dread beads--purpose and uses.

my dreadlocks are just about 5 months old and very crazy and loopy. My hair has shrunk quite a bit and is just going through one of many awkward maturing phases. All but a few of my 150+ locks have some sort of intense loopiness and I am having a tough time of dealing with it these days. I love my dreads and understand that this is the way to mature locks, but would like to know what, if anything, using beads on a few of these crazy dread clumps will do to round them out a bit. So....Will using beads stop the dread process? Will using beads actually round out and form some of these mats/clumps of hair? How long do i leave them on for?I am not desiring to use beads as ornamentation, but for the sole purpose of rounding out some of the matted and flat dread clumps--these are really hard to manage when I need to put my hair back in a pony tail.If I do nothing (which is my preferred method of haircare) will these dread mats//clumps thin and round out or just get gnarlier?Also, I have a few dreads that are feeling a bit too thin (and in danger of breaking off) and I was wondering if I twisted them with their neighbor and put a bead on the 2 of em if this would wor to congo them together. how long would i expect this to take?thanks.
updated by @mama-harrison: 01/13/15 08:50:39PM

do you have any pictures you could post of the mats/clumps so i can get a better idea of what you mean? plus i remember your early pics and want to see how they're coming!and if you beaded two of them together, and just didn't seperate them, i'm sure they would start to congo together in a matter of weeks, but obviously not completely for quite a while. are the thin ones too heavy or something? why do you think they are going to break off?

shes got 150 thats alot but i had 1 that was actualoy two together and even 2 combined was the thickness (not width) of a penny ..micro micto dread and got 4 foot long b4 congoing with a bigger 1um noy seperating for 3 months should comgo em beading em a month should get em prett y well joinedbeasds will round out those just move em every week or so so they dont get on permenantly


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JESSICA EVA said:

do you have any pictures you could post of the mats/clumps so i can get a better idea of what you mean? plus i remember your early pics and want to see how they're coming!

and if you beaded two of them together, and just didn't seperate them, i'm sure they would start to congo together in a matter of weeks, but obviously not completely for quite a while. are the thin ones too heavy or something? why do you think they are going to break off?

http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/pam_sorooshian.html plenty of pics here.The thin ones are just simply too thin--they are very light weight, but have doubled up on each other forming a dread clump and then are very thin at the root--these are mainly a few along my hair line at my forehead. I am mainly having the dread clump/mat issue with the ones that are larger in thickness and in the back of my head underneath from where i sleep on them at night (i think). I don't mind the loopiness, but its the loopiness coupled with the ones that have doubled back on themselves and are super short and super thick/flat that are hard to handle and put into pony tails (i must wear pony tails because that is what i am comfortable with--can't stand hair in my face, especially when i am running around with my toddler daughter).just wondering what happens when you put beads on the dreads. does it impede the drealocking/maturing process?

@ Jessican EVA--our dreads seem to be about the same age (5 months) and I looked at your photos and mine look very similar to yours in loopiness--the difference is that my hair has shrunk A LOT--used to be to below my bosom and now it is almost at my shoulders except for my undreaded tips. So, it has become hard to put my hair up (i def can't do fancy twists and knots like you do). I totally love them--i guess i am just not used to the shortness of my hair right now. it will get longer though in time.

oooh ok i see what you're saying. i only have like 60 something dreads though so to me 150 is crazy! i've noticed that my thinner dreads are loopier and shriking more than my thick ones, which tend to just get big bubbles. i think the weight of the larger dreads is what keeps them from doubling up on each other like that. i started thinking about this when i was reading a post yesterday by magicmegan about how her dreads were super shrinkers too. she also has in the hundreds of tnr dreads... so i don't know, that could possibly have something to do with it.the beads will totally help congoing the thin ones together and probably help give some shape to the flat ones too. most of my beads are stuck now because huge loops have formed underneath them so just watch them and move them like SE said. they won't set you back or anything.

Mama Harrison said:

@ Jessican EVA--our dreads seem to be about the same age (5 months) and I looked at your photos and mine look very similar to yours in loopiness--the difference is that my hair has shrunk A LOT--used to be to below my bosom and now it is almost at my shoulders except for my undreaded tips. So, it has become hard to put my hair up (i def can't do fancy twists and knots like you do). I totally love them--i guess i am just not used to the shortness of my hair right now. it will get longer though in time.