New dreads, and dread extensions.
General Questions
Alright, so I'm fairly new to dreadlocks. Mine are one week old as of today. I came into dreads a little differently than most. I woresyntheticbraid-in "dreads" for months, and kept them in for a month or so before taking them out and washing and what not. Last round of having them braided in, I left them in my hair for over two months. I noticed the sections I had my synthetic dreads braided in started to dread at the roots, maybe about 1/2" or a little bit more in some places. I decided to take that as a perfectopportunityto dread my real hair. I did so using entirely twist-and-rip. My hair is very thin-textured, silky, and straight and I found back-combing wasn't working, and I'm not into the whole 'stabbing your dreads with a tiny metal hook' thing either. Twist and rip worked well, they're pretty 'compact' for baby dreads. I can pick any spot in a dread and try to pull it apart or something and they won't budge. They'rereallyfuzzy, especially after my first wash (on day 4 of having them) but I like the fuzz.
Thing is, my hair messed up from years of layering. Some of my dreads reached the bottom of my rib cage, others (more like the entire top of my head) were only about 3 inches long. Like a dread mullet, sigh. I had about 6 long dreads, and the top of my head wasporcupinespikes sticking straight up. I made a huge jump and dreaded a left over bag of synthetic hair and attached it to the bottom of my dreads. They look okay, held up very well in the first wash, but I don't like the idea of having synthetic hair in my dreads. The plan is to keep that junk in until I can buy real human hair and dread that.
My question is- when buying human hair to dread and add to your dreads, does it have to be top of the line human hair (which is damn well expensive) or can you cheap out and buy lower quality human hair, since all you're going to do is turn it into a bunch of knots? Will dread extensions hinder the dreading process of your dreads? Will it damage your dreads? And, well... Do people in the 'dread world' look down on people who cheat the length of their dreads? I mean I'm not adding extensions to make my dreads down to my waist, I'm just adding a few inches to a handful of them to make my hair more even and less insane looking.
Thanks.
updated by @mew: 01/13/15 09:40:45PM