some say the larger size is easier to learn on and then go smaller once you become more proficient in the technique.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Choose a dread to crochet. I recommend starting in the front where you can see what you're doing before you start moving to the back ones.
2. Grasp the dread with your thumb, forefinger, and middle finger with the thumb underneath and other two fingers on top.
3. While you are crocheting you will insert the crochet hook always in the small area between all of your fingers as this helps to compress the dread as you are going.
4. Begin inserting and pulling the crochet hook out of the dread starting near the roots of your dread and working towards the tip. Make sure you are rotating and rolling the dread around in your fingers as you work your way down. As you go you should be able to feel the dread tightening up and you'll intuitively discover when its time to move onto the next area.
5. Once you reach the end of the dread I will usually insert the hook a little bit more vertically and parallel to the length of the dread to attempt to pull in some of the loose hairs at the tip. In this video I show how to pull in loose hairs a little more purposely. Since this video I have come to the conclusion that this is MUCH easier done with the DreadHeadHQ Loose Hair Tool v2.0. I will post another video at a later date on how to use the loose hair tool to blunt the tips of your dreads.

There is some conjecture out there that the Loose Hair Tool causes holes in mature dreads because of its size. Perhaps I will review the information out there on the safety of the loose hair tool in another blog! I, however, LOVE my loose hair tool and I doubt anything anyone says will sway me against it. In the meantime, I hope this blog has been helpful and informative for all my readers!

Okay, so yesterday I posted about the history of dreadlocks. I posted it to the Facebook wall of the DreadHeadHQ Facebook Page and got a decent number of people who read it and commented on the wall post or sent me messages, but no one started following me on Blogger!!! PLEASE follow my blog! It lets me know that there are actually people out there reading who give a rat's patookis what I'm writing! All you gotta do is click on the 'Follow' button in the column to the right of this entry!

In other news, yesterday my friend Nicole convinced me to go out for a girls' night. I know this sound like a non-issue and not worth bringing up here, but I promise it relates! It was the FIRST night I've EVER been away from my daughter at bedtime since she was born. Usually she passes out between 9:30 and 10:30. We had plans to go to Diva's, a gay bar in Northampton, MA, in part because the cover was free before 10 p.m. So, we got there shortly before 10 and let me tell you it was DEAD in there. It was basically us and the staff, which was pretty lame. We didn't have plans to stay out super late, so we figured by the time it really started to pick up there we would have to leave, so one of the other girls with us suggested going to Maximum Capacity in Chicopee, MA. So, we did.

We got to Maximum Capacity at 10:30ish. It wasn't super packed, but certainly much busier than it had been at Diva's. (Which, by the way, was quite a disappointment since I've been wanting to go there for years now and hadn't...So first trip was a flop.) And maybe this makes me old, but I think its just plain GROSS to see people basically dry humping on the dance floor. It was so... obscene! I'm definitely not prudish, but that was just nasty. I definitely could have done without those images permanently burned into my brain that's for sure.

The high point of the night was, however, that when we FIRST walked into Maximum Capacity there was a WHITE guy with dreadlocks!!! Ohmigod... it's the only other WHITE person I've seen with dreads in this area! It was such an exciting moment. I think the best part, though, other than just seeing him is that there was a split second where we made eye contact, smiled, and nodded. We were just acknowledging each other, but I had this distinct feeling of community in that moment. It's like just by knowing that we have dreads we automatically belong to that community, we have something in common, and more than likely share a lot of the same ideals. It was so... refreshing! I wish we had gotten to actually talk. I would have asked how old his dreads were, how he maintained them, what products he used, etc etc etc. That didn't happen, though. However, it didn't detract from the excitement of it!

Only a half an hour into our stay at Maximum Capacity my hubbins called with my LO screaming in the background inconsolably. He was clearly NOT in a good mood and she was clearly NOT going to sleep with me there to nurse her to sleep for the night. I felt bad to be cutting everyone else's night short. Fortunately, all the other girls (minus 1) have little one's themselves so they understood that baby comes first. Stupid me, however, didn't drive my own car so it was midnight before I finally got back home again. By which point, naturally, my daughter had indeed fallen asleep while watching Finding Nemo in my hubby's lap. It was adorable. I knew that would happen, though, but it I hadn't left for home I would have felt absolutely awful.

Anyway, so yesterday, too, I posted on the DreadHeadHQ Facebook Page a question that has been haunting me for a while in light of some things I've read online. I've read that mineral oil is not good for use on dreadlocks. This makes sense in the fact alone that anything oil-like will make the hair slippery and prevent it from locking. However, DHHQ uses it in a few of their products. The one I'm most concerned with, though, is their Dread Butta. I posted on the Wall a question about if they have any official recommendations for the use of Dread Butta as far as how frequently it should be used and at what point in the maturity of dreads is safest, but no replies from them yet. I'll keep everyone here updated on the response(s) I get!