I TnRed my hair and mine mostly came loose and then started to tighten up at the end of 1 month. Now my hair is rock-awesome at (approaching) 4 months!
Check out the dreaducation link at the top navigation bar and you will learn a whole tone of info that will be useful to your journey and, if you have any more questions, just ask. 
I actually diluted it to get it to distribute a bit easier and it works great. It made my hair pretty soft so I am currently using it as an additive to my Dr. Bronner's mix and when my hair matures I will be transitioning to the bars.
Honestly, the pricing is comparable to quality shampoos so I'm okay with it.
Welcome Doll! Feel free to ask whatever questions you need to, that is why we are all here.
You probably have a lower hair density than your friends so your hair will be thinner than theirs and take longer to thicken up (I'll bet dollars to donuts that if you guys had undreaded hair that when using the same hair elastic to put in a pony tail you would have a smaller one than her/them as well.)
Anyhoo, if you like the size of the roots then let them be for a while. Honestly, you won't have any sort of thickening until later down the road from where you are at now anyway and if you let them congo too soon you could end up with massively heavy and thick dreads later on that you do not want. Waiting to congo later is a lot easier than splitting dreadlocks to make them thinner so I highly recommend waiting it out. You are, after all, only at 1 week so you have the whole unraveling and looping process yet to even start which will change everything.
What you are describing yourself as doing is not actually crochet but root flipping (pulling the dreadlock through a hole that you are creating in the roots to make them tighter.) This can eventually lead to traction alopecia as well as weakening the dreadlocks because of those holes you are putting in them. Check out the recovery forums to read some first hand accounts of what happened to members and how they recovered from some of the damage.
(the headache pain and irritation that you get from flipping your roots are the first signs that you are pulling your roots too tight and if this continues over a long period of time you can definitely start seeing gaps at your roots from hairs being pulled out that may never, ever grow back because of the stress on the scalp -this is traction alopecia)
Your roots will be loose for a long while while the recovery starts but they will tighten up over time with patience.
The pro's and con's of bleaching dreads are basically the same as hair that's not dreaded: You can dry out the hair, blow out the pores, and ruin the integrity of the hair shaft from the process (ie. breakage.) Another con to bleaching WITH dreads is that you could end up with uneven results because of the way the hair is knotted and thickened from dreading (ie. penetration of the bleach could leave spottiness and to force it into the dread could make it hard to remove.)
If you haven't bleached your hair before you would need to have a basic knowledge in color theory to achieve the bleaching results you would need to get true-to-tone colors afterward. If you have very dark hair, you could end up with orange or yellow after bleaching which will, in turn, change the outcome of any colored dye you put on afterward. Color results are different when bleaching virgin hair verses previously dyed hair.
Also, it's not recommended to use any other chemical service in conjunction with bleached hair... by this I mean, until the bleached parts are CUT from the hair, any other chemical service you use could further damage the areas that were previously bleached.
If you are absolutely passionate about having different colored tips then I would recommend you bleach all of your hair now, before growing the dreads. Then, as your hair grows out and matured into dreadlocks, you will already have blonde hair to dye over. Why I recommend dying the entire head verses just the tips? Well that has to do with shrinkage. Everyone who dreads experiences shrinkage to some degree because the hair moves up and down and loops over itself to make the dreadlocks as it matures. If you did bleach just the tips then your tips may not be what is blonde when your locks are matured.
It's a lot to think about honestly.
The only pro's to bleaching ANY hair is having a desired hair color (which there is usually a 50/50 chance of actually achieving: chances going up when involving a color specialist.)
The safest way to get colors in dreadlocked hair is to make wraps (wither with wool or thread) because you can have any color you want plus if you change your mind all you have to do is remove it. Only downside to wool wraps is that you could get fuzz stuck in your dreads.
Hi Rachel! Can't wait to see your progress! You should start a timeline on here.
Also, if you are making your own shampoo I think that the rosemary would work better on your scalp that way than just as a spray. This can also be said for the jojoba.
Hi Al! Welcome aboard!!
What Baba said was pretty much spot on in regards to the TnRing. I also used TnR to start mine but just let them go after than. They got really loose and then tightened up at about 1 month. Now they are just crazy
Also, since you are going to congo your dreads, he would be a great resource as to taking care of fat dreads. Once they get to a certain diameter then become a lot harder to care for so it would be good to know what you are up against in the future.
