single looped dreads: dreaded hair:

as dreaded hair can't be neatly braided like loose hair and most of the methods for attaching dreads I'd seen had involved braiding at some stage, this is a method I devised so that I could attach ready-made dreads to dreads easily and securely. the down side to this method is that the fake dreads can get slightly tangled around the very top knotted section.

1: braid/twist up your hair.

Of course if your natural hair is dreaded you don't have to bother with this stage!
if you want long dreads but have fairly short hair, you can just braid/twist in some matching fake hair to extend it before adding the dreads. if you'd prefer the look of loose hair rather than braids underneath your dreads, you can just braid the top few inches of your hair, secure the braid then leave the rest of the length loose.

2: now you just push the loop at the top of the dread up through the hair at the root of the braid so the loop is poking through.

3: bring the dread's end up and slot it through the loop, pulling it right the way through till it's knotted tightly.
Hey presto! Your dread is in! You can put more than one through each section's base if you want to ... it depends how well the dreads cover your hair.

You then repeat that all the way round your head to give good dready coverage easily. Remember that your natural hair will be easily seen if you put your hair up in a ponytail, so you can decide whether to dye your hair/braid the entire length or not based on which look you think you'd prefer … a loose or braided base.

Hiding short real dreads
my own natural dreads are only chin length, so they can start poking through and becoming obvious if i've attached much longer fake dreads. I braided some colinette [thick, chunky] wool in with each of my dreads, using two strands of wool with each dread to form the braid and tying it off where it ended. This left me with a couple of strands of loose wool coming from each dread, extending their length and keeping them pulled down that bit more to prevent them from sticking up through the longer fake dreads.

this ia a great way of attaching single looped dreads to real dreads.

- pull one of your real dreads through the fake dread's loop.

- twist the fake dread so that it pinches your real one into place

- push your dread back through the loop after the twist

repeat this until you run out of room in the loop. i apologise if i haven't been able to explain this well, but the basic method is like braiding the loop's two sides with each dread to secure them in place. have a go!