I was watching Whoopi Goldberg in The Associate from 1996 last nite and I noticed that she wore pink sponge rollers to bed at night.  Even though she had dreadlocks.  I have heard over the years that sometimes her hair is extended to give thicker fuller dreads.  So I am wondering if she wore the rollers as just a prop for the movie or if in fact sleeping in rollers would help keep the extensions from tangling?

Anyone have an thoughts?  It was just quite curious.

Hi Kalika,

I had always heard braids would be best to keep dreads organized but of course they would have less dramatic effect for a movie.  When I first saw them I was like...huh?  Which made me wonder why they would do that.  Thanks for your insight.

leia1979 wrote: I've never had dreads, but really, why sleep on rollers any more than necessary?  Even my spongy flexi-rod curlers are uncomfortable to sleep on.

Hi Leia,

I hear that.  I recently tried after years of no rollers to sleep on the pink sponge type from Conair and I tossed and turned all night long.  YUCK.  The only thing that I have found to be comfortable are old fashioned rag rollers which are a pain to put in.

PirateQueen wrote: If you've got natural dreads or synth for that matter you can curl them on rollers just as you would natural hair so I guess she was wearing rollers for that. I had natural dreads for 20 years and used to put them in rollers or braid them together when damp for a different look. Dreads dont need maintenance at night to keep them from tangling, other than tying them on top of your head to stop lying on them and making it uncomfortable.

Hi Pirate Queen,

What type of rollers did you use?  Did it cause the dreads to curls just on the ends or give a more spiral look?  In the movie in one scene the Whoopster had her hair in hot rollers.  I thought that was odd.  Did you use hot rollers and what was the result in terms of the look?

PirateQueen wrote: I never tryed hot rollers - I used to use those bendy long sponge rollers, I'm not sure of the proper name of them. They gave a spirally effect. Hot rollers would work fine though, natural dreads can be styled just like normal hair within reason, especially if they are skinny like mine were. To be honest I wouldn't have been able to use hot rollers due to the sheer volume and length of my hair - twenty years of growth is a lot of hair and would've needed several sets of heated rollers I should imagine! I used to braid them together a lot too - to get a wavy look. Using rollers and rods to curl dreads is very common in black salons - it's referred to sometimes as 'texturising' dreads. I don't have natural dreads anymore - I cut them off a couple of years ago due to the weight giving me major neckaches, my dreads were halfway between my hips and my knees and I have very thick hair so you can imagine how heavy they were! But I do use a lot of the same techniques when making my synth dreads- if I want curly dreads I usually use skinny perm rods and immerse them in hot water, let cool and dry and bingo curly dreads!

WOW.....  Thanks for all the tips & the info.  I can only imagine if you had dreads that long and thick that they were heavy. 

Is the texturizing dreads process the same as the dread perms that are done at various salons?

Hey Isaac,

I was just talking about you yesterday to Celeste, who works at HairBoutique.com.  We were talking about dreads and extensions in New York and I mentioned you.  Glad to see you are alive and kicking.

We need to catch up one of these days.

Karen