From Interlocking to Natural: My Dreadlock Journey

Is it normal for the roots of mature dreads to change and loosen and perhaps get looser which may imply some shrinking?...cause my roots have been doing crazy things as of late. I'm not entirely sure I can get a photo of all the things they are doing but here is one dreads root as an example. I am sure this is normal I am just wondering if it means I should switch shampoos, although I have to say that with the shampoo I am using, although it makes more loose hair my loose hair is still forming up into new dreads or goign into existing. The example photos are attached, let me know if more photos are needed to further evaluate this change...although I think what I have posted gives a good example

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looks to me (at best guess) its a combo of still recovering from the extreme tightness from interlocking you see in some the looseness stops at what appears to be the interlock point

that will only need time yea a better shampoo would help,but to me it still looks like the interlocking alted dreading there till they grow out enough to resume

if i had to guess what to expect..it might grow out to where young like 3 month old dreads loosen up to and take nearly as long to tighten back up

how longs it been since last interlock or root maintenance?

I did a sea salt spray and washed with drbronners this morning. It seems that this combination helped my hair out...I can't seem to really find any of the problem areas that I had posted recently, as I looked through them just now they seemed to be back to more normal...so it leads me to wonder if maybe the shampoo I am using it what had caused the roots to loosen as they did, because now when I am looking through my hair after this last wash, now with drbrnners I don't really see the problem areas. So would it just be wise now to maybe change soaps I am using and stop using the beer soap on my dreads, or could I still actually continue to use it or should I find a new shampoo? - ie move to drbronners and or the new bar soap I have...although I kinda have been hoping to be able to use up that beer soap before opening my other bar soap. But if it isn't the beer soaps doing is it really the interlocking? (As my last maintenance of interlocking was at about the 6 or 7-month mark of my dreads first year - which was now about 3 years ago. My last maintenance overall was maybe 2 years into dreads...I stupidly once tried to take in loose hair, - with a sewing needle, but I have never done that again and never will, and that didn't seem to do much damage - or said damage, which has probably healed by now, thankfully). 

So over all my question really is what is the best course of action as far as my soap situation goes, and was my root issue short lived or will it continue for a while (if so how long of a timeline am I looking at for the roots being loose)?

Edit: I may have spoken too soon, I do think some of the roots that have seemed to come loose are still in a loose state, but I kind of expected that....I just hope it doesn't regress more. 

This question is sort of a side note to my prior one, but I just read on the here that coconut oil may leave a build up in dreads....I think the post was done by a member who has still maturing dreads, but I'm wondering if coconut oil is ok to use on mature dreads in reasonable amounts? As I wouldn't think to use tons of it on my hair, but I do think that I would like to use it on my dreads. So it would be nice to know if it's ok...cause if not I'll just find a different purpose for the oil, ie for use on my beard.

If it is the case that my roots have regressed to an earlier stage (although I actually have no idea what age they would regress to since their starting method was interlocking on day 1 - about month 6 (as I had them started in May of 2013 and the last time I interlocked them was most likely November, I don't think I had them interlocked the next month), how long is it possible that they will take to fix themselves? Am I looking at like 6 months or something shorter, or perhaps something longer?

fter reveiewing all that its probly the shampoo

the oils okbut till the roots tighten will only loosen them more

So I will probably discontinue using that shampoo, and use dr bronners instead. I also just looked at the ingredients again for the soap by Yardley that I have, and found that it contains Glycerin, which I  learned is a residue. So looks like I may not be able to use it on my dreads....which sort of leaves dr bronners as my only local avaliable option, unless it is possible to use either of those soaps on my dreads in the future?, However, given the ingredients I am not so sure it'd be a good idea. 

I have been using as my mix recipe for dr bronners 1 tablespoon of the soap per 12 tablespoons of water, I am wondering if I need to cut the amount ofbronners I use in half, which would be roughly maybe 1-2 teaspoons of soap than 12 teaspoons of water. as sometimes I feel like maybe on the inside of the dreads there is some soap in there, but I can't every really tell, but I have no sticky feeling on the outside of the dreads, it's just that when I squezze it I sometimes can kind of hear a squishy sound like there may be something in my dreads...but drbronners is pretty much my only decent option and is the most affordable one for me. So thus I am wondering, do I need to alter my recipe for the mix?

the recipies correct and weakening it more wont help if y9ur waters pretty hard

your best options to rinse with spring, purified, or distilled water

or get an in shower head water filter or in  line (in the plumbing) filter  that filters out the heavy undissolved minerals that make hard water hard

if i remember right, your living in a van traveling? r was that someone else? either way yu can go on youtube ook up diy solar water distiller for plans to build your own water distiller  and distill your rinse water

I'm not traveling via van (although that sounds like a fun way to live!). I was also asking also to see if there is a way to further stretch the dr bronners bottle I have, or would less than a tablespoon of soap per 12 of water be too weak for a mix to be useful? If it is still sufficient to use for washing how much soap per water would I use, would it be something like 2 teaspoons of soap per 2 teaspoons of water or would I do only one? I haven't felt any kind of slimy feeling on the outside or really the inside of my dreads so I am thinking that I am getting to rinse it out.