Flat, Xtra Loopy dreads & 60-75% Loss of Length???

I sectioned, backcombed and ever (ever!) so lightly crocheted my hair at the end of May. I haven't done anything but wash and separate since then.I wash my hair every 5-7 days as I always have, and there doesn't seem to be anything to separate anymore. I have not only very dry hair, but live in the high desert of New Mexico. I noticed pretty quickly that I was losing a lot of length with every single wash.Now at about 4.5 months most of my locks are 75% shorter than they were at day one, nearly all of them are flat and insanely loopy. I don't mind the loops, I'm trying to get over the massive loss of length (and the fact that they no longer reach to be pulled back by any sort of clip or band and bug the crap out of me falling into my face all the time), but the flatness of them does actually bother me. I'm not saying that I want manicured looking locks, or that I want them to be uniform or anything like that. Actually, they are uniform... uniformly flat and loopy...My question is this... are they going to round out???Will they stop shrinking before I have nothing but nubs on my head???There are locks that have looped back on themselves so many times that they have huge, hard lumps in them. WTF?
updated by @cage-free: 02/14/15 03:29:00AM

sounds amazing i wanna see em but thats all perfectly normal and well depends on what u mean by 'round out' they will have an average general roundnress to most of em most likely but none will be truly round they'll be generaly roundish overall ..probablythe length loss staps soonish and then a couple months of nothing then..growth


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

my flat ones folded in half eventually and started to round out on their own after about 6-8 months. My hair grows really fast, so I haven't had much noticeable shrinking, but it jumped in length at about eight months as well.

Mine are exactly the same (except I never crocheted)! And I'm in the high desert also.
I know they will round out because 3 in the back have already after being my crazy first loopers. I never rolled them or anything, it just happened. They're so short though. The right side is about at my chin, the left side still goes down to my shoulder.
I've also lost about 3/4 of my length, and some of mine are now too short to tie back, so I feel ya, I HATE having hair in my face.
I was considering asking this question soon, but I've not ever done any maintenance besides ripping so I may try some salt water or wearing a tam and see if that adds or modifies my progress. LOL we have the same hair.
I'm only at 4 and 1/2 months also so I'm not gonna sweat it till maybe the 9 month mark. I am curious when the length will come back though, because my hair only grows maybe a 1/4 inch a month, and it's all dreading up as it comes in right now so doesn't seem like it will add length as much as girth at first.(my shortest one tri-folded itself, it was maybe 12 inches long and it's only at 3 inches right now. I'm hoping the shrinkage is almost over, like you are lol)

wow I thought you were describing my dreads with that title! lol! sounds like we're in the same boat 'cept mine are natural/neglect and 6 months old. Yea they'll probably round out eventually. A lot of mine started to fold up and round out recently as well. Try a cut off t-shit sleeve to keep them outta your face.

Sounds like mine too except I'm natural. Its crazy the way they shrink and form. I'm coming up on my 7th month.

That timeline is great! She didn't seem to lose that much length and they were harder to see with the darker dyes but those zig zags and loops and all-around mess is like exactly what mine are like LOL. It's inspiring to see progress.

Knottysleeves said:

It sounds like they are just getting super-tight, which is awesome! They will definitely round out eventually. Mine started out flat, and even the super loopy ones rounded out eventually.

Check out kitty4peace's Flickr timeline -- hers got insanely loopy and shrunk considerably, just like yours. She's past 1 year now and they seem to have rounded and gradually smoothed themselves out. (She's never done any maintenance or "fixing".)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitty4peace/sets/72157621742742665/?pa...

Thanks for the awesome link! That's exactly what mine are like. I couldn't figure out what what happening to them because I've never seen dreads like mine before. I've seen loopy, but never so crazy as what I have on my head.I live in a place with an exceptionally high number of dreadies (so easy to compare on a daily basis!) and was really starting to wonder if I had done something to wreck mine.I guess my locks didn't want to be outdone by my color in loudness LOLI'll get some pictures today that actually show the loopiness. I've tried before, but I never remember to take them in the daylight and my color doesn't want to show detail well in low, warm light.

mine done the same things, funny you have the uneven sides too... im almost at 11 mths and they are now dreads, some short sum long, sum round sum flat, (sum round and flat at differant points), sum with big lumps and or kinks sum with undreaded hair hanging out of them etc...so yeah over all they look like dreads now.... just kick back and let it happen, if they are not what you expect dreads to be for maybe the first year or 2, then that means they are doing what they are meant to...and by the way the uneven sides sorted its self in about 4 weeks or so...happy travels...

tatyananashi said:

Mine are exactly the same (except I never crocheted)! And I'm in the high desert also.
I know they will round out because 3 in the back have already after being my crazy first loopers. I never rolled them or anything, it just happened. They're so short though. The right side is about at my chin, the left side still goes down to my shoulder.
I've also lost about 3/4 of my length, and some of mine are now too short to tie back, so I feel ya, I HATE having hair in my face.
I was considering asking this question soon, but I've not ever done any maintenance besides ripping so I may try some salt water or wearing a tam and see if that adds or modifies my progress. LOL we have the same hair.
I'm only at 4 and 1/2 months also so I'm not gonna sweat it till maybe the 9 month mark. I am curious when the length will come back though, because my hair only grows maybe a 1/4 inch a month, and it's all dreading up as it comes in right now so doesn't seem like it will add length as much as girth at first.

(my shortest one tri-folded itself, it was maybe 12 inches long and it's only at 3 inches right now. I'm hoping the shrinkage is almost over, like you are lol)

Interesting! My left side is shorter than my right.... Never could figure that phenomenon out either