i did the loop inside thing when i first got started and i had problems with it, i have strait hair so i think thats why. i don't see how looping i back in itself makes it any better, it just splits the dread in to that don't like to play together any more.

the technique i use is once the dread had grown about an inch out from my head i rotate it CW or CCW for a few mins, getting it really broken and messy. occasionally twist it so keep it tight. dread way and a rubber band.

good luck!!!!!!!!!!

I have tried that. I read a post about it some time back and then tried it before I read a reply that said NOT to do it! Boy, I felt stupid for jumping the gun. The result has been this: Some of them worked out totally great and continued in a circular dread; Some others became kind of split in two at the root (weird, bad). What I did with these problem dreads was split the root in the opposite direction, pulling it through both of the sections again (hard to explain) which kind of brought them back together again. Then when I got some longer fuzzies around the base I wrapped the root before crocheting the fuzzy back in. You probably don't need to wrap it back through the opposite way; I bet it would help just wrapping the root together. Mine have continued dreading very nicely, even some that I didn't do anything to after the initial looping-through. Anyways, that's my experience! I wouldn't worry too much about it..

I was thinking about cutting my hair short and starting over again...I'm just not happy with my results as of right now because of that girl...they were doing so well, then she really screwed me up, and theyre almost 7 months...

should i keep them and hope for the best, or just start over?? I'm scared and alone, since no one around here in NH seem to know what they're doing, I don't think anyone really cares to help me either here =[

*sigh* much love,
wish me luck!

Wow…I find this to be an incredibly strange discussion, because my only form of maintenance for the roots of my dreads is the looping technique. I've had my dreads now for ten months, and my first maintenance was after only three months. I've had two intensive maintenance sessions with my dreads gal, and other than that I constantly loop the roots myself. I've had absolutely no bad experience with this method (aside from an incredibly sore head from the two intensives)
For people who have problems, I can only think of a few reason why not to loop, but all have solutions and it's just because the method isn't done the right way. If you loop them too tightly, they will get all weird and swirly. Of course if you loop them too much without splitting the direction of the loop you're going to get two strands of dread, which of course isn't what you want either. The trick is splitting the hair at the root one way, looping, and then splitting the opposite way. Also, I've accidentally looped one dread into the root of another…but now I've got this cool dread that's one and two at the same time.
This has yielded smooth dreads from the roots down…but if you don't want that effect, then of course this method is not for you…This method may just work for me because I have thin thin dreads, so it's really the only way they will dread at the root. I think a better way for a person with thicker dreads would be a combo looping with…what would you call it…root rubbing? Do you know what I mean? I know the root rubbing works great for thicker dreads (just don't over do it or the knots get huge at the root, so I've been warned).
Best