Newb

Just started my dread attempt 3 weeks ago. Twist and rip was used. A few fell apart so my wife has crocheted a few to get semi locked up again. Here is a pic I just took.

don't ever use crochet on dreads if they fell apart they would redread now the ones you crocheted are extremely damaged, will take 6 months to evenstart to dread and will likely take 3 years to recover

throw the crochet hook in the trash

you just need to be patient let them do what they d..falling apart is part of that process

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

your hairs a tad short so they are going to fall part but you can clearly see which 1 was crocheted

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

i second this!!

I mean, you may just get lucky, but i essentially had to undo all or significant portions of my crocheted ones, because they were doing absolutely nothing but collecting residue. And even the ones i "fixed", i know there is/was significant damage there, lost a lot of loose hair after only a few months of having them, and the growth rate had to start all over. I basically lost like 6 months (rough guess) and i had only had them for about 4months at that point (or, well maybe a bit longer because it takes awhile to remove these super tight dreads and i/the people I asked were in denial or didn't know the extent of the damage). So...yes avoid crochet, or only use it for tucking in the occasional lose strand, but that should only be in dire needs. Mostly, you will just have to trust that those lose hairs will find their way to the appropriate dread.

And yes, they will fall out. I have been neglecting, but i thought i'd try a t&r on my stubborn sections. Nope! Now those fall out too! BUT, they will get there...eventually...right SE?? haha no i have faith. Know of someone who took 2 years before ANYthing even started to happen! (that's what i hold onto.)

p.s. t&r is fine to use though. I wasn't saying that that wasn't a good idea

updated by @fundoo: 01/22/17 07:42:17PM

for every loose strand you tuck in you break  enough hairs to cause a new loose strand to pop out..just never let a crochet hook touch your dreads..ever

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

and yes they will take care of themselves all you need is patience ..just let them happen let the loose hairs  take care of themselves  let them tighten on their own

the more you try to rush them the longerthey take

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I really, absolutely, don't want to make trouble here or confuse fireboltrider...so the following here is just me being, as the Brits say, cheeky, but also my HUMBLE, but personal observations.

So I mean, don't you break hairs every time you separate dreads as well?? To me, it seems the occasional tucking in is not as detrimental as some make it sound. I mean, some folks do this maintenance quite often, right! Yes, they might be stiff, but they aren't ruined necessarily. <-that's the cheeky part. We're just "splitting hairs" here SE! And I know you have waaaaay more experience than me. So no disrespect!

Because I do agree, avoiding the hook is best. And I can attest to those broken hairs popping out of mine (like a beard stubble, though they are softening finally). I did however, loosen my crocheted dreads (not completely remove though and this is referring to fireboltrider's profile post/question) because I didn't want to wait for them to loosen/lose the stiffness, and i gotta say, I am happy with mine. Did lose a lot of hair, even with just taking out the ends and the loosening, but there is still significant hair left. 

Ohh, I'm probably all wrong, but it seemed like mine were getting harder/stiffer...oh, and I had residue, so I guess I had no choice! 

So yes, if they can be left alone, leave em be. And just the occasional tuck (like if a hair is sticking out sideways. in my experience, I only felt I ONCE needed a tuck!), then hook is ok. BUT Generally, leave the hook and go natural. It's nature's work of art!

separating you break hairs between not inside dreads, and only once leaving a shorter hair at the scalp

crochet you break hairs inside dreads

now you say some people do it all the time..why would they need to if it wasn't to fix  the issues they caused? (and some do break off with almost no effort) (in fact just the water impact diving into a pool)

now  each hair in each dread can be broken into smaller nd smaller peices

on fb 1 guy crocheted so much his dreads were falling apart to the point he ran each dread through a sewing machine to stitch them back together (another bad idea)

in 26 years i never once felt i needed a tuck

they will just take care of themselves

on yt the guy that teaches ppl to crochet had a vid called how to strengthen dreads with a crochet hook (oxymoron) in it he is crocheting his wife's dreads that looked like the most extremely over crocheted dreads you ever saw

while holding a dread, fairly close to the roots , and just talking about it..it came off in his hand..no visible sign of weakness no thinning ..nothing not even a noticeable tug or yank ..just gently moving it around and it fell off

he then dared to say that it broke cause it wasn't crocheted enough!

yes the hook can be as bad as people say

it builds up ..the damage is cumulative and if you repair the damage by doing more crochet.. well eventually thy are  10% then 30% then 80% weaker  as each intact hair gets shorter and shorter

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I was mostly just making a bad joke about splitting hairs. get it?? yeah, it kind of flopped! :P

ok, seriously now. That was well stated. and I'm like 99.9% with ya. In most cases, I would say absolutely do not use the hook. It DOES ruin dreads and should not be used to "fix" dreads (I had an issue with a strand of hair I needed to go into one dread and not the other and I just pulled that through. Actually, I didn't even use the hook for that, i used a needle! but i suppose that might do similar damage? i don't know. ). Anyway, I'll just leave it at that. no more "splitting hairs" (was that better?? :D)  Take care, SE!

p.s. I just re-read the home page, so ok. I respect that. 

updated by @fundoo: 02/22/17 04:17:49AM