Hi there, I'm 7 weeks in and things are a bit crazy on my head! I am wondering what you guys think in terms of how many dreads I've got going.I have stick straight, fine and very thing hair (not a lot of hair to start with). I have 39 baby dreads of varyin sizes, and I'm reading all about people that have WAY more than me. I want to have medium sized dreads, not super skinny but not huge. Is this a good number!? I feel like the section size at the scalp isn't the best indicator, as when I had dreads before they were thinner than my scalp sections (again, I just have less hair per inch than most people. Also, they are all different shapes and sizes at the base. I liked the idea of them being varied, but is that going to bite me in the ass?Thanks!
updated by @mama-jme: 01/22/20 09:33:16AM
How many dreads should I have?
39 is just fine. On average, people have between 28-35. People with more tend to have pencil sized locks or smaller. I have 17 locks. So if you need an idea of how big those would be, check out my video of my congo's. That shows the best pics of the size at the roots.
lol the how many should i have question always makes me laugh but funnily enough its 1 of the top 100 search terms as if there is a right answer
how many you should have is how many you have
today it might be 39 next year 68 the next 28
why are you counting
ok thickness u say last set they were thinner were u crochetting? palm rolling or root rubbing alot?
(assume mnot twisting or interlocking) some maintenances can thin them a bit
but a normal healthy dreads roughly the root section size
oh and 39 is a happy medium so relax
thicks 20..med thick 30 so 40 is really about as medium as medium can be
50-60 thinner-med
60-80 thinnish 80-100+ thin-skiny
100-200 very thin
200+ micro (sisterlocks tends to start off round 400)
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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1
This post got me curious how many dreads I have... so I counted, and there are a total of 45 dreads.. all of which are different sizes. some are half the width of a pencil and others are the width of three pencils, and everything in between.39 sounds like a perfect amount of dreads, whatever works for you and your hair is fine. 
i have thin, fine hair. i have 75 dreadlocks. last time i counted i had 67 so i gained a few over the last year. most of mine are pinky and index finger sized. just realize that all of your shed hair is going to accumulate in the dreads creating locs that are much larger than when you started. its a lot easier to congo small locs later than it is to rip a big one apart. i've done that and it hurts like hell.
i just looked at your pics and i must say that some of your sections are quite big. you might want to consider redoing some of them.
When I started I had around 37, now I'm close to 60. I just tried counting, got to 42 (1/3 of my head) and a bunch jumped out of my hand so I lost count lol. I have had some grow together in the early stages and over the last few months I've separated several. I combed some out that are redreading and I have loose hair that just started getting tangles yesterday I discovered. It's always changing and evolving.
You always tend to gain some over the years. Loose hair, new growth, flyaways, every strand that just so happens to not be in a lock at the moment, eventually forms a new lock. So as they mature, you end up with some new baby locks.
You never reach an end point where every lock is mature
I don't know how many I have. I started off at around 40 or so I think but I know a lot have congoed since then... I'm probably somewhere between 34-38 now. It was the most that I could get out of my hair without them being super tiny because my hair is/wasridiculouslythin.
I have a friend who has 80 dreads and each one of them are bigger than mine. Her hair is HUGE.
So, with that in mind, I would say put in as many as you feel you want. It's always easier to put in more though, because its easier to combine than rip apart
. I think the varying sizes is the keythough I have one in the back that is massive like 3 inches, and then i have ones that are the size of micros. It didn't start out that way, it was just what they wanted to become.
