The other day I was getting my 2 year old dressed and I noticed that some of his hair resembled what looked like the beginning of a Dreadlock. I couldn’t help but wonder why certain people pay money to have their hair resemble matted coils of hair?
According to a heavily populated online resource wikipedia.com, dreadlocks are intentionally formed; because of the variety of different hair textures, various methods are used to encourage the formation of locks such as back-combing sections of the hair, twisting or a process involving the weaving of the hair with a crochet hook to form knots. In the case of my son’s dread, this was not intentional, but unavoidable with a curly-headed, comb-resistant 2 yr old. I needed to know why people knowingly transform their hair into “matted coils”, a.k.a., dreadlocks?
While I researched the topic of dreadlocks, I discovered that there were some well-known “dreadheads” like Bob Marley, Whoopi Goldberg, Rob Zombie, and Johnny Depp in “Pirates of the Carribean”!
I also discovered that dreadlocks have been around for a very long time. Other groups of people in history have worn dreadlocks include the Hindu Shiva worshippers of India, European Celts (particularly the Druids), historic African peoples,[vague] and the Sufis of Pakistan.
Is it that easy to get dreadlocks? Yes, and the complete process can be found online at dreadlockhq.com. While trying to find out some information on dreadlocks I came across some very interesting information on the entire dreadlock process.
One of the most important parts of keeping dreads looking good is washing the hair with residue free soap. This is very important because a dreadhead does not want to prevent hair from knotting and tangling. What good is a conditioned head of hair in the world of dreadlocks? Nothing. Something else I learned from the wonderful world of dreadheadhq is that shampoos that contain residue (fragrant smells) can lead to mildew and other not so pleasant hair odors, even after a shower. After I read that bit of information, I rinsed out my hair and brushed it more than Marcia Brady ever had on The Brady Bunch.
Next up, backcombing dreadlocks, which is best accomplished by using a dreading comb which is strong enough to pull those dreads in the making. The next step is apply a thin application of Dread Wax to the dread. This combination of beeswax and natural oils helps keep the hair that has been back-combed smooth and together. It is often encourage to dry the dreads a little bit so that the dreads won’t attract misc. items on to them.
Have you ever known a friend with “dreads”? Where they intentional or unintentional?
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I am glad I read the whole article. My first reaction after reading the first paragraph was somewhat indignant, but I am glad the author did some research before judging the dreadlocks. I would like to add that to many people their dreads are deeply meaningful and spiritual ( think samson, research Rastafarianism) and require a great deal of work and commitment. Also, dreadlocks do not resemble matted coils of hair, they are matted coils of hair. Last but not least, I have no data to support this, but I doubt that many people pay for dreadlocks. Thanks for helping enlighten some squares to the locks, though.