Can You Take Dreads Out!

Aka T T

New Member
My friend is a big lier.She said she can take her dreads out. Is this true, can you take your dreads out?
 
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Yes it can be done. A few ladies on this site and others have taken them out.

You can problably google this and see what others have done.

Some have taken out sisterlocks, palm rolled and other types of dreads.

You will need a lot of time, patience, and there were different things that folks used like products and tools. I saw where one person even used a safety pin to help pull some dreads apart.
 
YES it most definitly can be done....speaking from 1st hand experience.....I had dreads for about 5 years (2003-2008) .....last Feb. I began combing my dreads out and it took me almost three month.....I was only combing alittle at a time bc I was busy with school work.....But ya...all I did was wear a wig on a daily basis (to cover up my dreads), used alot of conditioner, H20, nd a long tail comb.....oh yea...I also had to cut the ends of my dreads up an inch or two nd started from there.......I did lose alot of hair but at the end I was left with about APL natural hair........It can be done..but it takes alot of patience.
 
Absolutely youtube was the site that proved this to me over and over, go on there and type in take out dreads in the search. Its pretty amazing, it takes a loooooonng time and if you want to retain as much length as possible you'll have to really take your time and be gentle, but it has been done and documented on YouTube one of my favorite examples of this is a YouTube user called
Fauryn <----this vid that shows her hair when it was loc'd and how it is loose now that she's taken them down.

It can definitely be done but you have to take your time and be gentle in order to retain as much length as possible.
 
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Yes...absolutely. I should know, I've taken them out of other people's heads. It takes much time and patience (in addition to oil, water, and a few good combs) but it can be done w/o losing much length.

One more thing...if you try to take them out do not use conditioner to do it. Conditioners have wax and wax holds dreds togehter. This will make it much harder than necessary to remove then and you'll lose more hair than necessary.
 
Yes, again. I was going to refer you to Shwanta and Fauryn :)
I also took down mine using a bobby pin, just cut the end, be patient and work your way through..
I also did a hot oil treatment with coconut oil to soften them
 
wow! i'm just learning so much from this thread alone. I didn't know either.

You aren't the only one. I thought your only alternative was to cut them out of your hair. And the condition of your hair once the locks are removed, is it healthy or damaged?
 
^^^ It depends on how you cared for the locked hair. If you bleached, tipped, neglected, didn't moisturize, etc...it'll be in bad condition just like any other hair.

Dreds don't damage hair at all, they are just extreme tangles. It's not so much the tangling that's the issue, but the condition of the hair and how you remove the tangles.

Many people cut dreds for personal/spiritual reasons, not because they can't remove them. They simply choose not to.
 
Didn't know you could do it. I read this and first thought of course not! I'm amazed after finding out you can take them out.
 
One of our members is currently taking down her sisterlocks. It's a tedious process but it can be done
 
Yes, of course. I and several people I know have done so in the last year.

LTD1vi-vi.jpg


This is me with about 3 combed out
 
It most definately can be done. It's one of the most tedious thing I've ever done :lachen:. I combed my sisterlocks out after 5 years.

I went from this:



Then came phase 1, the chin length cut:



After a day of no progress at this length, I decided to not worry about length retention and went to phase 2.



And here's the end result:



This is right after I combed out the final loc. I didn't expect my hair to be nearly as long as it was since I had cut it down so much, but it ended up being just about SL. There was minimal damage done to my hair during the process.
 
NewlyNatural I'm VERY impressed. Sisterlocks are not your average locks and I'm amazed that anyone can take those out, but great job! :woohoo:
 


And here's the end result:



This is right after I combed out the final loc. I didn't expect my hair to be nearly as long as it was since I had cut it down so much, but it ended up being just about SL. There was minimal damage done to my hair during the process.

That's amazing! I can't believe that your hair is SL and your dreads were so short. Your hair must have been very long!
 
I've heard you could but wasn't sure how true it was ......but after this thread I'm a believer!
 
wow, I learn something new everyday on lhcf. I honestly thought you had to cut them.

Thanks for sharing the info ladies!
 
That's amazing! I can't believe that your hair is SL and your dreads were so short. Your hair must have been very long!

SL aren't like other locks. They weave the hair together in almost a reverse braid. You need a minimum amount of hair before you can even get them done on your hair. They "take up" length and when they're 1st put in might be a several inches shorter than you started out w/ loose hair.

If she hadn't decided to cut her loc'd hair to make removal easier, it would probably be BSB or longer loose.

I recall having a convo w/ you about this some time ago. Locks DO represent mostly real length in most cases. Her unlocked hair was even longer than her locks, but that's unique to sisterlocks specifically I think.
 
My hair was longer than my locs. The first one I combed out ended up being full BSL. At the time, my locks were just grazing BSL. However, the ends were damaged severely (color treatments and such). I was also not about to spend 1.5 hours to take down each loc. So I read somewhere it was best to cut a few inches, since in all likelihood, that hair would eventually break off anyway. So I cut then to about shoulder length and combed from there. Even then, the back was APL when I wet it, but still lots of damage. So I big chopped about 6 inches off.
 
A relative of mine took hers out. She said it is similar to taking out braids, but you spend more time taking each one out. She use a safety pin.
 
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