Hi
Dread Maintenance
Hi!
My hair sounds a lot like yours. My hair is around 4(at it's absolute shortest in the front) to 6 inches. So far it's been going good with no problems. (I have pictures up of the progress)
When you're starting dreadlocks you want to make sure to continue washing your hair with a residue free shampoo. A lot of people stop washing their hair or wash it only once a week. If you were washing it more than that before your head will go into "What's happening?!" mode and start producing more oils. Some people have said that the scalp can become very itchy as well.
I use an awesome all natural, residue free shampoo bar that I found through this site's shops that they featured. I just lather it up in my palm(reduces the risk of getting soap chunks in a dread) and make sure to get the scalp nice and clean. The suds and bubbles will naturally just find their way down the rest of your dreads so you don't need to super apply shampoo directly to the dreads. I usually shampoo my hair Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. If I was doing something sweaty or dirty, working outside, etc. I might go home and shampoo that day as well.
I try to not wet my dreads unless I'm shampooing them. My hair has always taken a very long time to dry, and them being in little baby dreads makes it that much worse. Whenever I do wash them I make sure to blow dry until they're at least 85%-ish dry. What I usually do for the everyday showers is just get a shower cap. I've seen some people using plastic grocery bags or old t-shirt wraps too.
As for the smiley stuff.. not idea! Might be the sebum oils, etc. on your head doing something odd because of the shampoo habits.
Hope I helped and I hope your journey is amazing! 
Whew! Long post!
