If there is one thing I really do love to do, it’s pissing around with my hair. Despite my mother’s doom-laded warnings that my hair will all fall out by the time I was 20 if I kept on screwing with it, so far, it has managed to maintain its relationship to my head, despite the decades of abuse I have since subjected it to.
However, if you’re looking for a temporary look or simply have a lot more respect for your tresses than I do, you might be wondering about short term options, or what you can do to get a new look for your barnet without ruining your hair.
Two words for you here: Cyber dreads. Cyber dreads are essentially bolts of wool, tubing or other materials that can be tied, clipped, banded or even sewn into your own hair to give a short-term removable look that is distinctive, bold and totally temporary, dude.
They come in all sorts of colours and materials, and don’t have to cost a fucktonne to buy; you can even make or customise your own. Check out this Pinterest board if you want to develop some serious hair envy. Basically, cyber dreads (also known as dread falls) are cool as fuck, and don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise. They’re also easy to do, and you can pretty much just buy them off the peg and work them out on your own, and you’re not likely to go far wrong.
So, without further ado, I’m going to give you some basic tips (because honestly, even if you’re as cack-handed as me, you can’t really screw it up too badly) and links to some cool sites that will provide you with advice and ideas for how to do your ‘do.
Tie-in cyber dreads
Tie-in cyber dreads come in a couple of basic formats. You either buy one or two bands of dreads that are affixed to an elastic hair band and then tie these onto your own pigtails or ponytail, or you buy plain bolts of dreads, pass them through a band, and tie them on yourself. This really is about as simple as it gets, and if you go the latter route, you can mix and match colours and materials that you like and create your own bespoke look.
These tie-in falls are available in a whole buttload of colours, and range from £20-£40 a set on Hair from Hell.
Clip-in cyber dreads
Clip-in cyber dreads come attached to a big-assed hair band or plastic clip, which you fix into your own hair and generally, they hold firmly for the duration of your day. This is the way to go if you want your dreads to have the appearance of long, cascading hair rather than a ponytail or bunches, and you would generally wear a wide fabric hairband over the top to cover the join with your own hair.Gothically Yours on blogspot shares some pics and advice on using clip-in dreads in her blog post from September.
Materials
Cyber dreads are usually made of synthetic wool, as this is both lighter than real wool, and much less likely to carry that kinda funky sheep smell onto your head with them. It also makes them easier to care for, and less likely to shrink or go weird when you wash them. How thick or thin each dread is can vary, and some looks also incorporate other materials such as rubber tubing in various colours to add some texture.
DIY
If you want to have a crack at making your own cyber dreads from scratch (including dying your own wool) YouTube has you covered. This tutorial:
Will take you through it, and there are many other vids to pick from in the sidebar too.
Coupl’a other things…
Cyber dreads can be heavy due to the sheer volume of material used, which means that you will have to experiment with getting them to hold firmly to your own hair without having to pull it so tight that you get a headache within half an hour.
Also, anything that you wear, be it clothes or fake hair, is going to need some care and maintenance to keep it looking nice and stop it from getting stank, so be prepared to wash and dry your locks now and then too, unless you wanna end up like Pigpen.
