# Ask the chick with dreadlocks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 18, 2002, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477 "2002-12-18T03:35:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/1 "2002-12-18T03:35:16Z")
Okay, been thinking about starting this thread for awhile, though I always figured it would drop off page 1 like a stone with no replies. Guess we’ll see.
I have had dreadlocks for about 3 years and 4 months. When I first started, they were a little over an inch long; now they’re a few inches past my shoulders. So any burning questions you’ve had about any aspect of locking, ask away!
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### Author:  [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/2 "2002-12-18T03:42:14Z")
Several Questions here:
Do you wash them?
How do you “add” to them as they grow?
Will you ever be able to take them out or will you have to cut them off if you tire of them?
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### Author:  [@non-native](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/non-native)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/3 "2002-12-18T03:43:00Z")
Are they real? If so, doesn’t that involving long periods without bathing? Are you a rasta? If yes, i’ll be back with more questions. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/4 "2002-12-18T03:49:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Slainte \*
> \*\*Several Questions here:
>
> Do you wash them?\*\*
Yup, just like anyone else, about every two weeks. It’s hard for me to get the shampoo out now, because they’re so thick. However, my mother (who also has locks) doesn’t have that problem, so I think it’s incidental to my hair.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> How do you “add” to them as they grow?
> \*\*
Well, obviously the hair doesn’t come out of my head locked. So generally after every other wash, I (well, my mom, usually), takes each individual locks and twists them counterclockwise. Of course, they could be twisted all clockwise, but it’s just an arbitrary direction to be consistent. Over time, the new growth locks like the old.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*Will you ever be able to take them out or will you have to cut them off if you tire of them? \*\*
No, which is the reason that people should think long and hard about it before they do it.
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/5 "2002-12-18T03:55:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by non-native \*
> **Are they real?**
Well, it sorta depends. There are two ways one can lock their hair. The first way, what rastas do, is to simply do nothing to their hair and let it grow out. This is called “organic locks”. Warning: if you do not have naturally kinky hair, this will result in a mat, instead of individual locs. This is the reason that Bob Marley’s locks were not all the same size; he let them form naturally. For a long time I was under the impression that rastas did not wash their hair, but then I met one who did. I don’t know that much about Rastafarianism, so I’m sort of wary about answering questions about it. The second way, the way I did it, is to start your hair with nubian coils or a two-stranded twist. These are called cultivated locks. After being washed, the hair is retwisted without having been combed out. If you have naturally kinky hair, this hair will “lock” over a period of about 6-12 months. It’s considered locked when it cannot be combed out.
> [@](#):
>
> **If so, doesn’t that involving long periods without bathing?**
See above.
Are you a rasta? If yes, i’ll be back with more questions. 🙂 \*\*
[/QUOTE]
Sorry but I’m not a rasta. Wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few on this board, though.
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### Author:  [@TheOtherOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheOtherOne)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/6 "2002-12-18T03:55:59Z")
Have you ever had Rastafarians (assuming that you are not a rastafarian) make rude or unkind comments?
I’ve spent lots of time on Phish tour and at other shows, and have noticed that a few of my (caucasian, dreadlocked) friends have mentioned “harrassment”.
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/7 "2002-12-18T03:56:14Z")
Wow, that was bad coding. ☹
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### Author:  [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/8 "2002-12-18T03:57:32Z")
You’re not one of those people that stands out in front the student union and plays hackey sack with a bunch of hippies, are you?
😃
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/9 "2002-12-18T03:57:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by TheOtherOne \*
> \*\*Have you ever had Rastafarians (assuming that you are not a rastafarian) make rude or unkind comments? \*\*
Not really, but I don’t hang out with them. I wouldn’t be surprised though; mine aren’t strictly “natural”.
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/10 "2002-12-18T03:59:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by interface2x \*
> \*\*You’re not one of those people that stands out in front the student union and plays hackey sack with a bunch of hippies, are you?
>
> 😃 \*\*
Oh God no. I’m studying to be an engineer, not a razzum-frazzum hippie :p.
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### Author:  [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/11 "2002-12-18T05:17:05Z")
are you caucasian or african american?
because I am not quite following the whole procedure as it applies to my hair:
I could twist it in any direction and it would untwist right back.
“Yup, just like anyone else, about every two weeks.”
I wash my hair every day. I could not imagine going two weeks.
Most people I know also wash their hair daily, so do you mean “like evryone else with dreds”?
what made you decide to go for the new look?
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/12 "2002-12-18T05:43:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Bad News Baboon \*
> **are you caucasian or african american?**
I’m black.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*because I am not quite following the whole procedure as it applies to my hair:
>
> I could twist it in any direction and it would untwist right back.
> \*\*
My hair is naturally kinky. People with naturally straight or curly hair can have locks, but they have to use chemicals.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*“Yup, just like anyone else, about every two weeks.”
>
> I wash my hair every day. I could not imagine going two weeks.
> Most people I know also wash their hair daily, so do you mean “like evryone else with dreds”?\*\*
If I washed it every day, it would get too dry. When I had a perm I got my hair permed every 2 weeks, and I couldn’t wash it in between. I think a lot of people with well groomed locs wash them every 1-2 weeks, any more and they get kinda stinky, which is never fun.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*what made you decide to go for the new look? \*\*
Well, when my mom started them I was pretty neutral. But then I went to the place where she got her hair done (she went there to get it locked and then until she learned how to twist it herself; now we only go every once in a while), I saw all of these people with absolutely _amazing_ hair. It was then that I knew that I wanted them.
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### Author:  [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/13 "2002-12-18T07:57:08Z")
Re the “naturalness” of your locks, I had wanted to ask about that too, but for a different reason. Here in Japan, there is quite a large subculture of young people who wish with all their souls that they were black, and true to the young Japanese attitude that no personal style is so unique that it cannot be purchased for money, some of them sport dreadlock extensions. These are, of course, suspiciously perfect, and frustrate me to no end.
So from my point of view, your dreads are totally “natural,” in the sense that they are your actual hair, and you didn’t have to purchase them.
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### Author:  [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/14 "2002-12-18T08:42:07Z")
How do you feel when you see non-black people with locks?
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/15 "2002-12-18T08:44:21Z")
Salon dreads? Or Ogilvie Home Dreads?
🙂
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### Author:  [@broccoli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/broccoli)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/16 "2002-12-18T15:09:39Z")
Attn: straight-haired people who want dreads… check out [http://www.knottyboy.com/dreadwax.htm](http://www.knottyboy.com/dreadwax.htm) (Knotty boy dread wax)
(oh I fotgot if we can post links here now, if the link goes away just look up the stuff in google or something)
The wax makes it pretty damn easy to do, and they have a shampoo for dreads that doesnt take out the wax and oils and other fun stuff.
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/17 "2002-12-18T16:43:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Kyomara \*
> \*\*Re the “naturalness” of your locks, I had wanted to ask about that too, but for a different reason. Here in Japan, there is quite a large subculture of young people who wish with all their souls that they were black, and true to the young Japanese attitude that no personal style is so unique that it cannot be purchased for money, some of them sport dreadlock extensions. These are, of course, suspiciously perfect, and frustrate me to no end.
>
> So from my point of view, your dreads are totally “natural,” in the sense that they are your actual hair, and you didn’t have to purchase them. \*\*
Mine are all my actual hair. However, sometimes those who don’t want to go through the locking process (or have straight hair, obviously) have extensions made of yarn or similar materials to sort of “train” the hair, while making it look like they have mature locks. _shrug_
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/18 "2002-12-18T16:49:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by MeanOldLady \*
> \*\*How do you feel when you see non-black people with locks? \*\*
About the same as with black folks; give them props if they look good, cringe (on the inside) if they don’t look so good.
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/19 "2002-12-18T16:53:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by broccoli! \*
> \*\*Attn: straight-haired people who want dreads… check out [http://www.knottyboy.com/dreadwax.htm](http://www.knottyboy.com/dreadwax.htm) (Knotty boy dread wax)
>
> (oh I fotgot if we can post links here now, if the link goes away just look up the stuff in google or something)
>
> The wax makes it pretty damn easy to do, and they have a shampoo for dreads that doesnt take out the wax and oils and other fun stuff. \*\*
Only thing with that stuff is that it looks pretty heavy. While I’m not sure how folks without kinky hair lock, I know for folks with kinky hair the lighter something is, the better. F’r’instance, beeswax will work, but styling gel is lighter, so it’s the better thing to use. I know for me I don’t want wax and oil buildup in my hair; it makes the locks all goopy. If nothing else, you’re putting more stress on the lock than you have to, and it doesn’t look too good to have white residue.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-chick-with-dreadlocks/143477/20 "2002-12-18T17:03:19Z")
"Yup, just like anyone else, about every two weeks. "
Not me. I wash my hair daily.
So do you lather, rinse, then repeat?
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