They were fairly tight. I started combing them out a a year and two months to the day, and I was a maintenance freak, to they were rolled, crocheted and felted along the way, making them pretty darn tight. And they were indeed started by back combing. The process was really slow. I would snip the bottom half inch of the dread off, then start working inch by inch gently catching and pulling out hair while holding onto the dread at a higher position to keep it from pulling my scalp. It took about 20-30 minutes per dread. The only parts that was very difficult were getting out the hair where loops had formed, and getting out the roots. Once I got them out I completely bathed the free hair in a leave in conditioner. When my entire head was finished I got the ends trimmed off (I probably had about 6 inches of breakage and dead ends) and used a hair cholesterol treatment to restore a lot of the dryness.
Hope that answered your questions some. I really didn't even think I would take them out either. Something just told me it was time.