Hey Zachary :)

OK great...pics help!

* UNDREADED ROOTS: I always had problems with this too, as I also have really straight hair, which is a real pain to lock-up...but I found a really good method some time ago...I use Dreadhead Shampoo, but as long as you find something else that will dry-out your hair, the same method should work (using shampoos and rinses with essential oils in them, especially with naturally straight hair, will REALLY go against locking...) OK this is what you do. When you wash your hair, whilst the shampoo is in your locks (and I only ever actually apply shampoo to my scalp...when you rinse it out later, the shampoo will run-over the lengths...they don't need to be shampooed in their own right)...but yes, apply shampoo all over scalp, get your fingers right in there and give your scalp a good scrubbing, then use a flat palm and root-rub (I actually do both directions, clockwise and counter) all over your scalp and roots. Rinse very well, follow-up with a very cold rinse to get blood circulating in scalp. Once the dreads dry (often the next day), I then separate each dread at the roots (so they don't mat together), and give them a really good palm-roll and fix anything that needs to be fixed because of the wash (sometimes loose hairs appear etc) Prior to using this method, my roots were approx 3" un-dreaded...within a month or so of using this method, washing once a week, Ihad my roots dreaded right up to the scalp! Seems to work really well for straight hair...whereas when I root-rubbed with dry hair, soon as I washed them, that would all be undone...in the shower seems to do the trick!

* TOO DRY: Salt Water and Lemon Juice etc will dry your dreads-out more. However, I've found that straight hair, to dread, really does require a drying-out to work...times when I feel it's a little too dry (doesn't happen often), I use a little aloe vera gel on them...just palm-roll with a little on your hands.

* PALM ROLLING: I never do mine when they're damp, only when dry. But people have diff methods, I know thre's a few people on ere who are keen on doing them whilst wet...try both ways and see what works best for your dreads :)

* LOOSE HAIRS: If they're short hairs you're talking about, like up at the roots, there's not a huge amount you can do until they get longer, or your roots are dreaded...BUT if you mean long-ish hairs down the length of your dreads, then this is easy to fix...get yourself a wool/tapestry needle...they're like about 3" long, thick and have a large eye to be threaded...Collect loose hairs together (don;t use too many from too large an area...like, I mean, gather loose hairs that are close to one another, and twist them together so they make a single strand of hairs. Insert your needle into dread around where the loose hairs are joined to the dread, insert needle right down the middle/inside of the dread, and poke end out. At this stage you should have a needle that is down inside the dread, but both ends are sticking out. Take the strand of hairs and thread then through the needle (You'll probably need to double the strand over so it's easy to thread)...pull it tight, then grab the sharp end of needle and pull it down...pulling the loose hairs back inside the dread. This often leaves a little bit of leftover loose hairs where the needle came back out lower down..do the same thing again, but UPWARDS...this will ensure those loose hairs ain't EVER coming back out :P Do this wherever needed...a little time consuming, but well worth the time...my dreads used to be horrible for loose hairs...and now they're SO neat...works great!

* OVERALL LOOSENESS: Unfortunately, or dreads that are overall loose, there's not much you can do except wait...although, a great method I found for straight hair (also works really well on roots)...is to rubber band them...but not in the one single spot...you kinda get the rubber band, and make it stretch out over a certain length (man this is hard to explain lol)...but when it's on, it kinda makes your dread "KINK" in that banded section...and if you leave it in for a day or so, or even just overnight, when you take it out, the hairs in the dread will be kinda kinky, allowing the hairs to connect better and therefore dread-up...after you take the band/s out, you give the section a DAMN good palm-rolling, to get them connecting together. How are your tips? Are they dreading? Are you using the Rip n Pull Method? It's a dreadhead's best friend for sure lol