Use beads to keep your dreads separated, please. It doesn't matter how loose or tight rubber bands are, rubber bands go brittle and rot because of the rubber. Rubberbands at the root area can cause hairs to pull out as well.
Also, you shouldn't have them separated at the root area. A bead at mid strand would be better for locking. The root area has to be loose so that the hair can dreadlock up.
all of this
Valrie said:
Use beads to keep your dreads separated, please. It doesn't matter how loose or tight rubber bands are, rubber bands go brittle and rot because of the rubber. Rubberbands at the root area can cause hairs to pull out as well.
Also, you shouldn't have them separated at the root area. A bead at mid strand would be better for locking. The root area has to be loose so that the hair can dreadlock up.
Ok let me explain the rubberband thing.
They're not at the roots, they are in about the middle of the hair. They are also not made out of rubber, I just said rubber since it was easy to explain. It's made out of silicon, they use these to put into horse hairs. They don't rip or get sticky in the shower or anything. These; http://www.fasttackdirect.co.uk/product-4-38-15035/Rhinegold_Super_...
No disrespect, just saying.
Edit: However, I will consider getting beads if I can find any around, of course. That sounds better.
I think it would. But I'm not entirely sure because the first time I showered, it did fall apart from the pressure I think. But the second time I used a pantyhose (lol) to keep them sort of protected but that didn't help at all.
justins soon going to earn himself dread guru status 
the pantihose hurt more then help just pulling them on undoes knots way bad idea way too tight
this is what your not getting
backcomb and tnr is not dreading
let them fall out
if they want to fall out then let it happen just continue washing gently and not combing and they will dread themselves
all dreading happens through neglect through letting them drad your stuck in the mindset that u made dreads and now they are falling apart well u didnt make dreads u backcombed or tnred all that does is define sections and gives them a lil direction
some dreads dont respond well to being ti]=old what to do they want to do it their way
so let em
many that backcombed or even tnr fopund iit useless and all they could do was let the hair dread u=itxelf
Will the sections be "screwed up" if I take out the rubberbands and let them do their thing, though?
Cause I don't want to go completely neglect. I understand that the hair needs to do their own locking process, I just want to have some control on what's going on. Just like you said about "direction", I don't want that direction to be lost if I remove the rubberbands and let them go crazy.
most likely no however some may resection themselves wich its better they do that now rather then later try to split into 2 or 3 dreads at the roots
Aight, cool. I'll take the rubberbands out.
Will loose hairs eventually tangle up with the dreads or should that be maintained in some way?
The loose hairs will definitely tangle up and get sucked into a dreadlock over time. Or, if it's a substantial amount of loose hair in one spot, it will form it's own dreadlock with new growth.
I started mine with TnR and a lot of them got loose and then started to tighten up again. I'm at the 3 month mark and am very happy with my dread babies. After they came loose I did nothing to them except wash and pull apart. There were a couple of dreads around my crown that I had to re-do after a month because I have a whirl and the forced sections were causing a lot of tension on my scalp. I made them smaller and they are happily on their way again.
As for water pressure, I have a shower head that has very high pressure and isn't adjustable. I don't feel that this has been an issue with slowing down my process one bit. On occasion I will take a relaxing bath and wash my hair laying down. When I rinse I just let the hair float and tangle in the water. :P It feels nice.
