What are length recommendations based on?

I am African American with extremely coily hair. Do I really need to wait until my hair is 6 inches to start locs with the twist and rip method? I'm not concerned about aesthetics and am actually looking forward to having short locs once they mature.

Is there a concern that with shorter hair they will untangle?

Just curious.

FYI: I know that most African Americans start their locs with braids, coils and two-strand twists, but some of my texture is prone to unraveling so I want to use a method that will begin the tangling so it won't slip.

Thanks for any feedback.
updated by @michelle-johnson: 02/14/15 11:25:13AM

Well you can always try twist and rip on a few sections and see if it stays. If it doesn't then you know to wait a bit until your hair gets longer. Unfortunately, I have no clue about your hair type. Hopefully someone comes along to give you a better answer! Sorry.

I would really just try it on one or two sections though. Then you'll for sure get your answer without any guessing!

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks! I think I'll try once I reach 3-4 inches.

Oh, one more thing...It seems that for most people, tnr falls out and they end up just letting their hair dread on it's own. I don't know if it will act the same with African hair types though. It seems dreading in general is trial and error for most people set on starting with a particular "method" anyway. Good luck and I hope things go smoothly for you.

well tnr stays in way better then backcomb but it can come piyt

african hair will dread at 1/4 inch through neglect so just stop combing and let it dread

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm seeking a more manicured look, so neglect won't work for me What does "piyt" mean?

neglect can too work fot you define manicured look to acheive a manicured look just seperate them into neat sections

and that was out ..typo i was 1/2 asleep

Michelle Johnson said:

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm seeking a more manicured look, so neglect won't work for me What does "piyt" mean?

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I had not thought of that. Thanks!

theres gradients of neglect or natural dreads freeform orgaanic neglect are all within natural but vary in how much control is applied

some will not seperate and alow the dreads to form any ol crazy way they want to this can lead to huge variations dreads as thick as your arm next to pencil thin ones this isnt a tidy look as most ppl define tidy but more wild

but u can seperate them as u see fit to make smaller dreads even make more uniform (mostly the same size) dreads

this is what moost ppl call tidy or manicured

then well theres the very unatural manicuring like interlockimng over twisting and crochet that leave u with more scalp then dread very very tight stick like stiff dreads and they are wayuy too skinny for the section size

this is what salons call tidy or manicured and shame u into thunking u should want that look (so they cvan charge u fior it)

personaly i like a natural more varied in size look (like mine) without going too juge (like humminbird love gorrilla's omn here) but some ppl preffer a more even size variation so keep em all around the samre sizes

this can be done naturally too

like oi believe yinas are natural (trying to think of good examples with yiour hair type)

in the vids theres a few good examples of african dreads going natural and acheiving that neater look

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

these are only 3 weeks old so not real tight yet but u can see they are mostly close to the same sizes and thst will make a "manicured" look

but u alone should decide what manicured means dont let salons shame u into having to have boring dreads to be concidered acceptable

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1