10 month update - tie the bases?

I'm just about 10 months in now, started with tnr, then let them do their thing and found that all but the biggest ones I had tnr'd had turned completely into loose hairs with no sign of dreading, so re-tnr'd most of the back of my head. I'm happy I did, the sections are bigger now and seem to be staying in. Originally, I'd done super tiny little sections, but I think with my super fine, straight hair type, I needed to make my sections much bigger in order to keep them.

My biggest issue lately is how quickly my roots get matted. I find that I'm having to separate them at the roots daily, whether or not I wash my hair. I've been considering tying the bases with thread to keep them from matting and congo-ing because it's been a lot more work than I care to spend on it. If I leave the matted hair alone (which I did for a few months), I end up with a gnarly "beaver tail"-like mess; I actually ended up taking a few scissor snips to separate the sections.

Do you tie your bases, or have you ever tried it? I'm interested in hearing from people with fine, super straight, oily hair if possible.

All in all, I'm happy with my hair most of the time, but the matted hair clumps are starting to get annoying and painful. I have times when I don't love my hair, mainly due to the maintenance I've had to do lately.

updated by @ash-t: 02/14/15 04:46:26AM

i tied a couple of really scrawny sections together. use hemp or embroidery floss and wrap it around until its about and inch long and then knot it off. it will slide up and down just like a bead but it will help keep things separate. plus it won't get stuck in your hair like a bead might because you can just cut it off when you don't need it anymore.

Thank you Heather! I did have a bunch of beads in at one time, but let them all fall out. They didn't do much for the matted roots.

A couple months ago I was having similar problems! I T&R'ed most of mine and some of my roots where really matted to the point that they would try to eat the other ones around them. I ended up using sewing thread similar to my hair color and wrapped and then knotted it in the roots. It really helped them stay together and not eat the other ones! They have since dreaded up really well! I like Heathers idea about wrapping the thread till its about an inch long or so... kinda like a bead!

Something else I've done is put beads in and then when they got all knotted in with the dread I used pliers and crushed the bead and pulled the pieces out! They were beads I didnt care about! That helped some of my more stubborn sections to dread up! Just an idea!

i do this too. i bought a bunch of wood beads when i started. if one gets stuck behind a big knot i just crush it with pliers. they crush easily usually because of all the washing and such.

Phoenix said:

Something else I've done is put beads in and then when they got all knotted in with the dread I used pliers and crushed the bead and pulled the pieces out! They were beads I didnt care about! That helped some of my more stubborn sections to dread up! Just an idea!

here's an example of one of my wraps (the little yellow thing on the left). i was trying to encourage a section to stay together. i removed it a few weeks ago. it worked great:)

updated by @heather: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM

Wow heather your locks look like flames on a hotrod! Very cool!

Heather said:

here's an example of one of my wraps (the little yellow thing on the left). i was trying to encourage a section to stay together. i removed it a few weeks ago. it worked great:)

updated by @sambo: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM

That's the kind of hair I have, I get the same problem. Luckiy it helps my hair dread up super fast. I just keep separating, i don't know if thread would work so well because you would have to wrap it up a fair bit and just or the back ones at the top might look silly. I don't think I'm picturing it right though!