Considering a full installation of Synth Dreads.

Having worn synth dreads for quite a few years myself, I can answer most of your questions.
Firstly - whether or not to have single ended or double ended dreads is mostly down to personal preference and how full you want the result to be.  The weight difference (in my opinion anyway) is negligible, as kanekalon is a very lightweight fibre.  So for me, it really comes down to the face that double ended dreads give better coverage and a fuller result, although alot of people who wear single ended dreads use more dreads per head for a fuller coverage.  On average, a full head is about 50 double ended dreads (which make 100 dreads when doubled over) or anywhere from 75-90 single ended dreads.  Double ended dreads have the advantage that the texture difference between the dreads and the parts where your own hair is braided in isn't quite so obvious as it's only on half of the dreads instead of all of them.

As for the difference between curly and straight dreads, there isn't any, except for the obvious one that one type is curly and the other straight.  You don't need to do anything different to look after curly dreads, they're sealed that way with steam, so washing them will only make the curl drop out a tiny bit, it won't affect the overall appearance too much.

Your own hair can dread up at the roots when the extensions are left in for too long, but the easy way to avoid this is to take the dreads out every 6 weeks or so, give them a thorough wash, and put them back in once they're fully dry.  When you take them out, you will notice alot of hairs coming off your head, and you will need to give your hair a good brush and deep condition, but this is nothing to worry about.  You naturally shed about 100 hairs a day anyway, and while you've got the extensions in, these shed hairs won't be falling off your head, they will all come off at once when you take the extensions out. Alot of people panic when they see this huge amount of hair falling out, but it's totally normal, and nothing to worry about at all.

As for reliable websites, I've bought dreads from www.snarlhair.com many times, and the quality is great, although not exactly cheap, but you get what you pay for!  www.angelemma.com is also a good quality seller, but I've not had dreads from her before.

Be prepared for some adjustment to the dreads, it will be quite a bit of weight on your head that you're not used to, your scalp can feel tight for a couple of days until the dreads loosen up a bit, and alot of people get an itchy scalp with synth extensions.  The scalp itch can be relieved with scalp sprays, either a spray made for dreads, or you can make your own with water and essential oils, usually tea tree is a good one for scalp itch.

As for colours, there's some pretty nice natural colour sets on both of the websites above, but if black or blonde don't appeal, I'd say gingery/red/auburn shades would look really nice.

Hope this helps!

Yaayyy! I was hoping you'd be one to pop up! 😀

Thanks. I think I'll go for double ended, if I do get them.

I knew about the hair looking like it's all falling out thing. I found it so silly when I found out that alot of people thought that the dreads had pulled out all the hair. It's like nobody realises that they lose hairs naturally and they don't just come out whilst dreads are installed.

I'll have a nose around the websites to get a good idea of how much money I'm going to save up to.

I was considering an auburn! That's the set I saw someone have when I decided I might want some next year! Hers were also curly.
But I've seen some curly sets that look a bit messy whilst styled in most ways. :< So I think I might stick with straight.

You could always have a few extra made as curly which you could tie into your hair as accents when you want the curly bits added in.

How would I tie them in? Like, attatch them to the already installed dreads, or take out a couple of dreads to put the curly ones in? 😮

I'm also pleased to find out that my boything actually likes the idea, in contrast to his pure haterid of such a thought a few months back. xD

perv over www.hairextensionforum.com for inspiration =) and OMGeeeee the itching was horrible! defo's the worst thing about having synths imo. i have a thread about mine
http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php?topic=2052.0

Ohhhh. 😮 Thanks muchly!
Definitely gonna help (Or maybe not. So many options!) with deciding on the colour and style!

I think I want the level to about halfway between my shoulder and elbow, or to my elbow...
No idea how to figure out all the exact measurements, though. I can't just be all, "Herro! One set of your finest dreads, down to le bra, pleasies!" xD

I've had synth dreads for years in the past, and agree and like all comments on the subject so far. So I havn't got that much to add apart from try afrocare.com  for ready made double ender dreads by Elysee Star. I love these dreads as they are really soft and slinky 🙂