Can you steer me in the direction of wedding hair for chicks with dreads? My mom is fucking tripping (which is so completely weak considering that I’m 32 and paying for the shindig) so I thought I’d get her to chillax with some dready wedding goddess hair pix. Thanks so much… I must say Mama~ Andreas SCORED! (Will you thank him for sharing you with us?!) — Reba

Aww, *blush*. Thanks, Reba! I’ll remind Andreas of that next time he’s irked at me for leaving a trail of girlwind detritus behind me all over the house.

Ok, now to answer your question about wedding dreads! Hoo-boy. This is a beloved topic of mine, since back in the day (creak creak creak) I used to have some wild dreads myself. There’s so much great inspiration for you out there!

Let’s start with what not to do. I was a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding back in 2000, and we went to a traditional hair salon to get our make-up and up-dos. Here’s how I ended up. The look was sorta psychedelic Marge Simpson, and while it was relatively tidy, I’m not sure I’d recommend the look to anyone else. (And don’t even get me started on the heavy make-up. Dre could hardly look at me all day!)

Anyway, for lots of inspiration for how you could style your dreads, keep on reading…

First, some more conservative ideas to make your mom happy:

Obviously, hair wraps are an easy way to keep your dreads back and your face tidy:

Here’s a page with lots of wrapping styles — this would be extra awesome with fabric from your dress!

Not sure if you have this much hair, but if you do, I like this half up/half down style:

Then of course you could always cover them with a hat:

But personally, I’d say play with ‘em and have fun with it! There’s so much to be done with feathers and flowers and ribbons and synthetic dread extensions. Granted, none of these wild styles are going to reassure your mother, but most could be toned down with natural colors:

First, how about feathers?

What if you tuck them all away?

I like the idea of ornate lovely things hanging from your dreads, stuff like this:

Ribbons. LOVE RIBBONS!

Clip in fake butterflies or hell, birds!

For a fall wedding, leaves can be clipped in!

If you want to go really fun, it would be awesome to incorporate synthetic dread falls like this:

Then there are bantu knots. Love ‘em!

Twist your dreads into a halo around your face:

Granted, this one is a nod to Corpse Bride, but I love the flower wreath and veil:

I also checked in with the fabulous Siouxzi — you may remember her for her Steampunk wedding, but she also does synthetic dreads! She had all sorts of great advice…

Possibilities are braids, buns, tying them up, messy updo’s are pretty easy to get away with. Just because you have dreads doesn’t eliminate the use of hair pins, flowers, even veils. A great site, not mine sadly, for beautiful ideas is plastikhaar.ch or check out community.livejournal.com/fakehair/. Sadly the lj community is pretty miss for hits these days, but check back in the archives, you might find some great ideas.

If your current dreads don’t really go with your wedding, sew a cover for them. A cover is long and tubular and say about a foot long or so. Maybe make it out of material that matches your gown or instead of a regular veil, concoct a way to wrap your hair in veil leaving only the hair at your roots and the very end visible.

Just be sure to practice before the big day. And remember not to fight what your hair wants to do, work with your dreads not against them.

Coming in Part II: Siouxzi gives her advice for brides thinking of doing dreadlock extensions