Dreadlock question? :)

Jan 31, 2014

Gen S.

It really depends on the method that you use, you can create them with your own hair, or buy synthetic hair and roll it up, as for damaging your hair, I'm not too sure, if you do decide to use the synthetic hair, you can simply braid it with your hair and make it look natural. There are however different methods of installing dreads.

Jan 31, 2014

Leamsy R.

I know there's definitely ways of removing them it just seems like an annoying process lol.

Jan 31, 2014

Delight s.

@Shelby how are you just a little education... when the British saw the Jamaican's locks and said "they look dreadful" it was an insult.. that's way Jamaicans call them locks.

Jan 31, 2014

Delight s.

Dread-locks vs locks ;)

Jan 31, 2014

Delight s.

Yea just locks I didn't know until a Jamaican told me.

Jan 31, 2014

Delight s.

I like them to but scared.. you got to cut your hair off to get them out.

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

Hey :)
I don't think your a creep Megan :) lol
Those are actually fake dreadlocks with my own hair. They come out in the shower :)

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

I can't have my hair in actual dreads because of the work I do. But I am in love with dreads.

The picture that Megan posted. All I used to be get he look is hairspray, straightener, and a string comb.
Here is how you do it.
1. Take a small section of hair that you want to be one fake dreadlock. Do a little bit of combing back/teasing on the hair. Spray with hair spray.
2. After spray with hair spray. Twist the hair. Not too tight but not too loose. To the comb and stick it into the twist a couple of times and push up. Kinda like a back Comb. The hairspray.
3. Take the straighter and go down the fake dread you just made. As many times as you like. Also it helps to twist the straightener as you go down in the direction the twist is going.

I hope this made sense.

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

Strong comb*^

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

Your welcome :)
Please tell me the results when you do it and I would love to see a picture :)
If you ever have any questions just ask :)

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

Just so you know with this method it is really hair to get the dread to the roots. As in the picture none of them are to my root. I don't want it that way for me since I don't think it would look good.
But texture cream might help get the dread closer to the root if that is what you are going for. Just after the last hair spray also put some texture cream on. Haven't tried it myself but just an idea that might work if you want to try it.

Jan 31, 2014

Kat A.

Good post, Shelby! I wanna try temporary locks too. I love how they look :)

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

It is really hard, not hair lol

I can't seem to type lol

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

I can't wait to see them Shelby :)

That's awesome Lili :D

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

Since beautylish does not have any tutorials on dreadlock I could make one for this look if you girls would like.
I want to do this look soon anyway for a music video :)

Jan 31, 2014

Kat A.

yes! tutorial! lol

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

When I do make a tutorial girl I will make sure to post it to both of you :)

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

Girls, not girl

Jan 31, 2014

Kat A.

thanks, Shannon! :)

Jan 31, 2014

MaKenzie T.

Umm. I don't know if it is true, my uncle had them and told me the only way to successfully get rid of them as to shave your head.

Jan 31, 2014

Samantha S.

I think the picture you posted are true her hair locks... The synthetic ones tend to not look as perfect. Synthetic you don't have to shave your head, if you use your real hair you will have to

Jan 31, 2014

Shannon B.

They are not the true dreadlocks in my hair if that is what you are talking about. The thing that makes dreadlocks is the back combing of the hair. The ones I did, I only did a little bitdo only so they are able to come out in the show. But to keep them for the day you need to hairspray them and a straightener. Real dreads you don't need hairspray and a straighter at all to make.

You can get actual dreadlocks out. It is really hard though. It take basically a whole day. You have to cut the tips off of each dreadlock, soak your hair in conditioner for a certain amount of time, then get a really strong wide tooth comb and and start combing from the bottom. It's easier to get a friend to help you comb out the dread. It takes pretty much a day to do or longer!

Jan 31, 2014

Taylor G.

You would look awesome I love them!

Jan 31, 2014

Natalie T.

You can buy/make synthetic dreadlocks! I wrote this out for Shannon when she first asked about them, here's the info I gave her and hopefully it will help you too!

I can definitely help you make some synthetic dreadlocks =) It may be hard to explain, so I'll link some great YouTube videos at the bottom of this comment for ya. You can definitely buy full sets of synthetic dreads if you wanted to, but those usually run around $100 (give or take), but I didn't do too much research on it, so I'm sure you can find better deals, I just didn't look very hard. Making them cost me about $30 for the Kanekalon fiber for the hair and I had TONS left over... the process is very time consuming and tiring, but its cheaper and its pretty fun! I love getting crafty though, so I didn't mind. I spent about 5-10 hours on my dreads a day for about 3 days.
Here's the link to the Doctored Locks Kanekalon Fiber that I bought: http://www.doctoredlocks.com/product/Kanekalon-Jumbo-Braid-Products
I forget how many I purchased and how many I used, but they should be able to help you figure out or recommend how much to use in the YouTube videos I posted. I think I bought way too many, but they're so cheap ($2.55 per package/braid) and they give you a discount if you buy a certain amount... I think I bought maybe 10 packages and still have a bunch left over.

Supplies:
-Lots of synthetic kanekalon fiber "hair"
-Teasing comb
-Heating Device (more info below)
-Spray bottle for water
-Small hair elastic bands that match your hair (I used clear ones from CVS)
-Bowl of water
-Towel or rag to dip in water
-Patience =P


How It Works:
You will be using synthetic Kanekalon fiber, which will melt easily and look like dreads when done so properly. There are other synthetic fibers that can be used, but Kanekalon is recommended because it is the easiest to use and manipulate in the synthetic dread making process. You will tease the "hair" to create an entirely knotty base, then twist the hair into a dread like formation, and seal the shape with hot steam. It sounds kind of basic and like it may not look so great, but they actually turn out really awesome from such a simple process!

Methods:
You need to "steam seal" each dread you are going to make. You can do this a variety of ways. I personally used the "flat iron method" of steam sealing because it was the most readily available method for me. The way I've seen most recommended is by using a steamer: many people on YouTube doing tutorials used a hand held fabric steamer, but it is recommended to use a professional steamer made especially for wig making (but who really has one of those anyways!?). There are also methods that include boiling the dreads and ironing them to create a steam seal. I personally tried ironing them, but didn't have much control over them, so I switched to the flat iron method, and boiling them seems complicated and less effective than other methods.

Directions (for double ended dreads) with the Flat Iron Method that I Used:
-Take your Kanekalon fiber and separate a small piece. You will have to do some experimenting with the amount of hair you want and how thick you want your dreads to be. Take more than you would think you need because you want it to be a really "solid" sturdy dreadlock and the more hair used, the better.
-Take the fiber you separated and hang it on a hook of some sort so its folded in half draped over the hook. I just used a giant binder clip I clipped to my desk drawer. This will make more sense if you watch the videos (they will show you how to make a nice "dread loom" set up if you would like to).
-Tease the hair from ends down to the "root" at the middle of the dreadlock where its draped in half over the hook. Make sure its really solid and well teased. Feel to make sure it has almost the same denseness throughout the entire length.
-Repeat with the opposite side of the fiber hanging on the hook
-Twist the teased hair all the way down, it will start looking a lot more like a dreadlock at this point
-Spray the hair with water from your water bottle. That is what is recommended, but I just used a bowl of water and a wet towel and saturated the entire dread with water from the towel by constantly squeezing the towel up and down the dread as I "sealed" it. You want to keep the dread wet (but not soaking) so it doesn't singe or melt, but heat seals.
-Take your flat iron and clamp down at the top of the dreadlock and use a twisting motion as you press down. This will help form the dreadlock. If you just ran the straightener down the dreadlock, it would come out flat, so you want to use the twisting, rotating method so you can form a nice rounded dreadlock.
-Continue on other side of the dread
-Repeat with next piece of Kanekalon hair

Installation (Double Ended Dreads):
*The smaller the piece of your hair you start with, the better*
-(I started from the bottom) Tie up all of your hair, just leaving a small layer at the bottom to start working with
-Section off a piece of your hair in which you will braid the dread into
-Clip one side of the dread up and away from the length of your hair (there should be a "bend" in it from where you folded it over the hook when making it).
-Split the tiny section (of your hair) in two pieces and start braiding it with the dreadlock as the third strand of hair.
-When you get to the end of your real hair, start adding rubber bands-tie off your hair with the band
-If there are frayed ends of hair poking out, just go in with a rubber band and wrap it around those ends so they are tucked underneath the band
-Unclip the top half of your dreadlock and voilá! you have installed a double ended dread.

Hair Care:
-Since I didn't keep mine in for a long period of time, I am not too sure about how to care for them, but I'm sure the Doctored Locks site or YouTube may have some great methods for taking care of synthetic dreads. You can get them wet and shower with them! The only issue may be them "sliding" down your hair shaft or becoming heavy on your real hair. Since your real hair is the most delicate when its wet, the weight of the dreadlocks on your wet, delicate hair should be taken into consideration and dealt with carefully until your hair is dry again. But have no fear, you can shampoo your scalp, I don't think that you would really need to condition your hair. Still, I didn't deal with this myself, so I definitely recommend looking up some blogs or YouTube videos on Synthetic Dread Maintenance and Cleaning.

YouTube Videos:
Here is the whole page of everything Doctored Locks has put out about making and installing synthetic dreads... it is everything you need to know! I recommend watching all of the videos (even if they sound like they don't apply to you) because you will understand the whole process a lot more.. I know I certainly did! =) Most of them are pretty short, so its not a waste of time
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvKOrkh66Zhfkmy5f9fYaOCEsoRtxqgah

Dreadloom/workspace Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_U0UZqhuqg&feature=share&list=PLvKOrkh66Zhfkmy5f9fYaOCEsoRtxqgah
Single Ended vs Double Ended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGCevRF-5I8&feature=share&list=PLvKOrkh66Zhfkmy5f9fYaOCEsoRtxqgah&index=7
Double Ended Dread Making: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enGc7VF9VpE&feature=share&list=PLvKOrkh66Zhfkmy5f9fYaOCEsoRtxqgah&index=2
Single Ended Dreadlocks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoIZLIXH0xI&feature=share&list=PLvKOrkh66Zhfkmy5f9fYaOCEsoRtxqgah&index=1
Backcombing and teasing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRClD0UThbM&feature=share&list=PLvKOrkh66Zhfkmy5f9fYaOCEsoRtxqgah&index=10
Sealing with a Flat Iron (there are other methods listed in their Synthetic Dread YouTube Video Section): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4hxPksahF0&feature=share&list=PLvKOrkh66Zhfkmy5f9fYaOCEsoRtxqgah&index=18
Installing Double Ended Dreads:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca0ECeC2KJ8&feature=share&list=PLvKOrkh66Zhfkmy5f9fYaOCEsoRtxqgah&index=38
Installing Single Ended Dreads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBxlrp-z-dI&feature=share&list=PLvKOrkh66Zhfkmy5f9fYaOCEsoRtxqgah&index=34

Jan 31, 2014

Natalie T.

Oh and I made dreads this way and only wore them for one day, halloween, so they are definitely temporary! It didn't take a long time to install them or take them out, it's definitely do-able for a season! But they do last long enough, so they can be low maintenance too =)