On Wednesday, August 6th, 2014 I finally went through with a major change to my hair. My mom helped me section off my hair for dreadlocks. 

It wasn't a decision I took lightly. I've done tons of research. Watched at least 100 different YouTube videos on the subject. Joined a Facebook group dedicated to mamas with locs. Asked questions and kept reading. 

Josh was planning to go out of town for 5 days starting on Wednesday. Now was my chance! Since they take many hours to "install" I wanted to hurry and finish it while he was away. 

With the help of my mom we sectioned off my hair in the fan pattern. This sectioning seems to give the most scalp coverage, which is what I wanted. Find some great info about sectioning here.

We went with about 3/4 - 1" sections. This will eventually get me chopstick to pencil sized dreads. My hair is very fine so they're starting off fairly thin. Here's some more info on section sizing. I ended up with 47 sections with the front part of my hair left out.

 It took us about 2 hours. She just put each section in a tiny rubber band and let them hang down. Some people braid it and do them a little at a time. I figured that was going to take so much longer so we left them straight. The braid in front was the hair I planned to keep undreaded.

After the kids were in bed I started doing the twist and rip method on them. I promise, it's not as bad as it sounds. It causes less damage than backcombing and you don't loose as much length initially. Here's some more info on that method. I also watched a bunch of different YouTube videos on how to do them. (Don't ya just love YouTube?!) It took me several videos to really understand how they were doing them.

I got about half of them done that night and I continued on through the next morning between taking care of my 4 kiddos. I'd say all together from start to finish it took about 7 hours to "install" them. I didn't use any wax or a crochet hook. Both of those methods have been argued in dreadlock forums. Some say they're ok, others warn against their use. I decided I wanted mine as natural as possible without actually letting them dread naturally. I don't have the patience for that! I also have my kids school starting back up soon and I need to be somewhat presentable. :)

They were instant love! A part of me was worried I couldn't pull them off or I would hate them. You can take dreads out, but they take many hours and lots of patience to do it. And, no, you don't have to shave your head when you're done with them! Even 10 years later you can still brush them out.

Dread bun! Yay! My hair was super thick this first day. It was fun trying out different hair styles. 

So there you go... Day one. I'm happy I finally went through with it. I'm happy with their size too. They WILL shrink and they WILL thicken up and I can't wait!