I personally just wash when it feels like it needs it. Also, the sea salt routines people have outlined on here has worked wonders for me. Just remember to only leave the salt in for a little while, as it will dry your scalp out something fierce. To condition, I use pure aloe from my plant.
Barefoot, sir, I wish I was closer to you, as my wife has experience attaching dreads to loose hair. Stay strong, man. If you need, I can say that if you come to St. Louis I would be able to help. Unfortunately, we cannot travel at this time.
I have found that if you wait until your hair is wet, it works best. I usually just grab them close to where they are conjoined, and slowly work my fingers toward my scalp, pulling the hairs that are joining them out carefully as not to break them. If they get too locked up, I just grit my teeth and rip them apart. So, yes on both accounts for me personally.
Maybreeze said:
In the first picture your hair looks exactly like mine (I stopped brushing my hair 8 days ago), so your timeline is very interesting for me. It shows an intriguing process!
How exactly do you separate the sections? Is it just one quick movement of ripping two sections apart, or do you go about it in a more careful way? And do you start the separating at the ends or at the roots? Yep, I'm a total beginner
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Keep at it, it's looking GREAT! I myself backcombed my hair first, but that all fell apart in about two months. I am a year in now, and have SUPER hard locks, as well as a lot of loose hair still. I've also noticed that some of mine started super thin like some of yours, and have quadrupled in girth at very least.
also, try putting something wool over your pillow. seems to be helping my babies along nicely.
correction: where I say dreads I mean knots. (they are no where near mature yet)
I just wonted to take a minute to say thank you to everyone here for stopping me from getting into bad habits before I started them. I am only a month in to my journey, and because I stopped the whole backcombing/crochet method, I am already getting natural dreads popping up all over my head. My hair genuinely thanks you for eliminating the pain/irritation that said backcombing caused. I am happy to say that my hair is doing great on it's own!!! I have a lot of loose hair, but it's actually forming new dreads FASTER THAN BACKCOMBED ONES HAVE. The backcombed ones are starting to fall apart, and the new natural ones are replacing them daily. Thanks again for all the helpful advice.!
You were a lucky one then, Sir. I get a lot of flak almost daily over ANY decision I make for myself. I will agree, though, that the bible belt is a little messed up as far as drugs, alcohol, crime, and obesity. The anti-christians ARE indeed thick here, but the general populous is still full of self-serving "born again"'s. Don't take me wrong here, I don't really take any offence to the flak I get, but its still there. I just keep living as I feel God wills me, and enjoy life to the fullest extent possible. 
