When bound or held together in a section, synthetic hair looks natural. There are many colours which may be blended to make a solid new colour, or to give a highlight effect. For example;. medium brown with sandy brown, and blonde highlights.

At first the synthetic hair is a little stiff or coarse whether plaited or dreaded, but will soften during the first week or two.

If you have short hair, and add length using synthetic hair, you can hasten the softening process by washing the synthetic hair in fabric softener, because synthetic hair is made from nylon. Washing hair in fabric softener sounds weird but works wonders, without damaging your hair, but the process may cause drying.

Synthetic hair can be washed as often as desired, with any shampoo that is suitable to your hair type. However, as your hair is sectioned and will not be combed, your scalp can become dry so which you may need to take into consideration.

The colours in synthetic hair will never fade, and you can choose a colour which is difficult to obtain with your own hair. You do not need to dye your roots to match the synthetic hair, but if you prefer you can dye your roots, without affecting your synthetic hair extensions.

If the end of the plaits are melted shut they can attach like Velcro to some fabric types of clothing. In Visible Light uses a different finishing off technique which minimises this Velcro effect or the plaits can be finished without any heat at all, if your clothing is usually a lacy or chiffon style.

If you want to keep your plaits or dreads looking tidy, we suggest that you do not use wax, regardless of what many 'experts' recommend. There is an alternative that's free, and without the horrible side effects of wax.

Wax can cover your hair in a thick oil which holds dirt, and sticks to your face. Wax can rub off on your face, cause zits, and stain your pillows and clothing. Wax softens your hair which makes it harder to dread your hair permanently, and makes dreads matt together much faster. Wax also traps water after washing or swimming, which can develop mould.

Instead of wax, the 'fluff' can be rolled back in, or a crochet hook can be used after matting the hair, to push the 'fluff' back in and through the hair to secure it.

All In Visible Light hair clients are shown specialised techniques such as re-sectioning, tying in regrowth hairs, and tightening the roots to tidy root hairs and dread 'soft spots' and 'rubbed out' patches.

A bonding solution is available to prevent hair coming out of the plaits, if applied to wet plaits every 2-3 weeks on average, before the plaits become messy.

A hair dryer held close to the plait (not too close to your skin because it will burn) will heat and condense the synthetic hair.

Alternatively, a hairdresser can remove the split cuts by plaiting the hair, and cutting any strays out, or cutting the length by just a few mm, or up to a cm to remove the splintered ends, which will help rejuvenate the hair. However, you should not cut any long strands, or trim the hair too often.

Dreads can be solidified, to keep dreads rounded so that dreads will not go flat after sleeping on them.

The crochet hook method is probably the best of the other methods for feeding the dread through loose hair at the base of the dread, and then going in another direction to pull the regrowth hairs in. However, the crochet hook method should not be over done, because it splits the hair and twists it which can prevent the hair from dreading properly. The short hairs are too short to be matted in with wax or back combing.