HELP! attn all former / current owners of...

[poookie]

dreadlocks, or any other type of locked hair.

My sister has decided to a) take her dreads apart, and b) go natural. She's got past-APL length dreads, and has had them since March of 2004.

I told her to hold off, because taking them down is a process that could take at least a week, and her college doesn't let out for summer break until mid-may, plus i want to help her take them down.

She wants do do it while she's at school, ASAP. erplexed

Help me help her out, if you can!!!
I want to know:

1. Has anyone been successful in taking apart dreadlocks?
2. How long did it take?
3. I know there will be TONS of shedding, but about how much hair did you lose?
4. How much hair did you cut off, if any?
5. What did you do with your hair the first few days after taking apart your dreads?

Thanks so much in advance!!!

 

[scribblescrabble2]

Honeychild (owner of oyin handmade) took about a month to unravel her thick stranded dreds. She was left with 8 inches of hair. My sister and I worked for a month and a half to get hers out, she was left with 6 inches. Her dreds were extremely small and they were color treated so that added to the amount of time it took. JustKiya (aka nappywomyn) unraveled hers too, made you can shoot her a pm.

ETA- My sister had some dryness and shedding and she promptly braided her hair for a couple of months. Afterwards she relaxed it and cut it into a Halle Berry cut.

 

[Transformer]

My hairdresser(not Honeychild") also took a month to take her down. I would say she had 10 inches of hair left.

I think she ask herself, how much does she want to "pick out". She could cut to shoulder length and start there.

 

[Qt girl]

I don't have locs but here is a site that I stumbled on. Scroll to number 8 and it tells you how to comb out locs.

http://www.hair2heaven.com/thetruthaboutlox.htm

Here is the quote if the link doesn't work:

8. LOX ARE NOT PERMANENT - One of the biggest myths about locs is that they are permanent. Name one thing on this planet that is? Think of locs as the most intricate braid and you get close to the truth. You don't have to cut your locs if you ever choose to part with them, although some prefer to do so. Locs can be released or unlocs. It takes time and patience but it has been done. When I release locs, I employ the following method. I soak the length of the loc in a hot 50-50 solution of apple cider vinegar and water. I squeeze the loc to really get the solution in there and break up the core. I then take a sharp object and penetrate the entire length of the loc as if tenderizing it. I snip off about a half inch of the tip. This isn't necessary, but I found that the ends are mostly dead hair anyway. Snipping off the tip of older locs unseals the ends and makes the comb out process easier. I then saturate the loc in conditioner (any is fine but as you'll be using a LOT I'd suggest a cheap one) and start to uncomb. The shed hair comes out, the rooted hair stays in, and the loc is released. It doesn't matter how old or long your locs are. My sister went from waist-length decade old locs, to armpit length loose natural hair. Again, what's permanent in this world? Even stone building can come down....

 

[JustKiya]

1. Has anyone been successful in taking apart dreadlocks?
Yup!! I had roughly APL length locs.....

2. How long did it take?
Urm, I started with the back hairline, and wore two strand twists to conceal the fact that the back hair wasn't loc'd anymore - they were long enough that as long as I wore my locs down (or in a 'twisted' updo) you couldn't really tell. The rest, it took me about..... 4 days to finish? I was off from work, so I'd say at least 76 hours. I used a clay working tool - a pinhole maker. It had a little spiked tip on a wooden handle, and it made things SO much easier.
3. I know there will be TONS of shedding, but about how much hair did you lose? Hehe. A LOT.

That's a -gallon sized bucket o hair. My length went to here

4. How much hair did you cut off, if any?
None - well, not because of the unlocking procees. I ended up cutting off all of that hair gradually because of what I did to it afterwards.
5. What did you do with your hair the first few days after taking apart your dreads?
Heh - I was stupid. I bleached it all, then dyed it red, then put in two strand twists. I rocked twists and TWA/puffros for a while.

Good luck to your sister!!! It's a painstaking, but fun process. Also, the younger her locs, the easier - mine were 5 years old, and I had been tightening them via the 'crochet' process for at least 4.5 years, so - yeah, it was a PAIN. I think if you tightened the roots via twisting, it might be easier to take down.

 

[Averoigne]

I DID!!!!!!

I combed through my dreads back in 2004 (after wearing dreads for ten years). I cut them from mid back to shoulder length, and used a ton of conditioner, water and a box of fine toothed combs. I did it in shifts, and it took me about two weeks.

I didn't lose any hair. The only hair that I lost was the hair that had already shed and was dredded to the hair that was still intact with my scalp.

 

[poookie]

wow, THANK YOU LADIES for all the great information!!!

especially to kiya! the pictures were very helpful; as your locs were the EXACT same width / density as my sister's are.

she doesn't crochet, and she's been slacking on the re-twisting for the past few weeks, so i don't think it will take terribly long to help her take them down.

 

[KAT25]

OT:

QT girl your headband is so cute!!! You are rockin it girl