locking long hair

Hello I've been contemplating getting dreads for about a year nowand I've finally decided to take the plunge and just get on with it.My only problem is, I've been growing my hair for about 7 years now so itsdown to around my lower back area. A friend advised me to get a hair cut firstso as not to end up with loose dreads. I was just wandering what the pro'sthought about this as I'm not too keen on the idea of getting my hair cut(I've shared manyexperiences with my hair and I would like to start mydread journey with all of it.) So any tips or advice for dreading long hair would begreatly appreciated.
updated by @benson-fox: 01/13/15 09:03:39PM

There is no need to cut it. The longer the hair... the quicker it dreads. Baby dreads are "loose" anyway. My hair was down the middle of my back and by the time it quit shrinking, it was above my shoulders.

Excellent cheers for that you've saved me a lot of worrying. Roughly how long did yours take to form into dreads?