Scientifically speaking, how do dreads form? Or, describe the physiology of the locking process

As a student o medical science, I like to know how things happen down to the most detail possible. For example, how does the heart beat? Most only need this explaination: the brain sends a signal that causes the heart muscle to contract. But I like to know the whole process, from the ionic function of calcium and potassium to the path of the signal from the brain etc . . .So: mu question is? How exactly does a dread form? Does it tend to start at the root, the middle, the tip? What makes a dread a mature dread vs a baby dread? What process is happening during "maturing," what is a mature dread composed of? Is it twisted knotted hair? Is some of it dead unattached hair? What makes them round? If a dread is knotted mattedness then what causes the roots to keep locking up as the hair grows? It seems to me that the hairs would be held in place by the dread and no longer knot . . . Or do I just not know the locking process?Please give as much detail as you can or point me to the right thread! I am just really curious and love to learn how things work.
updated by @emberanna: 01/13/15 08:37:20PM

ok this can be a complicated explanation and is based on my understanding which maybe off by a degree or 2 or a variance of .000343% after all the signals from my brain to my finger are slowed slightly by a variety of factors (but thats a whole different process)ok so you have 200 straight hairs and a breeze blows by disturbing them so a few are lil zig zagged so they no longer are all even lengths perfectly lined up more disturbances cause some knots which can cause hairs to loop unevenly in various directions, the more of these that build up ontop of eachother the more uneven and chaotic the hair lengths and directions causing more loops for other loops to loop throughthis rends to start near but not at the tip and they pile up towards the scalpnotw when mature you do have some disconnected hairs trapped in the chaotically twisted knots but where the hairs come out of the dread meeting the straight hair coming off the head they are jutting out ant every possible angle so any hair movement just adds to the knots so they are constantly dreading in that lil undreaded gapall these loose twisted loops and knots get compressed when u sleep when u move or wear hats that compacts them tightening the knots, they will go flat, pressed on 1 side but then u roll over and a flat dread flattened on 2 sides becomes square but flattened on all sides becomes roundthis is the natural dreading process as far as i can figureother methods u already got lots of knots unecveness they then re-order themselves more chaoticly (backcombed i think would tend to just compact hairs in a criss crossed pattern without really looping and locking in, but washing loosens them providing room to reorder into actual interlocking knots)they still need about the same ammount of time for the hairs to twist and lock into placematuritymaturity can be defined as the point where the dread reaches maximum compression, shrinkage stops because the knots are as tight as they can be, and growth begins, all the loops for the most part have become completely matted and firmly locked in place.in the body of the dread theres nearly no more reordering going on because they are firmly held in place with lil or no room for movementits the point where they change very lil over timewas there more i missed????


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