Dreadlock Shrinkage - my results

Holy Shrinkage Batman!I just wanted to post some pictures of my hair in my third week after backcombing (when it was still long) to what my hair became. I'm entering the shrinkage phase, and it is fast. I went to sleep one night with my front dread as long as you see in all these pictures, woke up it was half that size, I was disappointed cuz I thought it was done forming, but the following morning it was half of THAT size. IN 2 DAYS I lost 6 inches of my dread! A lot of others have followed suit, some are doubling up on themselves then gobbling in, some of my ends are pointing upward because a loop or bend became so extreme it allowed the tip to be eaten by the dread. I don't do any maintenance at all.Here are some pictures of me with longer hair in my first few weeks of dreading, and then comparison my pictures with some crazy shrinkage.
updated by @tatyananashi: 02/14/15 08:35:45AM

And one more picture of the back of my hair after shrinkage

Yeah I like that it's progress but I am not liking how short they are now. From where my hair started this is like soooo short.I am toying with the idea of adding real hair extensions, but my journey thus far hasn't had any maintenance or anything like that and I don't want to taint my effort. But extensions can be taken out, and I would only sew them in, no crocheting or anything like that...It's still up in the air for me.

rawsum said:

Whoa ! those are EPIC ! already ! very cool tatyana that's got to be pretty exciting progress for you ! ! !

holy ..wowummdo u seperate at all?some seperating might help so they arent all gobbled up into a biggassed mattand seperating u might tregain a tiny lil bit of lengthbut those dreads are gonna be sooo amazing when they growmy freind chevy's dreads started off as waist length hair that shrunk up to your length theyre at now and got real fat like yours too 2 years later tho theyre back to like shoulderblades i guessso dont worry it wont be too long b4 they start to get long again


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Yes, I separate congos, but really it's not congos causing the shortness, it's that they are doubling up on eachother.Obviously the texture is a little hard to see, I have a lot of loose hair because I don't sew it in or roll them, and they're only 5 months so there are somehairs that don't try to be a part of dreads yet, still letting them do their thing for now.

soaringeagle said:

holy ..wow
umm
do u seperate at all?
some seperating might help so they arent all gobbled up into a biggassed matt
and seperating u might tregain a tiny lil bit of length

but those dreads are gonna be sooo amazing when they grow
my freind chevy's dreads started off as waist length hair that shrunk up to your length theyre at now and got real fat like yours too 2 years later tho theyre back to like shoulderblades i guess
so dont worry it wont be too long b4 they start to get long again

omg! that's amazing! it looks like you have fine hair like i do. if i had stuck with my first backcombed set then i'm sure this is what my hair would have done. i'm hoping that going natural it will give my hair time to grow at the same time as it starts to knot. for some reason my hair on the sides doesn't grow as fast as the back and i don't want to end up with a dread mullet. lol:)you look adorable in short hair!

wooooooowAnd to think, I thought my shrinkage was bad! Do you have naturally curly hair? That could be what's causing the doubling over... I'm just absolutely amazed!

holy cow that is just insane.......looking really good though

Actually my hair is very fine, straight and thin, but in the loopy stage it certainly looked like I had naturally curly hair. I don't know why they're bending up on themselves besides from the loops.They are definitely going to be TIGHT and thick when they grow out, so now I just need them to GROW. Though they're still a bit bumpy I wouldn't hesitate to call them "mature", because they feel like it, they are super tight and thick now, and maybe 1/3 the length I started with. And to think a few weeks ago I was wondering if they'd ever get out of the loopy stage.

Faelwynn said:

wooooooow

And to think, I thought my shrinkage was bad! Do you have naturally curly hair? That could be what's causing the doubling over... I'm just absolutely amazed!

At first I was a little apprehensive about the shrinking stage simply because my hair is the shortest it's been in like 15 years and it's only going to get shorter, I am starting to get excited now though to see what happens to my normally an affroish, course monster when it does it's dread shrinking!