Thanks for the inspiration
The dreads took over a year to even start forming but once they did, they took off very fast. Definitely worth the wait, for anybody still considering natural. My hair was very smooth and mostly straight, also very thin, and seemed unlikely that it would proceed at all. I don't have any before pictures as I am on a different computer but maybe I can dig something up if anybody wants to see.
updated by @josh6: 01/13/15 09:57:50PM