Well, my 25 year old son has dreads. He uses Dreadhead product in his hair. He has really thick hair that is wavy. He went to a dread-y stylist who first permed his hair and then dreaded it. For the first few months he went back every 4-6 weeks to have her split apart the conjoined dreads and knot them up at the scalp and back comb. He has dreads now for a couple of years and hasn't gone to the stylist in ages. The dreads are at the middle of his back~ some are fatty ones and others are just chunky! I love him in dreads; looks really good. In fact, he has the same facial structure as Bob Marley and so get the "you look so much like bob" all the time. He's a cool kid. He's got cool dreads. I'm a lucky mom!!!
Edit: I forgot to add that braiding your hair isn't exactly the way to do it and depending on your hair type you could go with Brasilian dreads, African dreads, Jamaican dreads....