is this supposed to happen?

I'd say give it a month or so. By then you should have another 1/2 inch, or so, of new hair. In that time, what is loose should start to mat. If you have 3 inches of straight hair now, if it doesn't mat you'll have around 4 inches. If in a month you still have 3 inches, or even less, then it's taking care of itself. if you have more than 3 inches, and it isn't showing any signs of matting, and is really bugging you, you could get some yarn or hemp or whatnot, and wrap a few of the roots. Or get a few beads and put them closer to your scalp.

I'd give it at least a month and see if there's any progress though, before you do anything to try and help them along. No need to worry about it right now. don't mess with them either. If you keep fingering them and poking at them, they will take longer to tangle and mat themselves.

updated by @baba-fats: 07/15/15 12:50:17AM

okay, so here's a picture of one of the dreads. my fingers are at the point of where the unknotted hair starts.

Here's a picture of the dread next to it. there's only about an inch of loose hair. the one in the first picture used to be the same way. i know i might sound stupid here worrying about this. i'm sure its all normal but its taken so long to get to this point and the back of my head has another 10 inches of knotting to do.

hippiegal said:

Could you post close-up pic of your hair, showing a root area?The thought that came when I read your post was that your hair is having a growing spurt, faster than it can knot up. Surely it'll balance out.

My hair is also very soft at the roots but does knot once it gets to about an inch. I'd rather have it soft rather than hard and I gave up on sea salt because it made my hair brittle, even if it slows things down.

updated by @heather: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM

Nothing to worry about. You have just about as much unknotted hair as I do. I was imagining a whole lot more. You said something like 3 inches.

If the lock in the first pic is pulled up as far as it can be, that loop to the left will be tangling up sooner than later.

And the second pic looks completely normal

its definitely 3 inches. i measured it. lol my hair is wavy so thats why it looks like that. thanks, baba:)

Baba Fats said:

Nothing to worry about. You have just about as much unknotted hair as I do. I was imagining a whole lot more. You said something like 3 inches.

If the lock in the first pic is pulled up as far as it can be, that loop to the left will be tangling up sooner than later.

And the second pic looks completely normal

Still wouldn't worry. And from the first pic, your hair looks just like mine. Not just the locks, but how it lays.

Looks fine to me too, Heather. I can see one well-formed dread to the side of the top pic, as well as the one you're holding. I think your hair is just knotting at its own pace,perhaps not evenly, but it happens like that for a lot of us.I can't imagine you're doing anything wrong.

I definitely noticed residue on my hair after Bronner's washes too, it always felt "dirty" faster than a baking soda wash.

Baba Fats said:

it could. Hard water doesn't rinse Dr. B's off of anything well

Plus, our hair grows in spurts sometimes, not exactly 1/4 inch a month'] you may just have had a growth spurt, Heather']

That sucks Mindy. I guess I lucked out with soft water. It depends on where you live. The North east of America tends to have softer water. and the south west has harder water.

I've never had problems with Dr. B's but I do have problems with dreadlockshampoo.com. I can get it all out, but it takes twice as long to rinse it all out