Bleach:
Pretty much any bleach works, they're all basically the same. Pick some up at your local grocery store and find a good place to do the bleaching. You can bleach all of your dreads or just some of them. If you do all of them then just take the bleach and spread it evenly through all of your dreads. Work it deeply into the dread so as to bleach the whole thing, not just the outer layer of it. Leave it in for as long as the box says, no longer. When it's time to remove it rinse it out with a shower, sink or hose. rinse it until the water runs out completely clear, even when you squeeze the dreads. You do NOT want bleach to remain in your hair, it could fry or mold your dreads. To bleach only some of them then work the bleach into the dreads you want it in. If left like that for the duration of the bleaching then you will likely have unwanted spots of bleach in adjacent dreads. Unless this is your desired look then you can prevent this by wrapping the bleached dreads in plastic-wrap, using hair ties to hold it in place. Remove the plastic wrap when done bleaching and proceed to rinse out the bleach.
Dye:
Any kind of dye works. You can use the natural colors that can easily be acquired at a grocery/drug store, or you can use bright punk-rock colors from brands like Manic Panic. Dye comes in a liquid, gel or cream. They all work the same, but liquid and gel are easiest to rinse out. Application of dye is the same as bleach, whether done for the whole head or single dreads. Like normal hair, it helps to bleach the hair first to make them turn out brighter (unless you naturally have bright blonde hair). Unlike bleach, once you completely rinse them out to the point of the water coming out clear there will still remain to be loose dye in the dreads. It is a good idea to re-rinse them after about a week. Great part about dreads is you can ACTUALLY achieve rainbow hair. Normal hair is too easy to blend together and rainbow hair is hard to do. With dreads you just separate them and dye them accordingly. You can dye different sections of the dreads too, even have striped dreads. Striped dreads is hard to do but if you have a pointed tip on the end of the dye bottle (some dyes/bleaches come with these for this purpose, it's similar to cake decorating with frosting) and are somewhat of an artist then this can be done. The stripes will never be less then 1.5" thick because it will run. If any of you dye your dreads in a really cool way and want me to display a picture on this blog then send me the picture and I'll throw it up.
Henna:
Henna can be used not only to temporarily tattoo skin, but to dye hair as well. Much like the color it turns out on skin, it will be that reddish-orange in your dreads as well. The procedure for applying it is the same as the above, only the consistency of it is much different. It's like a gloopy curry substance. Henna has some stipulations that bleach and dye don't have though, and you MUST be weary of these when using henna on hair. To start, make SURE you get good henna that contains ONLY henna, no other crazy ingredients. It IS true that henna will turn out brighter on bleached hair, but you do NOT want henna on recently bleached or dyed hair. Same goes for if you want to bleach or dye it AFTER you henna it. The chemicals in the bleach and dye will react in weird ways to the henna. This ranges from hair turning into a gummy mess of no return, or your hair my actually melt and begin to smoke. To prevent this just make damn sure you have a gap of at least six weeks between bleaching/dying and hennaing, regardless of the order in which they're done.
Kool Aid:
If you didn't already know, kool aid can be used to dye your hair. Mind you dying with kool aid ONLY works if it is the SUGAR-FREE kind (the kind that come in the little 10 cent packets). People say this is to not attract bugs, which is true, but also if it has sugar in it it will NOT dye your hair. This is true, i have had experience. It is recommended when dying normal hair to mix it with conditioner and use the pasty substance as as the dye. If this method is tried on dreads it will leave residue in them, as does any conditioner. All yo have to do is buy a bunch of packets of kool aid and mix in enough water to where it is still somewhat thick, not a liquid. It should be left in for 4-5 hours. Any less then that and it won't be as bright, any more and it will reach the point where it will plateau and stop dying the dreads. Procedure for applying/removing is the same as bleaching and dying. Don't use food coloring, in my experience it doesn't work. If any of you have had successful dying with food coloring then send pictures please!
Sharpies:
This isn't something I really recommend, but it will work, despite it being rather temporary. The reason I did this was to created dreads with very small stripes (.25" or so). It looks cool but can smell bad. Your best bet is to do this as far away from the face as possible to prevent constantly smelling the chemicals. It will last until you rinse your dreads 3 or 4 times. It doesn't damage your dreads because it is only ink. Works best with black sharpies, the newer the better. If you use anything with paint in it, like a paint-pen or just straight up paint, then you're an idiot. Don't put paint in your hair.
Animal dreads, sewn in dreads and meshed in dreads can be bleached and dyed. Best to wait at least a month-two months after you attach them to start adding color.
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