Just got dreads today --- Possible damage prevention --- Help!

whaddup all...quick question about my dreads --- just got em done by a friend todayshe's had dreads for 6 years and has helped lock a good amount of people. her dreads look quite beautiful.first off -- my hair type: closest to african hair type a white man can get, fros easily, actually had quite a few natural dreads in the back, but they were clumpy and un even... mad curlyso she came with some knottyboy locksteady locking gel and explained that she is totally aware and against the use of wax and its horribleness. but that this gel easily washes out, and she just uses it once in the beginning to kinda keep roots separatedshe separated my roots in to sections, back combed like once, i think croched a couple?, and palm rolled a little with a tiny bit of the gel. then moved to the next sectionat the end she root flipped a couple of my mid section dreads, cuz they were sticking straight up awkwardly and i looked like the statue of libertyanyway, she told me to shower however much i usually shower (every day pretty much) but use a non-residue organic and least amount of ingredient shampoo i can find at a local organic store (green life here in asheville). she said to wash with the shampoo once a week.other than that, all she said to do was to make sure the dreads dont cross section and separate any awkwardly combined rootsi have been reading a lot on the dangers of root flipping, and am worried if i am in trouble here and should do something fast, but she she seemed to know what she was doing, and i even read some of the posts on this site beforehandthanks in advance, for any advice!
updated by @darkstar: 02/14/15 09:15:05AM

well.. 1 time if not too tight isnt going to make your dread break today it might cause a weak spot that might break someday but im assumming u only have under a foor of hair so when it does break u will only loose a few ibhes the real danger is weak spot ontop ofd weak spot from repeatted use.. theres not alot u can do now unles u can pull it carefull back through the gap..if u can..i would do itif your hairs pretty close to african tho it has a better survival chancethe reason it wass syicking up was cause she backcombed


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

dusde just saw youir pic u shoulda stuck it out going natural she did a goofy job and the sections look way too bigasnd your haar woulda dreaded amazingly natura;ly


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

she told me they would look goofy,the problem with the natural neglect was that i basically was alreayd doing it for a couple weeks and some locking happened, but it was reeeeally clumpy and hair frmo my left said was attaching to my right side so i was constantly separating and balls of hair would be at the end of small strands and i would lose tonnnns of hair in the shower and stuffanyway she said that they would be big now but obviously tighten up once they knot up and lock over timeshe advised to not do ANYTHING to them except separate awkwardly combined dreads and that my hair type would yield awesome dreads and that she was just kinda kick starting the process (im aware you cant speed up the dreading process, but more in the sense of separating the roots and that kinda thing)i feel like 5-6 root flipped dreads and they are not tight at all, but idk if i could pull em thru, so i think i might just let em be, but defintiely not do it againwhater thoughts brotha?

well what shr didnt tell u is the dreads that are big now will get bigger and bigger the sections she made were pretty big the dreads when mature will be the size of those sectionstwice as big sas they are now..or biiggeralso u were 2 weeksd into neglect and dreading like crazytheres always an awkward stage..but it wouldnt have taken long to get through since u were already in 2 weeks further along then many ppl are at 2 months


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

try to get those root flips out. when they grow out from the scalp the new growth wont lock and there will be a gap. in the early stages of my first set i did one root flip and it caused me much much trouble, the only thing u can do it undo the root flip. it will prolly cause damage but its much better than the consequences of root flippin, good luck

If she didn't flip them tightly then they'll be fine...especially with your hair type. I flipped a couple cus when I TnRd them I held them in a weird direction so they stayed that way and had a big bump(it probably would have worked itself out but I wouldn't stand it lol!)..I did this in the first week so around 3 1/2 months ago and they've already smoothed out, they just have a bump there and the roots are locking just like the rest...and my hair is really thin and straight...anyway, her methods seem a little questionable but what's done is done. The "after care" advice she gave was fine though. If you can't find that shampoo, baking soda works great(even better :P) and separate any congos... also they do tend to end up the size of the sections(may be a tad smaller) so if that's too big for you you should try to separate them now before they are any more mature

What SE said, your dreads are going to be REALLY fat. They are fat now because you have thick hair but the size of those sections are massive, your dreads will grow to that size. I know it seems like a lot of effort but combing out and if you don't want to go natural at least go with smaller sections. With the type of hair you have it will be able to handle smaller sections better and you'll have more dreads with less stiffness.I have very fine hair, so when backcombing my friends and I did normal sized sections mostly but the very first one in the back that we did we made a big section because my hair seemed more sparse. It's only 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inches, and the dread is already as thick as my thumb and it's only 4 months old. It will get thicker as time goes on, luckily in the back of my head it wouldn't be as hard to deal with as a large dread in front or on top, so you really want to reconsider those sections.

so i just uploaded some pics (sorry for the quality --- they were taken from my computer)and i was wondering what you guys have to say, if anythingi've been trying to make the sections smaller as you guys have said they are pretty bigi also have unflipped some of the sections that i could easily feel / see and do WELL (at least my best attempt)im having my friend come back on thursday to help me out a littleive been wearing a beanie all day everyday for the past 3 days and then taking it off to sleepany other advice????

You are from asheville? That is where I live! You don't have to spend a whole bunch of money on some non-residue organic stuff at greenlife (that place is expensive, at least to someone on a budget like me!). Try Bronners (its like 10 dollars for a 16 oz bottle, but you dilute it so it lasts a LONG time) or a baking soda wash or something. You really should have tried natural dude. Thats how I am doing mine. They all look crazy and twisted and loopy and ridiculous right now (I am 2 months in.) but that is just part of the process because you hair is pulling up and in to knots. Just let your dreads go, maybe try to separate some of those huge sections into smaller sections, then just keep those sections pulled apart and you should be fine! Just remember to be patient with it. = ]