I have no idea what to do about "root webbing"/developing congos

my roots are starting to all dread together, especially at the base of my neck.
I want indivdual little dreads, not like 3 or 4 huge matts of hair.
I forget where it was, but I had asked what to do about them and responses were to cut or rip them apart.
Cutting's out of the question, and I tried ripping from the root out but it just isn't happening unless I really wanna damage my hair. and I don't want to so my hair won't be fucked if I end up combing my dreads out down the road. I also tried ripping by pulling my dreads apart, but that just tightens it and puts it closer to my scalp.

I backcombed them to start out with, then just left them alone and didn't know about sectioning or whatever, so now I'm into this mess.
I know this is normal, but will they eventually sort themselves out to how I originally sectioned them, or do I need to do something about it to get them to grow out individually.

 

How old are they?

I think ripping from the root is the only real way. I don't really think there's anything else to do if cutting is out of the question and ripping down isn't working.

I have an area of my hair which is doing the same, I managed to kind of mostly sort it out just by gradually separating bits at a time when I played with my hair doing whatever. Just from working from the roots

 

My idea: Try to identify which particular bunches of strands belong to each dread and individually pull them out of the dreads they don't belong to (from the root). A crochet hook might help with it.

They'll become loose hairs after pulling them out, but just work them into their 'correct' dreads over time.

 

they're gonna be a month old pretty soon, so fairly new but they've knotted up decently well. I guess I will have to just pull out the hairs individually. It's so frustrating though cause it takes forever, and then over night they just end up back to where they were

 

that's very normal for new dreads, mine are only 2 months and do the same, I just ripp them from the root. It does damage your hair a little bit, but not too much, so don't worry about it. You'll probably have to ripp them every day at first, then you can wait longer in between as they get older.

 

Yeah I got / get the old treeroot thing, they are pretty impossible to rip. My polocy is essentially if it's within an 1 - 1 1/2 inches of the scalp and you cant't rip it then leave it alone, if it's long and you can't rip then cut it.

You may feel different if you'r dreads are only 6 inches long and you don't want a helmet of hair.

 

Well, then you need to go back to church and ask god for a third option...

 

I'm looking forward to when they congo into big thick ones. They're already starting to congo a bit

 

Before ripping try snapping into a slim Jim. I find it really gives me the motivation to rip them shits apart.

 

I don't see what the problem is, if it's too locked to rip with your hands (unlikely seeing as they're a month old) get the scissors out, otherwise just leave it and grow fat locks. It's not really that difficult to separate locks unless they've got really long. Try harder.

 

=

 

Don't cut, you'll seriously mess up your roots and have club shaped dreads that taper down towards the scalp.

To rip locks apart in the event that they're forming a congo you don't want, grab each lock anywhere from near the root to the tip, depending on the length, and simply pull apart. If you want to keep congoing from happening for a long time, rip all locks down to the root, and snip out most of the hairs still webbing the roots(less damage than just cutting it all out, and the pulling from ripping tightens and knots things up)

 

good for you

 

I guess there isn't really an easy solution to this. I'll play er out and see what happens.

thanks to those with the helpful advice

 

Easy? Are you saying it's hard?

Grab each dread. Pull the tips, like a Y, until each is flat against your scalp with the tips pointing in opposite directions. Keep pulling a bit harder until you feel all the last hairs snap or slip, and go on to the next pair.

Easy, to the point of absent-minded ripping all the time, if you don't watch out. (though for you, i guess that wouldn't be a bad thing)

 

I Had No Trouble Ripping About Twenty At The Twelve Month Mark, They

Were Not Forming Into Big Congos, Just Thought Because My Hair Is

Thinning In Places I Would Look Better With Lots Of Small Dreads, Rather

Than A Few Fatties....

Had No Probs, Just Felt Around At The Base, And Found A Small Gap

Where Two Sections Had Joined, Then I Started Ripping, Most Ripped To

The Tip, The Ones That Didn't I Cut Through The Loopie Tip With

Sissors....

One That Was About One And A Half Inches Across, Ripped Into Three....

Hope This Helps In Some Small Way...:sunny:



Cheers Glen.

 

Pain is an important part of the experience, RIP.

 

I'm not saying it's hard, but it's not overly effective. It's better than nothing though I guess

 

If you do it, and then nix the remaining few hairs with scisors, so they don't rebuild the web, it's VERY effective. But I wouldn't reccomend it until you've progressed a lot more, right now what's happening is just a part of your locks maturing, you won't have that kind of problem later.

Why the fuck does everyone rip FROM the root round here? I always ripped TOWARD the root, pulling the tips apart....I don't see the reverse working too well....

 

Ripping from the root is less painful and more successful in my opinion. I used to just pull things apart from the tips, but sometimes I ended up with a compact congo situation right at my scalp. Instead of just pulling harder, which probably would have worked and definitely would have hurt, I used my fingers to pull the base of each dread away from the other and then just ripped all the connecting hairs.

Neither technique is going to help the OP though since they don't want to 'damage' their hair in the hopes that they can comb out later... lolzors