Soaring Eagle is right, the home made recipe for washing your dreads needs to be correct in order to exfoliate the scalp properly. I used the baking soda wash, apple cider vinegar for my entire first year. This is a fantastic method because at no time do you ever need to scrub the scalp. With the proper ratios, the mixture does all the work for you, so you developing sections/dreads are never unkotting due to scrubbing. For my long hair I used the 1/2 cup to 5 cups ratio, that was all I needed, so it saves money. Unless you have an extremly oily scalp, always follow the BS wash with the apple cider vinegar rinse. This will balance the hairs PH. Without using it after a BS wash, you will slowly fry out your hair, and when you finally notice, it will take months to correct.
If you want to do the T&R method, do you hair a huge favor and let it section naturally first, wait 2-4 months until you use a method.. I have a posting on my page that may help you: http://www.dreadlockssite.com/forum/topics/just-starting-out-what-to-expect
peace