How long am I going to have to separate the knots?

Neglect method, just startin' out.

I really could/should separate my knots every day, but I do it closer to weekly...if that. How long is this phase? Like months upon months? What happens if I don't separate? Will I really get just a few big dreads, or will I just have a lot of messy dreads?

 

Are you talking about separating them at the base, so they don't grow together? If so, forever. You can probably let it go on it's own for a little while now, though. They have so much condensing and shortening to do, it really takes a lot of hair to make a totally thick dread.

 

I've been letting my hair naturally dread for about about 9 months now, and a few months ago i stopped separating them and haven't had to since. they are totally separated at the roots, and haven't even tried to join at all. It might be because I have super thin, and mostly straight hair though.
I only had to separate them for like the first 5 months or so. After that they stayed separated.
This is my second set of dreads, and my first set was pretty much the same way. I never ever had to separate them after the first 5 months. I think it depends on your hair type.