The best way to tighten them is to palm roll them. Palm rolling has amazing affects.

The best way is to put a bead over the lump and take it off in two months.

Conditioner will always lubricate the hairs and loosen the dreds, because that's what it's supposed to do.

Of course you can wash dreads, actually dreads tighten faster when they are clean, so the more you wash the tighter your dreads will become.

You should make a habit of washing your dreadlocks every 3 days, but really, you can wash them as often as you like, but you should wash them at least once a week.