Hair plan!

I think your natural hair being red with black extenders would look awesome, like you said it's loads less common than black to red and I think it would really suit you, the red framing your face would look really good 🙂

Thanks Marthakins!  I am very tempted with this one, but also very tempted by a cruella, as I've never had a cruella before.  My worry with the cruella though, is that when the woman doing my dreads sections them off, that she may not be able to strictly follow the centre parting where the colours change, and I might end up with colours mixing down the centre bit. 
Also, I am considering dyeing my natural hair red to have black extenders put on, but keeping the fringe black as well.  So. Many. Colour. Combination. Choices.

Oh actually yeah, I somehow even forgot about the cruella option, I love cruellas. There are officially too many good options for me to help decide! Oh! You could do a cruella but swap the colours of the extenders, so one side black with red extenders and the other side red with black :p

Can you dye after the dreads are installed? That's what I'm having to do, otherwise it'd be to much hassle. Definitely do cruella though!

I can, but the problem with black extension hair is that it's usually Asian hair to begin with, and is then dyed black with permanent dyes, making it pretty much impossible to shift the black. I tried on my last black extensions to go red, and even a straight 40 vol bleach wouldn't shift the black. And I don't know yet if it's too late to change the colour of the extenders, as I don't know if gracey has bought the extension hair yet. So I'm thinking I might go with dyeing my own hair bright red, and having black extenders, and keeping my fringe black as well.

I found some red/black cruella dread pics, maybe you've already seen them, but in case not, here they are!

It's HARD to find indeed! I thought the two above were lovely and I'd definitely do something like that. 🙂

I used to have red to black hair for years, not in dreads, but maybe you get an idea of what it looks like with straight hair as well? It looked like this :

I always liked this way around better than black to red. I did it to grow out my black, but I dislike my own blonde hair colour, so I dyed the roots red and eventually cut off the black. I think it would look awesome with dreads too.

I like the idea of red roots, black fringe and black dreads. It will look amazing, I'm sure!

Thanks Rij! It does help to see a red to black style, even if it's not dreaded!
I'm thinking of ombreing the red into a darker red at the ends to help the transition to black when the extenders are put in.  Probably won't be a problem anyway, as I have black dye on my lengths that I'll do a decolour on, but from experience, it'll probably leave darker staining at the ends anyway!

Oh actually yeah, I somehow even forgot about the cruella option, I love cruellas. There are officially too many good options for me to help decide! Oh! You could do a cruella but swap the colours of the extenders, so one side black with red extenders and the other side red with black :p

I thought this, too 😀

I also like the red natural hair/black dreads/black fringe option.

I think I'm definitely going to go with the red natural hair/black fringe/black extenders option, and will be attempting to dye my hair into a red to darker red ombre beforehand to give it a bit more of a transition into the extenders, instead of just being red then black. 

My issue with the cruella (although I'd seriously love to do it!) is that I don't know if the sectioning for my dreads will be straight down the middle, so there could be some crossover of colours in those dreads (and that would just seriously offend my sense of symmetry!), and also that I don't know if Gracey has already bought the extension hair for the extenders, and I don't really want to mess her around by saying 'oh, actually, half of them now need to be a different colour'.

Saw a red to black ombre today where the transitional color was kinda purple-ish instead of red-brown. It looked really good! The dark purple blended nicely with the red and especially the black. I wish I could've gotten a picture but the bar was so dark and busy.