just stop combing your hair and begin washing with baking soda and appleseed vinegar. HAVE PATIENCE. I have curly and thick hair too, you can check my pictures, if your hair is short [i started with short hair] the progress will be slow, but in the end, you will be proud of your locks. I'm at the 8.5 month mark, and there are parts that still need to dread, but i'm already proud of my hair and i know that in some 6 months i will have an amazing set of locks.

I agree, curly dreads are some of my favorites, check out some timelines with curly hair (robyn, sam, rachel nattydee are a few offthetop of my head).

that photo was one that I liked a lot before I started as well, but no matter how hard you try you can't get one set to look like anyone elses because soooo many many things factor into how they form, you can't even get one dread to look just like another without doing extreme harm to the dreads, which if you want to keep them you want them to be healthy & intact. now I love what my hair has done all on it's own & wouldn't want a copied/pasted set for anything, no one will ever have ones like mine

your dreads will shrink, so you will loose length before you gain any. biotin, rosemary sprays/soaks for your hair, & just eating/living healthy can help hair growth.

if you'd like to attach extensions you may want to wait until you have some knots for a base first, then you can crochet the extension in (but keep in mind the crocheting will break hairs) or sew it in I've also seen. also keep in mind a lot of people end up not liking their extensions, feeling disconnected with them & end up cutting them out, you may want to just let your hair dread for a while & see if you really think they are necessary, or if you love your dreads just how they are & don't want to bother with the time/money investment.