About to start Dreads and need to know if i can use synthetic hair to mix in with my real hair to make my dreads longer ?

Hi so basically the title says it all . I have medium length hair and i am goinf to do a diamond section part and i want to know if i can mix synthetic hair with my real hair and dread it up together so that in the end result my dreads will be longer and a friend of mine says that the sythetic hair locks faster and it would give me thickness as well and the lenght that I want. Please tell me your thoughts I am planning to do this in the next few days

Thanks

Icey

updated by @icelena-singer: 01/13/15 09:52:08PM

it wont dread faster but they will feel fake and u will have less of a connection to them

i wouldnt bother doimg doiamond sections nor backcomb either though

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Sure you can do it. That works. As for locking faster, I'm not sure.

I do agree with the original response poster, don't bother with diamond shape. That won't last over time because of loose hair and then scratching and all this. Get a nice square shape and run with it. A few of women of color have done the synthetic to locked look. They mainly do it, not for length but to avoid the "messy" period the loc goes through at times. So when they do cut off the ends they would have a established locs from the braided or twisted insynthetichair. I do know, that wearing synthetic hair after 3 months hair can loc -- but I am of African descent so I'm speaking from our relative hair type that within synthetic we loc with the synthetic during 3 months. But my hair matts up within a month so. I figured that depends on hair texture.

I would not suggest synthetic hair, if human hair is a possibility...

1. You have to start over completely if you want a new haircolor.

2. Some people (myself incl.) get weird acne on the back from synthetic hair. (seriously dont ask me why, it's freaky). Would suck to do all this work and end up with that.

3. It's will not be reacting to products, time and so on like your own hair, which could be a real pain after some time. Imagine having the first half of the dreads looking awesome, and then the lower part looking completely different :-S

I know synthetic hair is cheaper, than human hair, but maybe do as I did, and just ask around if any of your friends have old extensions lying around, that they know they wont be using again. You would be surprised to know how many girls keep it, and are happy to see it being used for something good. The older and more ruined the hair is, the better it dreads I have 50 cm of extension dreads and paid nothing for the hair. (I had some myself, but most of it I got from friends)

If you want the possibility of dying the hair, try getting blonde hair, and use hair dye in your own color. I learned this the hard way. The dye they use on the extensions at the factory, is not normal hair dye and some of it can not be bleached even after lying in bleach until it fell apart. When I wanted to go blonde, I all of a sudden had 18 ugly brown thingies hanging in my hair, that I had to replace, which was shitloads of work... Just happy that I only used dark hair for those, if it had been all 80 I would have died a little inside...

I added my length in two rounds. One in january while I was making the dreads, which gave me a typical little longer than shoulder lenght. The rest I added a few weeks ago. The reason is that your head needs time to get used to the weight. I've heard about girls who had hair falling out, red dots all over the scalp and so on. Further more even 100 gr of extra hair will make your head feel heavy.

As for the method, I tryed some different ones, until I found what worked best for me.

BTW I fucking love my very very extended locks! I mention this, because everytime someone tries asking about things regarding dreadlock extensions, someone comes roaring in to "save" the day, with comments about how wrong it is to have extensions, which is in good heart, I know that, but unfortunately, it means that people like me, don't feel welcome in here. In the last five months I've only felt judged for my hair once and that was when I tried to join this community. As many others (I later realised from other forums around the web, which unfortunately are so much smaller than this one) I just left, with no intention of returning, but EVERY time I try googling a question on my hair, this page is what comes up. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that half the time the answer to peoples questions are not really being answered because it is oh so important to point out that extensions are baaad and probably also because people who like their extensions, either doesn't use this forum or maybe aren't the types who like disagreeing with the top dog...

Today I guess I kinda snapped, because hating online like this, is really not my style, I just needed to get this crap out there, to be honest it has been eating at me for this whole time, because it was my only bad experience with dreads and really made me feel sad at that time :-/

Okay, so here is a question. I will start off by saying I've never done extensions in my lifetime. To me, synthetic hair is synthetic hair, have you ever seen a barbie doll' hair after months of play? Does not look the same at all, ratty in fact. Why don't you go to your local hair salon and ask them for long cut hair from someone else. Give that a good washing and you can make your own extensions. If I were going to do it, which I never would, I would rather wear real hair instead of plastic hair.....Peace

and lets not forget

hair extends itself

irs called growing

and when it grows that added weight of fake dreads will just feel like a burdon and not worth having

the real dreads u grew yourself may also feel like a weight to bear and a burdon but you grew them your attacj=hed to rhen so gladly bare the weight with pro=ide

but the extentios ..arenmt a part of you they are someone elses burdon they parted with ..discarded

and hair holds energy..you dont know whos hair they were u ciould be carying around a rapists energy

not anything id want on my head for sure

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Did you know that Jodi Arias, who killed her ex boyfriend is on death row donates her hair for wigs. She stabbed him 29 times, slit his throat from ear to ear and shot him in the brain. How would anyone like to wear her hair....bad vibes, bad karma.....so I guess you would have to know the person whose hair you'd be wearing..

Ok for a start - I wouldn't use human hair, for the above reasons of them carrying another random persons energy.
(Although I do know of people who have added a little of a best friends hair into their dreads, which I think is quite nice )
I know people who have extended their dreads with synthetic dreads by chopping of the end of their real dread and crocheting the synthetic one onto the end - I really wouldn't do this either as it can get messy and will almost definitely come out over time. Plus your damaging your dreads while doing this. I've seen the results of this and it's not a pretty sight.

Something which I do is add synthetic dreads to my fringe if I want to play around with a bit of colour in my hair, It's very easy with no damage to your dreads or your hair. You just braid them in and take them out whenever you like. So completely non invasive, but this only works if you've got loose hair like I have at the front/fringe.
Also there's a way of attaching Single Ended synthetic dreads to the top of your dreads which doesn't interfere with the dreads at all, Single Ended dreads have a loop in the top, you just loop the dread through the top of the single ended dread and pull it through (in much the same way as you'd attach a bead or sleeve to a dread) but you want to make sure the synth dread is light weight and preferably thin so it doesn't pull too much. And I'd only recommend this for short term wear.

There are a lot of different ways of attaching synthetic dreads to real dreads, and most of them are pretty damaging apart from the method of looping a single ended dread over your natural dread
Hope this helps a bit

Take care
Peace n' love
xxx

TineR said:

BTW I fucking love my very very extended locks! I mention this, because everytime someone tries asking about things regarding dreadlock extensions, someone comes roaring in to "save" the day, with comments about how wrong it is to have extensions, which is in good heart, I know that, but unfortunately, it means that people like me, don't feel welcome in here. In the last five months I've only felt judged for my hair once and that was when I tried to join this community. As many others (I later realised from other forums around the web, which unfortunately are so much smaller than this one) I just left, with no intention of returning, but EVERY time I try googling a question on my hair, this page is what comes up. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that half the time the answer to peoples questions are not really being answered because it is oh so important to point out that extensions are baaad and probably also because people who like their extensions, either doesn't use this forum or maybe aren't the types who like disagreeing with the top dog...

Today I guess I kinda snapped, because hating online like this, is really not my style, I just needed to get this crap out there, to be honest it has been eating at me for this whole time, because it was my only bad experience with dreads and really made me feel sad at that time :-/

My friend - if you want synthetic locks added to your real ones that's totally your choice and no one should judge or scrutinise you.
I do love this site, and love the fact people take their time out to help and advise others, and I try to where I can as well..
But:
At the end of the day, our hair is temporary just like the whole of our material self is temporary, it's what we carry within us which matters, and the actions we carry out, and the energy we pass on to others.
Just because someone's locks have developed naturally does not mean that they are more spiritual or in any way better than anyone else, it's a personal decision.
Spirituality and humanity comes from within, from the soul, and looking down on others for the way in which they choose to wear their hair is the BIGGEST hypocrisy.
To live free is to exercise choice, and peace is to love and respect others.

Peace, love, and stay strong.
xxxx

Those extensions to have fun with do sound very non evasive i the way they are attached. If it just loops on, then have fun with them, they won't interfere with your dreading process at all. When I first posted to use human hair, I never thought of negative energy coming from them. so for that I was wrong. If the person whose head it came from is not known (like a friend), then yeah, who knows what karma comes with it. Good point!

I had previously started an extensions group for members to help each other and give tips how to do it. http://www.dreadlockssite.com/group/extenstions-group There are only two members so far, but slowly it will grow. When you put yours in, make a posting on there to give your tips to others.