Why aren't I recognising dream signs?

I had a dream the other night, I saw myself in the mirror and I had my old hair style. But the thing is I knew it wasn't right, not straight away but after. I used to gel my hair up but now just have a shaven head and anyway in the dream I was geling it, then a small time later I went back and tried to rub it all out, thinking "That's not right, I don't do that anymore" and then the strange thing is I looked at the back half of my hair and it was my current style (shaved)....

My question is, I KINDA did recognize it was wrong, but I didn't realize I was dreaming or become lucid. Why is that? Am I close by just realizing it was wrong? How can I improve my dream signs or so that I recognize them better? I've been doing reality checks throughout the day but have yet to do one in a dream.

I think that's a common mistake. It's happened to me before too. I have a lot of dreams about a girl I used to go to school with, but I live in a different state now, and while I recognize that it's weird that she's present in those dreams since she lives so far away in reality, I sometimes fail to make the jump to "I'm dreaming." That's the key. Lucidity doesn't just mean you notice things are weird. It means you make the connection from seeing that things are weird and attributing those weird things to the fact that you're currently dreaming.

Then what can I do to go from "this is weird" to "this is weird I must be dreaming"? Is there something to it or will it eventually come if I wake up and recognize that I missed a dream sign and hope I see it again?

Whats working for me lately is to have really strong intent and belief that you will recognize that you are dreaming and become lucid, don't just say mantras - believe them or mean them. I'm a noob but this has really made a difference for me. Aslo don't just rely on dream signs practice becoming more aware in life, question your reality (really question it) a few times a day.

It's very important to question things strongly. You go through dreams as if they're waking life, without questioning things. You have to get into the habit of doing exactly this in real life by stopping every once in a while, RCing, and asking yourself if you're dreaming. When you become lucid, you may wonder how you didn't become lucid earlier. Once you have questioning reality down, you won't necessarily need dream signs to become lucid.

Work on your awareness. Question things and RC even if you don't see a dream sign, so these actions (and the awareness) will carry over into your dream. Good luck! (:

Sometimes it will be almost impossible to recognize some dream signs. We have a critical faculty section in our brain which acts as a filter for illogical things. This is shut down during sleep, which is why we accept such bizarre things while were dreaming, and only realize how stupid it was when we wake up.

This is the whole point of the WBTB; get enough sleep so your critical faculty can turn on and actually filter out nonsense.