I had dreadlocks for a few years, and let me share with you some knowledge I gained:
1. Wash them thoroughly. And not only wash them, but rinse them thoroughly as well. Make sure when you leave the shower, that there is nothing except water in your dreads, and then dry them thoroughly with a hair dryer, otherwise you're gonna have a bad time.
2. Try to get into the habit of twisting them up all the time. Grab the end of one and poke it out from in between your two fingers and with the other hand, rub it gently in a circle against your first hand. Do that with the middle, but have the dreadlock going through the fingers of both hands. And do it with the base against your head. The trick is to do it gently, otherwise you'll break the hairs, and you're gonna have a bad time.
3. If you put anything like beeswax or whatever in them when you started, to try and hold them together, them make sure it comes out. I never did that (partly because mine were really thick, and getting wax out of the middle of them was basically impossible). Made them really dirty, and not cool, and I had a bad time.