INGREDIENTS:
Creating a head full of synthetic dreadlocks involves the following: hair that is no less than 3 inches solidly all over your head, special string, and kanekalon fiber….OH, and for full heads….about 8 plus hours!

ATTACHING:
Most typically, I use a small section of your hair as an anchor for some loose kanekalon fiber; I administer a micro pinch braid to attach the fiber and some special string to secure it in place. The synthetic hair lies ON TOP of your natural hair. I separate your hair from the synth hair with a clip and I backcomb the synth hair and sculpt it into the likeness of a dreadlock. Then, I use a jiffy steamer with a specific wig attachment to seal the synth lock into a concrete structure. When it cools you will have a synthetic dreadlock attached to your natural hair via micro pinch braid…lock on top, natural hair underneath.

AMOUNT:
The average head of hair might support around 110 single ended locks, but this depends on characteristics of the wearer’s hair as well as desired density of the synthetic locks. Most people prefer the comfort and mobility of a penny and/or nickel sized attachment site, if you want bigger sections to anchor larger locks I can do that as well.

PRE-MADE:
I can also pre make several double ended synthetic dreads. Some people like these because the finer denier of each lock is so delicate and produces a more texture ambiguous effect. People aren’t sure if they are seeing dreads, or textured hair, or braids…these skinny doubles also move with more fluidity. Pre made dreads require me to actually pre make the dreads. This will take me upwards of 4 hours depending on what you want to achieve. Often I will use 90-120 skinny doubles on a whole head, so it’s the same weight and volume of hair as singles but instead of one lock per base, you will have two locks per base. The lock is still attached via micro pinch braid and the natural hair still sits beneath the synth lock. Again, extra natural hair means more synth dreads and more time. You will be in the salon for a much shorter time period with this method, even thought entirety takes longer than single ended protocol. It’s just another option.

TEXTURES:
Most kanekalon fiber is steam heat malleable. This means you can manipulate physical attributes when you apply direct steam as in using a steamer or indirect heat such as a hot tub, or sauna. I can create waves and spirals using a steamer and generally perm rods…or steaming braided sections. You can also adjust texture in your synth locks at home with the right equipment. To some extent the retexturing is stable, as in water alone can’t re structure a curl pattern in plastic. Since this creation is being worn on your person it is going to be influenced by several physical factors like steamy showers, hot gymnasiums, excessive humidity etc….…….

The curl or wave will also relax over time because of general living factors like the heat your body creates…..this cannot be controlled. It can however be re-done by you or in the salon. Straight dreads will also NOT stay pin straight, they will develop a bend similar to that of your natural hair. This is the behavior of kanekalon influenced by the forces of general existence on a human being.

DAY-TO-DAY:
Most wearers will experience better hair days with less effort! No need to shampoo, dry, style, product, gloss, back comb, iron…on and on and on…..Speaking from experience, you get up, your hair looks amazing and you start your day…to change it up, you tie some knots here, you place a twist there…incorporate hair sticks and clip on do dads…pig tails, pony tails…finally interesting!.WOW! Your hair can finally sport knick knacks without out falling over and sliding apart..Add on wired pendants, beads, clamps, crimps….whatever makes you feel amazing…Others will watch with envy as you grab two sections and tie a simple knot to get your amazing mop of hair out of your face….if you don’t like attention, this would NOT be the style for you. Day to day you need NO product or maintenance.

WEEK-TO-WEEK:
You might shampoo your scalp between 1 and 3 times per week. This depends on the individual. Some people work out more, sweat more, work in concrete…do pet rescue…enjoy getting their head wet. The idea is that you want to shampoo/immerse early in the day to allow your pinch braids to dry thoroughly before sleeping on them and you want to keep your hair dry more often than it is wet. Blow dryers are great, Bonnet dryers are also luxurious…..If you don’t want to get your dreads wet, just ponytail up high and perhaps use an oversized plastic shower cap. You should shampoo once or twice a month at least, I recommend that, but rinsing is also fine if you are soap opposed, I recommend doing something to move accrued skin cells and debris from your scalp. Shampooing with a non detergent shampoo infrequently is a good idea generally speaking. If you must shampoo or immerse before bed, wrap in a towel to control the friction that can tangle and matte your pinch braid attachments while you sleep.

MONTH-TO-MONTH:
Each month you will experience ½ to 1 inch of growth. Everyone is a little different. As new growth comes in, your pinch braid is going to remain intact exactly where it was placed, this is to say, the attachment site is going to grow away from your scalp at the rate your hair grows. Every day you shed some 100-200 hairs, while wearing extensions this shed hair remains intact between the scalp and the extension attachment. The combination of the new growth and shed hair can create a matting situation so, to avoid this matting you should gently separate the bases from each other once a month. With your thumbs and pointers you would simply pull each dread in the opposing direction of its neighbor. It should not hurt, you may not even feel there are any mattes to separate…Do it anyway, please keep your bases separated and avoid mattes.

REMOVE OR MAINTAIN:
Somewhere between 8 weeks and 16 weeks a synth dread wearer is going to need to make a big decision – Go back to natural hair or carry on with synthetic dreads? Cost, comfort, time, can all act as determining factors to make your choice. Finer more cottony textured hair is going to begin matting concretely after 8 weeks where as glassy course hair is going to withstand permanent locking for as much as 16 weeks …..Most average wearers find somewhere around 10-12 weeks for basic maintenance is necessary. To remove and take down, the string gets snipped…carefully…the braid is undone, and the accrued shedding is gently combed out of the natural hair section..YES, you can ask a trusted someone to do this, You should feel confident they are qualified and be prepared to live with whatever repercussions…..I can do a takedown in about an hour if you followed all the instructions with separating and did NOT over wear your extensions as to concretely solidify mini dreadlocks….I charge an hourly rate for take down and I will offer you a shampoo and simple blow dry, time permitting, included in the take down. You will be charged for additional time necessary to take down.

If you want to maintain your big hair status, you would be charged an hourly rate to have me cut strings, take out braids, remove shed and then reattach each pinch braid and secure with new string. It takes extra time to curl, wave, or reseal a synth dread. If you followed the suggestions and did not over wear your extensions I can easily tighten 25 or more synth dread extensions an hour. An average tightening is 4 hours. Curling/waving/sealing a whole head of synth dreads easily takes an hour. Book accordingly. Sealing isn’t necessary but some people like them steamed at each maintenance, it is natural for the kanekalon to “loft” up a bit…if you really need your synth dreads to be taught and smooth, you can add on an extra hour to steam them.

You can wear the same synthetic dread indefinitely with regular maintenance with NO harm or compromise to your natural hair. This is a great way to grow out hair that has been in between lengths for some time or a great way to add volume and texture to perpetually flat hair. This is also a great way to begin natural dreads non invasively.

SYNTH-INTO-NATURAL LOCKS:
YES, you can begin natural dreadlocks by starting with synthetic dreadlocks! IT is NOT easy…IT is NOT concrete, IT is NOT fast…..IT is non invasive to the scalp and non corruptive to the hair fiber…. After your synth locks are in place you begin the process like any other synth dread wearer, separate once a month, keep them dry…etc…..The difference is that instead of removing after 8-16 weeks I would EITHER tie each base with string or tighten the synth dread back up to the scalp without combing out the accrued shedding. The shed tangles with the hair attached to your scalp and forms a natural lock start over the course of 6 months give or take….After about 12 months of wear and maintenance you would have between 6 and 12 inches of new growth. The new growth would be locked into dreads quite statically, and the tail ends would be loose and silky because they would have remained outside of the pinch braid during the locks’ formation. These loose ends can be cut off, left on, or crocheted into the cylindrical likeness of their corresponding lock. *note* Crocheting takes a lot of time generally speaking, and service cost and time would vary per individual. Once your locks are formed, they are yours to keep and maintain how you will. See general lock maintenance and care on my site as well as other services for filling and lengthening natural locks.

CAMOFLAGING YOUR NATURAL HAIR:As I said, I braid the synthetic hair on top of your natural hair. I can’t remove your hair from the picture, so instead I camouflage it. I do this by basing your color choices to match your natural hair’s color. If you want a rainbow of colors on top of your natural hair which might be brown, you can have that, but allow me to also use enough synthetic base color in the arrangement to provide a very organic fashioned product. Another element of disguise is texture, If you have curly hair to begin with, plan to have your dreads curled, matching textures the most exotic arrangements provide a remarkably effective cohesion. Finally, length…you can’t have shoulder length hair, and only about 20 waist length dreads and have it look the least bit authentic, unless you have a plan that I don’t know about….and some folks do…but most wearers think they can just add a little bit of length and have the entire effect be “long hair”….it’s typically just going to look un planned and un finished and like an afterthought. If you aren’t going long all over, you really need to have singles be the same length as your natural hair.

TINTING WHILE WEARING:
You can maintain your color quite easily all the while you wear synthetic dreads. They typically won’t grab and hold onto a color unless the synth is white or pastel and the color is direct dye or black…..even then, it’s plastic, the synth dread probably isn’t going to hold a stain for very long. Other than that, your color protocol needn’t change much.

DRAWBACKS:
read em up folks... There are two sides to everything……Synthetic fiber can be heavy and cumbersome in large quantities, it can be hot in the summer and itchy to your skin, it is more difficult to dry than your natural hair. NEW extensions can cause “tension bumps” which may occur within 10 days of new extensions and go away on their own if you leave them be. Use peppermint spray and sea plasma spray to cool and moisturize your scalp during the adjustment to new extensions. These services can be expensive and time consuming and the maintenance can also be expensive and time consuming. It can be irritating having someone tugging your hair, being a LOUD salon for hours can be agitating. YOU must prepare yourself accordingly and take responsibility for all that this event will entail. If you choose a full day project you need to come prepared to deal with loud music, annoying people, chemical odors, hunger and thirst. It has been my experience that humans become hungry and thirsty throughout the course of the day…PLEASE PLAN! If you have blood sugar issues make sure you have plenty of snacks/meds. You should always come with ample water that can be conveniently located by your side. Have cash ready if you need to run and pick up food or coffee. Have entertainment with you like magazines, books, and ipods. Dress comfortably; don’t make plans to meet friends for the exact time I predict we will be done. You are going to be tired at the end of the service and for a big overhaul, I can only vaguely predict based on LOTS of past projects…but every head is different and I am no Nostradamus… it’s your hair, make plans to NOT cut me short of time.

WAIVERS AND SUCH:
Most of the waiver info is in the waiver signage section on this site, along with securing appointments, and credit cards, and such. You will be required to sign a waiver that you understand what you are doing before you receive this service. If you aren’t 18, someone that is 18 or older and is a legal guardian needs to sign it. SO, do your homework and be an informed consumer!