New to the forum and dreading... some questions...

Hi my name is Amanda. I'm new to dreading and have some questions. I just started my dreadlock journey a few days ago. I have wanted dreads for a long time and have read a lot of information about it. I decided to go ahead and do it after reading quite a bit of info on this forum. I really enjoy the idea of not combing and spending so much time on my hair and I really love the way dreads look. It also seems to be the most natural way to wear the hair.So saturday night and sunday afternoon my sister and I did the twist and rip method. I'm wondering if we did it correctly. It seems that it is pretty simple and not that hard to mess up but still curious if it came out the way it is supposed to. I figure that at least the hair is in some sort of sections or whatever to start the dreading process anyway.Another thing is that I'm not too sure but I may have went to big on the half ass sectioning we did. We didnt really section too well we just pulled down pieces of hair and eyeballed it, trying not to go over an inch across or so. Some of the sections are kind of square, some triangular and some rectangular. Some are little maybe a little less than an inch across at the root and some maybe up to an inch and a half or so. Will any of this make much difference on the outcome and how thick will my dreads be eventually? I have heard that they shrink in length. How much is that usually?And I have heard people on the forum talk about sleeping with a tam on. Im not too sure what that is. Im assuming some sort of hat. Do I have to do that? i would just prefer to sleep with nothing on my head but if it helps then i guess i will.I have included some pictures of my hair so you can let me know what you think. Im glad to have joined the forum and any advice will be appreciated.
updated by @amanda-martinez: 02/15/15 01:08:41PM

Here are some pics

i do9nt see the picturesbut an inch is thick an inch and 1/2 hugethey thicken up to the section sizeat the rootsand shrinkage depends on alot of factors but u can pretty much count on at least 1/2 the lengthive seen waist length hair shrink up to 2-3 inches evenshort hair tends to shrink less long hair shrinks more ..in general


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

ok i see the pics now ok it looks like u twisted too much didnt randomize the ripping enoughso u get that braided lookwell in a month that wont matterthey will dreasd finejust need some time to rearange and knota tam is a dread hat the wool helps dreadits not needed at a;ll


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

So some of them will end up huge then? what should I do? I would like medium size.

Should I try to rip them apart or redo them?

if u want medium size id redo em at about 1/2 an inch maxits really best to just go natural a couple weeks and alow the hair to section itself then use those natural sections as a guide only splitting any that are too big


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

ok thank you

when u think about it..your wrist is most likely 2 inches across so an inch and 1/2 is pretty damn bigu can estimate by counting dreads20 or less is pretty big2-40 average most ppl have who did the whole 1 inch square thing50ish medium.. 60-100 thinover a hundred very thinso if u want medium 50-60ish is a good numberrim guessing u got about 17or less?


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I have 32 actually. 8 smaller ones in the back and then the rest are a lot bigger because we thought the ones we started with were to small. I was thinking of letting the back ones congo together because they looked small but I guess they would be medium size once they were mature. I didnt do enough research obviously:(