How much will my hair shrink?

So I don't have dreadlocks just yet, I have been considering for over a year now but one thing always gets in the way, which is loosing length.

I have about 33 inches of straight/wavy hair (85cm). They go down to my butt however to me even this is short, I'm anxious about loosing length in my hair so I'd want to know, roughly how short it will get when dreaded? I'm afraid they will shrink up to my chest, that would make me very self conscious since I have put in a lot of effort, time and care into growing my hair this much that I will be sad that it will just shrink in a couple weeks/months but dreadlocks are so gorgeous so it doesn't entirely put me off in the end anyway. Don't know if this makes a difference but I'm a white female.


updated by @aniabodziarczyk: 01/22/20 09:33:16AM

I lost half my length. Maybe a tiny bit less

And it hasn't gotten longer yet. Been seven months.

just remember after it shrinks, for the rest of your dreads lifetime they grow

There a a few people on the natural dreadlocks group on facebook, their hair did'nt shrink at all while forming natural dreads. But i think most of the people's hair will shrink a certain length. I started mine short two years ago and they did not shrink, but did not grow eather, so kind of a shrinkage, too. But they grow now a lot and they will grow forever if i let them... And your lenghts isn't gone, it's just not visible for quite a while

mine i started short, they now are  almost twice my body length. 

longer hair often shrinks more but dreads faster. after 1 year its shrunk as much as it can, and from there grows and grows and grows.

heres something to look forward to.

if you haven't cut in say 7 years, your at your max length possible (every hair is shed every 7 years) so it will never get longer then it grows in 7 years..unless.. those shed hairs are locked in dreads. then  in 14 years its 2 times that length  28 years 4 times..    one day you'll think wait how is my dread on the other side of the room, did it break off? and realize no, it just grew that long.

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

also natural dreads do shrink less drasticly and more gradually

other methods lose 1/2 on day 1 then another 1./2 as they dread and matuire

natural dreads  you might have 1/2 your hair still long while 1/2 is dreaded and shrinking

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

very interesting! So i guess it will take at least 15 or 20 years till dreads will get close to touch the floor? Will weight be a problem at certain points of the growth? Do people trim their dreads at a certain point because they have become to heavy?

yea typically 15+ years 

some trim, others grow to 15 or 20 feet long

i don't mind the weight

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1