Advice needed for cutting dreads

[calee]

Hi Everyone!
New here.  Hoping for advice.  My son has long dreads with afro kinky hair...since Kindergarten and he's in grade 11 now so they lie flat down and he wears them in a pony tail. I created the dreads and maintain them for him.  Now he wants me to cut them short.  We're going for a Harry Samba look like this... but I'm afraid of creating more of a Sideshow Bob look. 

Any advice on how to make them stand up like Samba's dreads?  Should I just cut the dreads off and go free form with a sponge?  Has anyone tried cutting long dreads short and been able to achieve a look like this? 

[Dreadlocktruth]

Hi. I'm afraid that most of the active members here have Caucasian hair type and so probably won't be able to offer any advice from experience. However, our Facebook group has a much wider base of users so you may have more luck asking there, if you have an account on the platform: www.facebook.com/groups/516666885181058

Best of luck!

[calee]

Thanks!  I'm going for it today!  Hoping for the best!  Hoping not to ruin 12 years of beautiful dreads.

[james]

You’ll do it fine. First cut a side trim as a micro undercut. See how it looks. Just behind the ears and down. A bit punk. Then decided if you trim it higher up. Make sure you are both ready. It’s chopping hair off. Then do the high cut if ya still fancy it. Which is just taking the back off the Mohawk.
But having lots of dreads is cool. Don’t trim if you can be happy being a ‘I don’t care dready’.