shrinkage,lumps, balls, tails and loose roots!

Hello all,

I've got so much stuff going on in my hair I don't know where to start,

They are only 4 months old and I did twist and rip. The pics don't do justice to the chaos that is my hair, some have shrunk by a third the original length with a big lump on the end and a couple of inches of undreaded roots, while some stay long and flat. Some of the balls have loose tails that I am wondering if I should cut off, and the ends are blunting themselves which I didn't want but seem to have- is there any way of preventing this?

At the moment it feels like they are not going to dread at the roots and are just forming balls on the end which seems to be stopping movement- should I try loosening them up to help them form better and gain a bit on length back.

I quite like the lumps and texture but am worried that they are not forming properly and that they are going to end up a couple of inches long, originally it was past my shoulders, with just a ball on the end of loose hair. Basically I'm just looking for a littlereassurancethat it WILL all work out in the end and that I don't need to panic as I dosome days, I've looked through the site and see that people are going through similar stages but am wondering if anyone with mature dreads can tell me how they will come out after this. I need a bit of moral support to keep going with it right now!

Thanks very much for any advice

Jodi x

updated by @jodi: 02/14/15 05:40:05AM

It's all part of the process!

Your hair is knotting up good from what I see! I'd just separate from time to time and let'em be!

Paitence is a virtue!

they are looking perfect for the stage they are in, don't oyu worry a bit!

they look amazing to me doing grreaaat

and smacks for even thinking of cutting the lil loose tails just leave em theyre dreadin perfectly

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Hey you, join the club dear! Mine have been doin the same thing, almost every dread i have has the ball like thing at the end but im learning to accept them and let them do their thing Ive been told this is all a normal step in the process so no worries!

me, too! i'm glad i'm not alone. i personally hate mine. it's like a flat lump at the bottom of loose hair. mine have wimpy looking strings of hair hanging off the ends, too. definitely not what i had expected since most of the people i see on here have really pretty compact dreads with nice flowy ends. oh, well. what do we do. we can't choose the way our hair type wants to dread. hopefully we'll have something beautiful in the end:)

i hear ya Heather, i def never expected this...but mine are still young enough maybe they will change. Maybe yours will too haha who knows, gotta just embrace them for what they are

My hair looked horrible for the first year. I started with long hair, and by the first year it had shrunk to above my shoulders. The first year was a really weird goofy looking mess, but I loved it. By the second year it started growing a little. Now I am on my 3rd year. My dreads are mature and growing really well. I still have lots of loose hair, and weird looking baby dreads still form. Embrace all of the stages. That is the real beauty of dreads. They will grow and they will change constantly. It is not referred to as a journey for nothing

I'm at about 5 months and some of my hair is doing the same and shrunk right up all lumpy with long stringy ends, some not dreading at all it seems and some smooth long round dreadies. You are not alone and from what I've seen on here, some of the most unique and beautiful dreads started this way. It appears to calm down a ton after the first year and start looking more like whatwe are expecting. We cannot have a perfect dread picture in our heads though and expect them to turn out that way, they will probably not look how we think we want them to but I'm sure they will be gorgeous. Time and patience and no worries! It's fun this way!

ohh dear! they look wonderful! i tell ya what, go have a look see at mine, they're doing the exact same thing, except the chaos is seeming to tone down a little bit more. but that's because im around ten months in. they're still wacky and weird as can be, i have had people say they dont even look like dreads, and im like 'man, it's all part of the process,' if you really dont like the little weird flat round things, put a bead on it or something, that's what some people do, it'll make the hair come together and stuff, i think i did that with one, just to see how it would turn out..and im checking it right now..yep, it works hahaha, well, happy journey to you, they're coming along splendidly(: