The possibilities for doing something nifty with your dreads are endless - your imagination is really the only limit...

Less talk, more rock – let’s get down on it, dreadstyles!

General How-To - Our first tip is to be creative. Go through your jewelry boxes, drawers, tickle trunks, hit a thrift store or two, or go rummage around in your siblings’ stuff. Your mission is to find lots of different things that could potentially work to make your dreads really shine. You can literally put anything in your hair, if you do it tastefully! Here are some things to look for:

- elastics and stretchy things of all shapes and sizes

- long strips of fabric

- sashes from dresses, scarves, thin belts

- dreadbands

- necklaces, strings of shells, pearls, etc

- pendants, charms and coils

- sea shells, feathers, grasses, twigs

- flowers

- ribbon

- barrettes

- lengths of flexible plastic, ie. Rexlace

- beads

- anything else that you can think of that might work or look cool

Now that you've finished your little scavenger hunt, let's get to the hair styles. Before your start though, bear in mind that even though you've gathered up a ton of stuff with which to adorn your dreads - less is more. You don't want to look like you're hosting a garage sale up there!

Below are a few 'do's you can try, but remember, these are simply base-styles - you can add or modify as you see fit. As always, whatever works for you is best!

French-Draids - Well, in the pic, I have two ‘french draids’, but this style can be equally fabulous with one draid right up the back. For the two draids, flip your head down so that your dreads are upside-down, swinging freely. Separate your dreads into two halves, and fasten one side with an elastic to keep them out of the way. Now, with the freely swingin’ side, start at the bottom nape of you neck. Begin French-braiding your dreads upside-down, going towards the top of you head.

When you get to the top of your head, or wherever you want to stop the ‘draid’, grab a loose dread on each side of the draid, and tie the draid in place using the ‘Criss-Cross’ knot. Repeat this process with the other side, stopping the draid at the same spot that you did the other side. Play around with the loose dreads on top… pull some of them back so that they’re hanging between the two draids, and just play around with them until you find a way they fall that looks good, and suits you.

Lock-Hawk - This is a punk-rock version of the ‘favorite-of-the-stars’ hairstyle the ‘bouffant’. Also called, and I prefer this term, the ‘pompadour’ (I try to work the word ‘pompadour’ into my day-to-day conversations as much as possible). Enough about pompadours and bouffants… on to the ‘Lock-Hawk’. Start at the top-front of your head, gathering up all your drangs (dread bangs), and all the dreads bordering your face, plus a few going a bit back. Play around with the amount you grab here, as the more you grab, the larger your pompadour will be… I prefer a sizable pompadour, but pompadour size is purely your own pompadour preference. Now, with the gathered dreads, pull them all straight up, so that they are all taunt and in the air… begin twisting them… not too tight, not too loose. Lay the twisted dreads down on your head, pointing back. To get a ‘poufier’ pompadour, sort of push the twist forward, and loosen it up, holding it in place at the top of your head. To hold the pompadour in place, grab a loose dread on either side of the point where you want the pompadour fastened. Use these dreads to tie the pompadour down in place, at the point where you’ve been holding it in place (use the simple criss-cross tie that you start the shoe-tying process off with… we’ll call it the ‘Criss-Cross’ out of homage to the early 90’s dynamic rapping duo… it may not seem like enough, but you’d be surprised by the hold of this tried and true little knot!).

Now, the next part of this style is fairly straight-forward. Grab a few loose dreads on either side of the top of the trailing pompadour (right next to where it is fastened down), and tie them together using the ‘Criss-Cross’ knot again. Now move down to the next loose dreads, and repeat the criss-cross tying, only this time, ‘Cross-Criss’(flip the opposite bunch of dreads under during the tying process so that you are alternating the ‘sticky-outy’ side, and making a more even Lock-Hawk. Continue going down the hawk Criss-Crossing and Cross-Crissing your way to the end, when there is no more loose hair. You now have a Lock-Hawk (hopefully)! If you don’t, I apologize for my poor instructions…

Natty Twist - This elegant and easy ‘do is a great way to look sharp in a heart-beat! Begin by simply divide your dreads into two equal halves, parting straight down the middle. Wrap and elastic band around one half to keep it out of the way, then begin twisting the other half. Start at the front of the part, at the top of your forehead. Gather up the dreads that make up your ‘bangs’, and begin twisting them back towards the back of your head, twisting clockwise (one the left side of your head, or counter-clockwise on the right side of your head), or ‘in’, towards your scalp. Try to make the twist not ‘tight’, but ‘firm. As you go down your hairline, towards the back of the head, add in more and more dreads as you go, so that by the time you’re at the back, they’ve all found a place in the ever-growing twist.

Now, when you start on the next side, you either need to be skilled, and be able to hold the existing twist with one hand, and do the next side using only one hand (that’s why they call me the ‘Champ’), or have a friend hold the existing twist to avoid it un-raveling. When both sides are complete, use as elastic (a big one!) to fasten the two ‘tails’ of the twists into a bun at the back of your head.

Fancy Pile-Up - Knotty Erin sent us these pretty pictures of this simple, classy up-do. She says:

”Take three or four dreads at a time, more or less depending on how thick they are, and wind them into a loose bun on your head then strap them down with clear elastics. You don't want to twist the hair much because then the bun sticks up quite high on your head, you want the buns to be quite flat. Do this over your entire head making sure that the buns are quite squished together. For the top of your head, make sure you use a couple dreads from the top with one or two from further back on your head. This way, when you twist the bun it will actually sit tightly on the back of your head rather than being able to flop around because it's not attached to anything futher back. Unless of course you want buns on the top, then by all means.
Once you have all of your dreads in buns take a look at the back of your head with a mirror. If you've done it right and the buns are close enough together then you should have a mass of what looks like intertwining dreads and not individual buns. If there are gaps then just take more clear elastics and strap two or more buns together so that they're all tightly squashed against each other on the back of your head. For extra fancyness you can attach ribbons or yarn or whatever you want really when you're putting all the buns in. “

Crazy Octopus! Teehee- this wasn’t the name it came with, but we think it suits J  Knotty Wendy sent us the details on this cute do:
“Basically, you gather all of your hair into a bunch like you're going to put it in a ponytail.  Instead of wrapping the hair tie al the way around, keep the hair doubled so it's kind of like a bun.  Then, when it's like that, pull it through again and sort of just snap the elastic on. 
It should be done in one quick motion and is great for semi-mature dreads.”

Pretty Prom

Knotty Hazel sent us these gorgeous pics of her Maid Marian-esque Prom hair:
“For this hairstyle, pull in dreads from the side of your head and tie them back with a small band. The paper flowers came from a local craft shop.  They should cost about £1 a bunch.  The flower stalks are made of wire so they were easy to attach.  Bend the stalks into loops and make a sort of daisy chain out of them to make them into a crown.
Then hold them in place using hair grips. You can add some others around the
ponytail by simply twisting them in. “

Knotty Krrrristin

“I had my grad/prom whatever last year! My dreads were SUPER curly on top and everything, until {DUN DUN DUN} the stupid grad cap I had to wear for 2 hours smooshed my hair.

I got my dreads in the beginning of February 2004, and my grad was May 2004. (So my dreads were still brand new, therefore not all that thick.) To get curled dreads, you use a curling iron, I know I know, simple. But there is a catch -- the dreads are too heavy to hold the curl until cooled! So, the trick is to get bobby pins, lots of them. You curl one dread at a time, 1 minute or less each. Slide the dread off the curling iron, gather the ringlets, and pin them to your head. (Like a coil, or slinky!) Move on to the next dread, and follow the same process. Leave the dread coil pinned up for at least 5 minutes, because it has to cool, otherwise it won't hold the curl. Then, you have to spray your hair with hair spray, strong hold stuff, to make sure the curls last as long as they can. Mine were super awesome until I had to wear the damn grad cap!! They held on into the evening, though, as you can see in the picture I sent… Oh and then, you can spray in glitter or whatever to make it look all snazzy, that's what I did. It’s kind of hard to explain, but I hope you got the gist of it. Knotty boy rules! Keep on rockin'!"

Dread Bunches - This is a fairly simple ‘do for both girls and guys, and is SUPER cute. (Boys can substitute cool bands or fabric for the ribbon.)

To begin, part your dreads down the middle, or to the side if that suits you better. Lift one side up to the height you want it and holding it firmly in place, wrap an elastic around the bunch until it feels secure. Do the same to the other side - try to make sure they are even and not all lop-sided and wonky! Remember Red from the Fraggles? That’s what you’re shooting for! You can also pull each bunch part-way through the elastic to create more puffy bunches, keeping the ends tucked in.

In the pictures we took, we added green ribbon by simply tying it around each bunch. We also took a threaded necklace and wore it as a tiara to add a little fairy magik to it. This was just our version, but you can do many other things using dread bunches such as adding beads, bobbles, flowers or wrapping them up in fabric.

A great variation of this is wrapping the hair around the base of the bunch until you get something like this (think Sailor Moon)...

Dread Buns – Okay, so Jervais here may look more like Sailor Moon’s cute evil twin, but you get the point! Moving on - once you've wrapped it around the bottom of the pigtail, wrap an elastic or two around the base of the bun to secure it. You can add in flowers to the buns or ribbon or pull a few dreads out to get that neat-o dangly effect.

Next! How could we not include the ever famous Bjork buns!? This 'do' may not work so well for those of you with super firm dreads - your dreads need to be a little bendy to pull this one off. How do you do it? For some Big Time Dreaduality, grab 3 - 4 dreads (depending on the size you want the buns) and twist them around until they are nice and tight, slap an elastic or two over it and, presto-chango, you have a bun! Repeat until your whole head is done.

As you can see, we were digging feathers the night we took these pics so they've been added to the front, then looped strings of sequins around the buns to create that Midsummer Night's Dread effect. You can change it up by wrapping ribbons, string or grasses around them, or you just add cool elastics. Give it a try, see what you can come up with! Very cute on boys, too!

Dread Pony - Another one that can have many variations is the simple pony-tail. You can leave it loose, or pull all your dreads up into a pony tail and pull the bunch half-way through the elastic, again creating a puffy bunch of dreads. Leave as is or pull out a dread or two on the top of it to create some movement (see the picture below)!

As you can see, we added some flower elastics to Sarah's hair in the first version, and ribbon and chopsticks to the second version to spice it up a little. To do the ribbon thing, simply choose a ribbon that matches your spiffy ensemble and weave it through your dreads until you find the pattern you want.

Other variations of the pony-tail/half pony-tails are to add a scarf or headband. In this example we also added some seashells and some of our dread coils to add to the fancy shmancy effect. In the second set of pictures, we added some feathers and wound in a thin, baby pink scarf. It's all about experimenting with different accessories - try it, you’ll see!

The next updo is one of our favorites. - it's very simple and is the same method used in the previous styles, just a lower pony tail and a few dreads at the back of her neck were left out. We then added the scarf, pulled a few dreads out of the pony tail, added some turquoise flower elastics and viola! Prom, here we come!

Nature-dreads - Watched Lord of The Rings one too many times? Looking for something a little more natural or even Elvish? Check this one out - Galadriel will have to deal with not being Prom Queen this year...

To create the look above, we grabbed the front/sides of the hair and secured it in the back, leaving the majority of the hair hanging down. We then tucked in any loose hairs or ends of dreads and added some chopsticks and a tiara (another strand of tiny sparkly beads). Adding some flowers, feathers or shells to this look creates a really natural looking dread-do, not to mention it's super pretty and elegant.

The look pictured above is also great for guys looking for a more formal look. If your dreads are long enough, just grab all the dreads at each side of your face, tie them back in a knot - add twisted grass, dandelions, twigs, leaves or feathers, if you like!

Want to add some body to your dread-head?
Thanks to Knotty Katinel for this awesome idea:
Ò Here's a good tip for making fake dreads that perfectly match your hair colour. Its quite time consuming and not a quick fix, but once completed is a fantastic option. You simply save the hair from your hairbrush and instead of tossing it out, roll, twist, tease and wax away until it forms into a lock of the desired thickness and length. Keep saving and dreading until you have a few dozen (its a time consuming process), and then just pull your undreaded hair up into ponytails, buns, or whatever and bobbypin your faux dreads on to hide the undreaded hair. It looks real because they are real dreads, and they match your hair because, well, they *are* your hair.

Fancy-Event-Related Dread Ideas!

Short dreads - As you can see, our dread models are limited to showing what you can do with long dreads, but short dreads can be super-fun, too! Spike them up or back by wrapping fabric around your head or with a dreadband, or dress them up with a natural-looking tiara or crown made from twigs wound with sparkly strands or au-natural.

- Cut holes in a hat and pull some dreads through the top - looks crazy cool with the right hat and outfit. Especially goth-looking top-hats. Ohhh, top-hats and dreads! YUM.

- Go to craft stores, they are a gold mine for cool dread accessory ideas.

- Check out plastic coated wire as an awesome way to make your dreads stand up in virtually any position. You can get all kinds of different colors, too. Cut off a piece of wire, wrap it around a dread and then curve the dread into the position or shape you want (just make sure not to poke your date's eye out).

- Look for scarves and cool old costume jewelry at thrift stores - you can pull them apart and add them to your hair, and is a cheap alternative if you know you'll only wear them in your dreads for one night.

- Tie in some yarn for that Cabbage Patch Kid look. You can even tie it in and then braid the yarn to make it look like weird braided dreads, plus, it adds a burst of color to them!

- Try super-knotty dreads - take two dreads and tie them in a single knot at the base. Keep tying knots until you can’t anymore. Repeat this until all of your dreads are tied up in knots. It sounds funny but can look supa-fly.

- Be careful using sparkles and spray-in colors - you may never be able to get them out again and could be showering sparkles for the next year or end up with stained dreads in a bad, washed-out color!

Here are a few pics sent in to us
from Knotty kids showing off their own ‘dos!

This one was sent to us from KnottyPrincepesa – no details, but her dreads look great!!

Here's hoping you all have lots of fun, and send us pictures of your own special Dread 'Do's – we’ll put them up right here on this page for the whole dreadful world to see!

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