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A 'How To' on realistic wool dreads

Hey There!

Wanted to do a write up on something I’ve been working on lately. For the project below, a Multi-Medium head-dress: ( leather, metal, Paperclay, Resin, feathers etc…)

I wanted to add dreads to it and really fill it out. I have plenty of synthetic hair, but my steamer broke- so that made things a bit difficult.

So, what to do? Ahh a bit of research on different types and methods of dreads (special thanks to Google) and as it turns out, wool is an excellent material to make realistic looking dreads! *And so much softer then synthetic hair!*

So here’s how I did it:

Start off with some wool roving. it doesn’t really matter what type of wool it is, as long as it is listed as “roving” I purchased 2 pounds thinking it’s better to have too much rather then not enough- and damn,  2 pounds is alot! I got mine online from (Mohair and More) for about 40.00 shipped. the exact type is Colonial Wool in ecru (color).

Here’s one pound (when the bag was full) of mine:

Pull off a chunk about as long as you want your finished dread to be. you can do single ended dreads ( as I did) or double ended and just loop it at the halfway point.

its easier to make thinner dreads then it is thicker, since you have to roll and felt them mostly by hand. the process is far faster and more real looking for the end result if you go with thinner dreads.

once you have a length of roving pulled, roll it between your hands a bit to help it bunch up.

for the next part you will need a spray bottle with some water in it, and a bath towel wrapped around your leg. It helps if its big enough that you can sit on it and stretch it flat so there are no bumps!

Spray the wool a bit so its damp but not dripping:

then its time to rub! start with the fat end of the dread, and roll you hand on it with some pressure, back and forth while pulling the other end so you roll all of it. keep doing this over and over till it starts to mat up. you can reverse it and pull from the skinny end rolling towards the fat end to mat it moreso, just use less pressure so you dont undo the matting you have already done.

this part usually take 5-10 min depending on how the wool is matting and if it’s cooperating lol. it wont be completely tight, but it should be somewhat shaped.

once you get it pretty bunched up it’s time for the next step:

Get a pan or pot with some Hot hot water, as hot as you can bear. you don’t want to scald yourself, but the hotter it is, the better this will work!

Put the dread into the pot and let the wool soak, try to get the air out and let the wool get saturated. about 30 sec or so seems to work.

Fish it out and squeeze most of the water out of the wool.

Place the damp wool dread back on you leg towel and pull and rub again!

You will notice that the wool is felting much better and getting more densely compacted. YAY!

after about 5 min or so, going fat end to thin end, and also crossways/backwards thin end to fat end- it will look pretty felted, you shouldn’t be able to easily pull the fibers apart, it should look something like this:

Now it’s dryer time!  if you have never wet felted anything, its a REALLY good idea to read up on it a little, or check the dryer every 5-10 min. Also, dont forget to clean the lint trap! Put the damp dreads in the dryer, on medium to high heat for 20 min. MAKE SURE TO CHECK ON THEM! you dont want to crank the dryer on high, and leave them in there for 50 minutes, they will all dread/felt together!

As you check on them, they will get poofy as they felt.  if they are still damp you can give em a quick rub on your leg, or if they are dry, spray them with a little bit of water and then rub them to condense them down.

then back into the dryer!

When they are done ( which can take 20 min-50 min depending on how well/dense they were felted by hand) they should look something like this:

they should be one piece, and you shouldn’t be able to pull them apart at all!

then just repeat the process till you have enough. for this bundle of dreads, i think i went thru about 1/8 of the one pound bag, so a little really does go a long way!

Then it’s time to Dye them!

you can use many things to dye Wool.

Food coloring

Kool-aid

but the best seems to be Acid dye on the stove top.

Jacquard is one of the best for beautiful bright colors. I got mine ( 6 color kit) from Knitpicks for 30.00 shipped.

These little ½ Oz jars of powder can dye up to 2 Pounds of wool.

**Careful to use gloves and don’t inhale this stuff.**

 Stuff you need for using this dye:

 A metal bowl/pot that you can use on the stove (not used for food)

A Pre-soaking tub ( put the dreads in here to soak before hand!)

White Vinegar

A Stir-stick you can throw away (Chopsticks are great, just don’t eat with em after!)

Something you can use to Strain out water from the wool

Gloves/facemask

Here are the instructions for stovetop dying!

you want to use enough dye to get the color you want, but not so much that the wool cant absorb it all.

usually all dye should be absorbed 15-25 min after adding it. the water should pretty much run clear, then you know the dye bath is spent.

you can dye them in stages, just remember to work from light to dark, and wash/ring out gently by hand in-between colors.

Mine go from black at the fat or root ends to red in the middle to yellow at the tips.

Once all your dying is done and you have rinsed/lightly washed them, you can take them out and drip dry them outside (if they are still shedding color) and then once almost dry, you can place them in the dryer for just a bit. Or you can just let them dry on a towel like I did.

If at anytime you put them back in the dryer……

******KEEP CHECKING ON THEM SO THEY DONT FELT TOGETHER!******

After all that, feel free to add wood and ceramic beads, feathers, leather, whatever you want depending on the look you are going for :)

A video of the hand felting process that helped me can be found here:

Pre-dyed wool dreads

A video that helps with how to dye using the method I explained( Don’t let it boil much!):

Dying Wool on the stove (Acid Dye)

then you can put them on ponytail holders, ribbons(to tie on for dreadfalls) have them braided into your own hair, or sew them on ( Like I’m doing for the Headress- on the band ontop of the head here!)

Something like this:

I’ll probably make some more and dye them, to fill it out a bit more. :)

FINISHED!:

Hopefully this helps someone. Remember, Google and Youtube are your friends!

as always, if you have any questions feel free to hit me up! Let us know how your project turns out!!

Till next time,

-Quinn