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GENERAL INFORMATION: Sealing Dread Ends
One of the largest issues with pop-up hair sellers as well as with novices is sealing the ends of dreads. What does a properly sealed end look like? How does one achieve that look? What ISN'T a finished end? In order to avoid hurt feelings, we have personally made some sub-par batches of dreads for the examples shown here.
What does a properly sealed end look like? How does one achieve that look?
There are two acceptable ways to finish off the end of a dread: taper it until there's no hair left, leaving neat, whispy ends, or trim the ends with a braid sealer, lighter, or flat iron for a slightly more blunt look.
The image below shows dreads made by Canadan company Digital-Cat/Sourkitten, which taper to the point of only a few strands at the ends. Note: the red pieces in the image are superbulky wool similar to Colinette and do not apply to this topic; focus on the brown dreads.
To achieve this look, you need to backcomb your dreads into a shape that leave a very skinny end. Carefully seal the dread until you can't hold onto the hair anymore, then carefully trim off any excess. Because the point is so small, the dread will not easily unravel. This type of end gives a very natural look, but may be difficult to master.
The other option is sealing the ends; this tends to be a little more versatile because you can apply it to virtually any style of dread. Its also a bit easier because it allows for mistakes; if your ends aren't perfect, it doesn't matter, because you'll be trimming them anyway.
There are a number of ways to trim your ends. The easiest is to use a braid sealer, which you can generally get ahold of for $30-40 USD. A braid sealer is a metal clamp designed specifically for trimming and sealing braids; simply clamp down on the end of your dread until it seals, pull off the hair that's been cut, and roll the end between your fingers to smooth it out.
You can also use a heat clamp, lighter, or candle. When using an open flame, hold the end of the dread *near* the flame, but not in it. Once the undesired portion of the end breaks off, roll the tip of the dread between your fingers to smooth it out. The melted plastic at the end is what keeps your tips from unraveling.
What ISN'T a finished end?
Now the fun part: you get to see a bunch of dreads that we intentionally screwed up for the sake of this column. Each image will be followed by an explanation of what went wrong.
The example above shows dreads that are well on their way to looking great; all they need is a little trimming and sealing at the ends. Because of the knots at the tips of some of them, the first method of sealing ends is not ideal; however, the second one works great! If your dreads look like this, trim the messy ends off and seal what's left.
This image shows the same dreads as before: no more fuzzy ends, but now they're burnt. This is the result of applying dry heat for too long. Burnt ends aren't a huge problem if you're using black or dark brown hair, but be careful when working with lighter colors!
These guys need a LOT of work. First off, make note of the blue and green dreads at the bottom of the image. These were not twisted tightly enough when sealed; if your ends look like this, you need to retwist and reseal. Now look at the top of the picture: notice that the dreads are skinny at the ends, but they're starting to fray. These dreads have been trimmed, but not sealed. Trimming ends that are that blunt isn't enough; if your ends are more than a few strands thick, you need to use some form of heat to seal them into place. Finally, notice the kinks in some of the blue dreads in the middle. Kinks are very easy to get rid of; simply pull them straight and reseal them. Sometimes, you may need to do this more than once to completely straighten out a kink.
The final example shows a variety of mistakes: first off, these dreads need to be backcombed more. Notice how thick many of the ends are; they're nearly the same as the tips of the dreads. If your dreads are the same width all the way down, you probably are not backcombing enough; backcombing is important to making your dreads durable, so make sure to do it thoroughly! Other issues are similar to the previous picture: kinks, ends that need to be trimmed, and lumps at the bottom.
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