I'm mostly just patting my hair down, not trying to undo progress. I figured my hair isn't locking at all yet so I wouldn't have to worry about mildew anyway right now. My beanies r just 100% acrylic and are to big for my head and act almost as a tam (very loose, low thread count, almost wool like), but if its bad for the process I'll get a tam next time I can. Thanks for all the great info everyone. 
I'm a Noob, and as of right now I'm only on day 5 of my natural dreads. I was just curious on ways to know if your hair is dreading? I started the process by washing with Nutrigena non-residue shampoo and also the baking soda conditioner and washed them the same way yesterday on day 4 the same way. I know its a slow and awesome process but I always feel like I'm messing up the process by shampooing or drying them in a way that messes them up. Luckily I haven't continued the habit of combing/running my fingers through my hair...usually the only time I mess with it is taking on and off my beanie and the occasional itch haha besides what I've mentioned above.
I cant top what everybody else has said about this. but I'm only on day 4 of my natural journey and already I'm loving looking at them do what hair should do, and have to say that my hair has actually tamed down. I usually have an Afro with conditioned hair,but I just got home from work and looked in the mirror to find my hair looking quite nice actually...tons of fascinating locs spiraling all over and I can feel them locking a bit already, it does itch here and there though but I don't really mess with them, just let them have there own personality.
O.k., let me first start off by saying I'm a noob and have never had dreads, but hey u have to start sometime haha. I know a bit but not as much as I would like to before diving into dreads just yet. I added a horrible pic of me and my curly hair and was curious on what method I should use. I do like the thought of having nice even smooth dreads instead of neglect, but then again I don't know what would look best since I've never had them. Another challenge I would face is maintenance. Since I've never had dreads I also dont know how to make them look there best, so products I should use would be appreciated as well. Im not sure what else there is to ask or what else I should know so I'll leave it up to the pro's to teach me how its done. Any advice is greatly appreciated
oh and I may be trying to do this project by myself since I really dont think any of my friends know how, so some help on how to do it urself would be awesome too.
