I have tons that merged.. but I spent 2 months in the hospital and almost died a few times and got some really unintentionally thick ones.. after attempts to separate resulted in an entire dread lost I stopped. I lost the beer dread as well when they did a tracheotomy.
When they are wet just separate them. keep them separated because yours are already thick and they will want to be thicker and you don’t want them any thicker than they are cause the thicker they are the harder they are to care for and the more easily they get stinky.
there’s my dreads as a picture frame addition head dread and beard dread twisted together

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1