twist and rip vs backcomb
Dreading Methods
I started mine with backcombing that I got a friend to do, the only ones that didn't fall out were the first couple she did for me. I find that the process is so tedious for the person doing the dreads for you that they start to put less effort in as time goes on (they get over it and just want it finished) and so the majority of them fall out.
I've been playing around with various methods ever since. I tried to just wait for the dreads to occur naturally after that, but saw little progress over the month and a half that I waited, so I started playing around with twist and rip and found it held better than backcombing.
I've actually done the majority of them by myself whilst sitting on the couch watching tv. I'll do one like every few nights. The sectioning is a bit harder by yourself, so maybe the best way would be to section off the hair by starting with twist and rip and do maybe about an inch and then leave him to do the rest of the length of each dread himself?
I still have a fair bit of loose hair which I'm going to let go natural, but overall, there is a dreaded appearance based mostly on twist and rip and I'm much happier that I did them myself.