The good news is that you can treat them almost just like your normal hair — you can wear them up, wear them down, and you can wash them. You do not need to wash the dreadlocks themselves when you shower/wash your hair, but rather simply focus on the scalp. We recommend using either a highly diluted version of your normal shampoo OR a residue-free dreadlock shampoo (which is much better) and simply lather with your fingertips and rinse. Your synthetic dreadlocks will accumulate build-up like natural dreadlocks do so residue-free shampoo is best. You may need to experiment to see what brand and type of shampoo works easiest for your. Check out the page about shampoos & soaps .
You should not plan to wash your synthetic dreadlocks anymore often than 1-2x a week. Washing any more often will pull out frizz and make the braids/woven hair that holds the dreadlocks in messy-looking. Less frequent washing will keep them looking tidier longer! It may be best to invest in a shower cap to wear on non-washing days when you shower. You may need to shop around to find a cap that is large enough to accomodate your new locks.
As mentioned above, we don’t recommend leaving your synthetic dreadlocks in any longer than 3 months at a time. It is a good idea to give your dreadlocks a little bit of spa treatment after each time they are worn. You should consider doing a nice, deep cleanse (we recommend the wax/oil removal deep cleanse in the Do-It-Yourself Recipes section!). You should especially plan to do this if you are not using a residue-free shampoo while wearing your synthetic dreadlocks.
They also can get a little ratty from wearing, which is totally normal! You can use steam ro re-seal and re-tighten them, and/or scissors to cut off any fuzzies they may have accumulated on their surface. We do offer a Re-Seal as a service to take care of this for you prior to putting your dreadlocks back in.
— What you should NOT ever do with your synthetic dreadlocks is use a flat iron, curling iron, or blow dryers on them. Synthetic hair (kanekalon) is a kind of plastic and this kind of high heat will literally melt the dreadlocks! So make sure to air dry and if you think you want curly dreadlocks you can make them curly in the fabrication process, but don’t try to do it the same way you would with natural hair!–
PLEASE NOTE: Raging Roots Studio is no longer offering synthetic dreadlock-related services.
