My latest experiment PALM ROLLED DREADS! Pic heavy.

[rivetlicker_]

I had a go at natural style palm rolled DE's, in not so natural colours lol. I found silky hair to be easier to acheive a better texture over jumbo braid, as it is closer to what human hair feels like.
I backcombed trying not to get that full on even taper look, knots and lumps were a big thing. I ended up using less hair than regular twisted and steamer sealed dreads.
I palm rolled them, without the aid of heat, then sealed them with a wet towel and straightener, with minimal twisting. They came out a bit flat, but that was what I was achieving.
Just imagine these pics with natural hair colours!
There are 30 boob to waist length dreads which I managed to braid a bit around the sides, because the hair is less than 3" long. I just wrapped extra rubber bands around them. I left the back as it is because it's still way too short. I'm going to get an undercut soon.
You can see what some look like before installation in a hair vid I made. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3qk5o1n2a8

BUT ON WITH THE PICS

Just pulled back.


My friend called this "COUSIN IT GONE CYBER" lol. I flipped my ponytail forward to take this photo.


The back. Ignore the mirror. Photobooth does it!


And tied up.

[my_purple_skys]

i have always liked the palm rolled effect to make natural looking dreads. i think uv done it realy well however i think there are too many different colours going on. you deffinaly suit dread tho

[rivetlicker_]

Hehe thanks
Yes, the colours are way out there, but in the future, I'll definately try out natural colours (or ones matching my real hair colour, which changes every so often lol)

[Lorny]

They do look quite good. I love the mix of colours but I think the palm rolling technique is better with more natural colours too.

What is the secret to palm rolling? I mean, they're suppsed to look like natural dreads, so how do you get the texture? Do you just pour boiling water over and they go like that?

[rivetlicker_]

I explained how I did it, it's quite different to anybody else's technique.
When backcombing, instead of evenly tapering and having even knots throughout the dread, create massive lumps, smooth them down, backcomb again, massive lumps, smooth down.
After backcombing, fold the DE over a piece of material (like you were doing SE's) and start rolling from the base to the tips. Just take it a little at a time. They're still fluffy at this stage, but smoothed down into a dread shape.
Hair straighteners work best for the sealing, so grab a wet towel as well. Fold the DE over the material, as above, and pretend it's an SE. Start twisting the two legs together, then get the wet towel and seal it with the straightener. When you get to the end, untwist it and do it again, finally just don't twist, just run the straightener (with the towel) down the entire dread. To seal the ends, either just twist both legs together at the ends and do it the way you did the body of the dread, or just use your straightener without the towel, but beware the crunchy hair! The ends don't have to be perfectly sealed like twisted dreads, they can even be left kinda loose, like mine.
To finish off, take the dread off the material, and twist it as a DE, but only in the middle. Wet towel and straightener on that bit, just for extra strength.
I hope I explained it ok and it's understandable! I should post a tutorial on it, although there are great tuts out there.

[LizSherman]

I must experiment with palm rolling, they've come out nicely!

[vintagesoul]

i agree - they do look like a more natural texture than some of the kk dreads on here. i actually did something similar with mine - they are half toyokolan and half kk. since they were my first set, i just messed around a bit, and found that the toyokolan actually helped produce a very natural looking dread. you are right - it is more like human (caucasian) hair.

i found it to be more of a dense dread, though...did you? and i have to admit, i used a damp towel and a clothes iron to achieve the same effect, only twisting as I sealed...similar to sealing kk. it still produced that same look. it might be easier than using the flat iron? hard to say, i haven't tried it that way...my flat iron is very thin (skinny) and it would probably take forever that way.

i also found the silky toyokolan very difficult to work with. i broke more combs with it too.

they look good, but I agree they should be in more of a color scheme - they would look great with your hair texture, i think,if they were a natural color. especially once you get the undercut, but either way it would look good.

[tazzyface]

Those turned out very nice! I personally love the huge amounts of colour XD

[medusa]

Wow, they look so natural, or almost like roving! What a unique look - I want to try this. Do you think it's more time consuming than regular dread-making (such as steaming or using a kettle?)

[IKickShins]

Very nice! They look so natural!

[rivetlicker_]

i agree - they do look like a more natural texture than some of the kk dreads on here. i actually did something similar with mine - they are half toyokolan and half kk. since they were my first set, i just messed around a bit, and found that the toyokolan actually helped produce a very natural looking dread. you are right - it is more like human (caucasian) hair.

i found it to be more of a dense dread, though...did you? and i have to admit, i used a damp towel and a clothes iron to achieve the same effect, only twisting as I sealed...similar to sealing kk. it still produced that same look. it might be easier than using the flat iron? hard to say, i haven't tried it that way...my flat iron is very thin (skinny) and it would probably take forever that way.

i also found the silky toyokolan very difficult to work with. i broke more combs with it too.

they look good, but I agree they should be in more of a color scheme - they would look great with your hair texture, i think,if they were a natural color. especially once you get the undercut, but either way it would look good.

Any silky hair will produce great results. I made dreads from toyo before and twisted/boiled them getting quite natural results. But yes, it's a bitch to backcomb!
It's not so much how big your flat iron is, it's getting the texture of natural dreads. You can do it with a clothes iron if it suits. Just don't twist too hard.
These dreads are a lot softer than twisted ones, but they're quite sturdy. Just try and not taper them completely. It's hard, but you'll get it.
And yes, I must do these in natural colours hahaha.

Wow, they look so natural, or almost like roving! What a unique look - I want to try this. Do you think it's more time consuming than regular dread-making (such as steaming or using a kettle?)

You can blast with a steamer, and roll them that way, but I just personally think the flat iron and wet tower help to flatten them out more.
I think I spent in total about 5 hours on 30DE's. I just did it while I was watching tele!

And thanks for all the comments!

[MissAnthropik]

I like the natural look, I too usually palm roll my dreads, and only twist very lightly, but I seal with a hairdryer. So yeah, the dreads look great. Personally I think there are too many colours, but that's just me

[deadteddys]

Rainbow! I like all the colours I am very big on colour myself hehe. Im not so into the palm rolled effect, but they look good