Thanks for the advice and encouragement .. As of now I have no time to take them out and start over anyway, plus I'm kinda just lazy lol. It was a lot of work to tnr them the first time, I don't know if I'm up for that again. We'll see how it goes though. Depending on how they do I may just leave them. Do you know how long it took for your sections to stop being matted?

ahhh yes soap was a PITA to rinse out when it was super matted next to my scalp, detachable shower head on a hose is your best friend during these times It gets better I promise

mine are random sections like yours as well, with time it grows out and you just rip them apart. With enough time your sections will no longer be woven together (stay on top of your pulling sections apart). No need to lose what you already have imo... I didn't want the checkerboard head thing going on so I let sections form where they wanted to form. Mine are at 2 years now and they are way, way less woven together than they were. I'm pretty sure time is the answer to everything dread related GL

You're right, that is very true.

Yeah I'm definitely thinking it's not able to rinse out completely.

I think some of them will be. I'm sure once I get in there and really dissect the situation I'll be able to save a couple. The one I took apart the other day, I was able to get them apart enough to where I could tell where they wanted to part at, just like you. I'm hoping some in the nap will be like that also. I know I'll be much less stressed about it once I do it. Probably a lot less itchy and less pain also lol.

Better now, at the beginning of your journey than a few months down the road when it will be even harder.

If your scalp is itchy then the shampoo probably isn't rinsing all the way past the matting.

Seriously take your "weekend off" to comb out and then let your scalp relax before re-sectioning... it will feel so good.

Also, are there any that are salvageable? When I did my separations I was actually able to keep them partially dreaded up my feeling/seeing the natural sectioning at my roots and following that with my fingers and gently tugging them apart with very little combing out. They have started to knot up pretty fast but a lot more loopy and choppy :P

SE- You described it way better then I could! That is exactly it, they are all crisscrossed. I couldn't think of a way to say it. That's perfect, thanks! I really think I'm going to comb them out and redo them with clean parts. I think it will feel much better that way.

Valerie- Thanks for advise. It make perfect sense and I actually ended up splitting 2 dreads on the right side into 4 the other day also. Since I've done that that side of my head isn't hurting anymore. I'm really think I may need to comb them out and start over. I wont do uniform sections, but I think I'll try to make the parts a little more clean. When I go up the dreads the hair is seriously coming from every direction into the dread. It's mainly my nape and the section just above my ears. The crown portion is fine but I think it's because I actually made neater lines up there. It's just super itchy all the time, and I'm wondering if that is because it's so matted. Maybe I can get the shampoo all the way out or something? I think I may have just convinced myself to comb them out and redo them. I may cry while combing them out though lol. When I comb those two out the other day, I was seriously sad about it. HAHA Although I knew I was going to put them back in, it was like a departure from them LOL.

i never sdectioined just let em dread and seperated often early on then let em congo but thats a lil diferent then randomb]ly grabbing hairs with the root6s criss crossing an=d 1 sectiion already being blended with another from the start u can keep seperrating and do it thr]\oroughly enough to get em to start to behave..or u can start those few bad ones over with natural or defined sections ..as long as the sections arent already coming from inside other sections ir wuill work out

Thanks Tara!! Yeah I separate when they are wet, and then I also separate when they are dry. It really seems like I'm spending a lot of time trying to separate them. It's really becoming almost impossible to get them apart. Some are so bad I'd have to cut them, which I'm not going to do. It's just really frustrating that it's so matted at my scalp, and I feel like if I touch it or scratch at all that I'm just going to mat it up even more. It's weird because when I separate them they stay together. They have hair woven from every section around each of them. It's all coming from every direction. I was kind of worried about it while I finishing the rest of my head, and I thought about taking the others out to make clean parts. Now that they are loosening up it's just becoming more and more matted. I hope that made sense, it's kind of hard to describe. Hopefully the pictures show it somewhat.

It's really up to you. Have you taken your dreads and followed them up towards your scalp to see which parts of the head are pulling to that 1 dread? I actually did section mine out but I sectioned it imperfectly because I didn't want uniform dreads. So far I haven't really experienced what you are explaining but I do end up with loose hairs that want to move into the dread-condo 2 doors down and that ends up being kind of painful (having the scalp tugged at 2 different spots.)

I ended up having to partially comb out some of my dreads this past Monday. They were all of the dreads around my whirl (I have a whirl at the crown of my head) and because of the larger size they were causing a lot of conflict with my scalp due to the direction of hair growth. I ended up making them smaller (breaking 1 up to as little as 2 and as many as 4 separate dreads.) Now they have more movement and I have less pain there as well.

Ultimately it is up to you. I would investigate what is going on, give a little tug and see where individual dreads are pulling and make a choice. If there is pulling all over from 1 dread then you make want to break it up so that you don't end up over-irritating your scalp. You're a hairdresser so I'm sure my reasoning makes sense?