Help choosing a method for thin fine hair

Heeeeeyyyy guys! I first joined the dreadlocks site when I was 17 and started my first set of dreadlocks, now I'm 26 and giving it a go for the fourth time hopefully they work out this time.
My first set I backcomed and used knotty boy wax, I kinda went overboard with the wax during upkeep. And to my foolish idea of deciding to bleach my hair I lost my hair at 15mo... Like my dreads broke off and I had to shave my hair.. It was a disaster
So I waited for my hair to grow out and at 5 inches I gave it another go this time with the neglect method, I loved how those turned out but at 15 months I decided to comb my hair out because I was afraid of dreadlocks limiting my lifestyle and job market.....
A couple years went by and I decided dreadlocks are truly me and bit a.stage I will outgrow so I decided to try them again about a year ago, I tried the neglect method again but my hair was mid back length and my hair just knotted into three huge sections, once again it was a disaster so I combed them out...

Andddd here I am again, my hair is finally healthy enough to endure the dreadlocks process, I quit dying it (been using henna), and I'm stuck with what process to do this time. I don't want these dreads to fail, I want these for the long run. My hair is very very fine and kinda thin. I don't want to do the neglect method so I was thinking of backcoming. I swore I woukd never use wax because that caused me to have to bleach my hair so much to get through the wax and ultimately made me lose my dreads. But I want to look presentable, I don't want to go through the complete hobo stage as I did with neglect.
Has anyone ever used wax just to form the dreads and not for upkeep? Does a little bit of wax still damage the dreads in the long run?
If I don't use wax could I use something else like aloe gel to keep them kinda presentable?
I don't think my hair could handle twist and Rio because my individual strands are so fine..
Any suggestions???
Thx fam it's great to be back 😁
updated by @yoitslo: 01/22/20 09:33:16AM

Never use wax

I have had my locks for a year now. I used the freeform, but not neglect. I have straight, thin, hair. I wash and separate so they don't grow into one large lock. I use vicki's just for dreads shampoo and locking gel. You can find the link to the shop on this site. Dreadlockshampoo.com

My hair at about 11 months

And my pre-locked hair