What do you all think of dreadlocks? Are they too often linked with the rastafari/hippy/I smoke too much pot-type people? Do they still make a statement? Did they ever? Do any Dopers have dreads?
The reason I ask is that I am thinking about getting my hair dreaded when it gets long enough. I think they look pretty cool and say alot about whoever is wearing them.
Well, thats it.
peace,
JB
I’ve been meaning to start a thread on this very subject, (I was going to put it in The Pit, though) because I find dreadlocks to be possibly one of the most unattractive things someone could do to him/herself. This includes multiple facial piercings, ill-considered tattoos, the works. But dreadlocks are just plain dirty. I don’t think they say much about a person except to trumpet the words, “This person has no hygene skills.”
The guy who bakes the bread at the Subway closest to my room has a headfull of shoulder-length dreads. I want to vomit every time I see him handle someone else’s food.
Sorry, but you asked.
From what I have seen and read, it seems to me dreadlocks are only dirty if you as a person are dirty. You can still wash your hair and scalp I think. Sure, some people with dreads are dirty and un-clean even, but you cant tell me that everyone who has dreads is dirty. I just dont buy it.
peace,
JB
I tried to dread my (curly and seemingly dread-friendly, albeit white girl) hair last november and ended up having to cut them all out 6 weeks later.
Partially is because I didnt really know what I was doing - dreading is actually a long process and, in the beginning, is a very high-maintenance hairstyle. I got a kit online with a special brush and wax and shampoo and special rubberbands - anyway, after about a month I just got sick of constantly having to try and tighten them (which you are supposed to do until they get rolling), gave up for a couple days and then they started unraveling from the tops, at which point I gave myself a boy haircut and invested heavily in bandannas.
As for dirty, though -
I had to take to spraying my head with room deoderizer. I was afraid to wash my hair and wash out all my hard work, and although I had a special shampoo, it didnt really smell too much like anything.
Once you get your dreads good and solid, you can wash them pretty much like normal hair (so I understand) but during the 6 months or so you have to work on them - Pee You.
All that said, if I found someone who could show me the RIGHT way to dread and assure me a nicely dreaded head that could be attained with more frequent shampoos than my first time out, I most certainly would go for them again - when done right, I think dreads look awesome. (And I am much cooler than Juniper2000) : )
Dreadlocks look utterly ridiculous on white people, particularly on white women. There’s a young woman at my local Barnes & Noble with dreads, and she looks stupid. And the sad thing is, she’d be really attractive if she wore her hair just about any other way.
As for the OP- in my mind, I’d say that they’re forever associated with the whole Rastafarian/ganja crowd, so on that level they make a “statement.”
Despite my username, I am neither Rastafarian nor a dreadlock-wearer.
[sub]It’s a nickname I had in college, in case you’re wondering.[/sub]
There’s a man on I see on the train sometimes in the morning; he’s got very well-maintained, not at all skanky dreads that hang just past his shoulders. He also happens to dress like he’s posing on the cover of GQ every day. I’ve never spoken to him so I have no idea if his dreads are a fashion choice or a symbol of something or what, but as for the “pot smoking hippy” image, that’s the last thing you’d think of looking at this guy.
I also think he’s just about the hottest guy on the train most mornings, FWIW.
I see more men than women with dreads, regardless of ethnicity, so I can’t really comment on the look for women. Most women I see with elaborate hair stuff have gone for braids, which I would love to do someday (although a friend of mine with hair similar in texture to mine tried it once, and even with daily care her hair dried out something awful).
Okay, I stand correct re: dreadlocks and hygene. Dreadlocks and the people who wear them need not be dirty and stinky. Consider me educated. However, I still find them extremely unattractive.
I’m sure you’ll carry off any hairstyle you choose with panache and incredible levels of style, though, jabe. We Dopers are a special breed that way. 
Uh, that’s “stand corrected” Damn keyboard gnomes…
I had dreadlocks for a few years. In case it matters, I am white.
They are indeed a lot of work at first, and washing them at first tends to ruin them. So, for the first six months or so, yes, I was smelly. I kept the rest of myself clean and dressed resonably well, which was fine but tended to accentuate the smelliness coming off the top of my head. I would soak my hair in salt water as often as I could in an attempt to keep clean. I wouldn’t say the smell was unbearable, but other people noticed it. I occasionaly have “smell flashbacks”. I cut them off about six years ago.
I would say I got the least amount of grief when I was more dressed up. But I have to admit, I probably looked like an idiot.
I kind of have to agree that there are few people who can really pull off the dred look, and none of them are white. I’ve never seen a white person it looked good on.
Who said you have to look dirty with dreads?
Seriously, some people can pull this off and some can’t. Some just like some people look really dirty with them while some don’t.
Acutally, in all the places I’ve been, I have seen one white woman who actually did look good in dreads. However, they were not the kind I’ve move commonly seen (ie- the thick chunky ones), but instead really small: more like small braids that decided to go nuts. Also, her hair was a middling brownish color: so from a distance her hair looked like it was braided, it wasn’t until you were close that you could see they were in fact, dreds. Some of them even had beads nestled (tastefully) within them, or were thin enough to have larger beads slipped over them, so I could see her hair style working in a ‘formal dress up’ situation. With the way she did it, it did not give off the impression (to me) that she was a hippie/drug user/whatever: just someone who found a hair style that worked for her, was comfortable with it, and that translated through to her personality.
Of those friends I've had who have had dreads, in one case they were experimenting with it because they were sick and tired of cutting their hair, and another simply forgot to take care of his hair, and the dreads sorta developed on their own. In the first case, while the dreads themselves weren't that bad looking (and didn't smell), they simply did **not** look good on him. On the latter, the dreds simply looked disgusting! And stunk. And a whole bunch of other adjectives that I'm sure more creative minds than mine can come up with.
On the personal side, while I have no desire to put my long schizophrenicly-colored hair into dreads (I prefer being able to run my hands through it, etc.), I have had several people (from all racial types, friends and total strangers alike) mention that they thought that I would look good in dreds. Go fig. (Then again, I also had a complete stranger walk up and tell me that I was the only other natural redhead in San Francisco once…)
Now, to get the the point of the OP… I believe that if done right, dreds can look nice, and don’t bring up the rasta/drug user/etc. image. The trick is, doing them right to begin with. If you screw up, you basically have to shave them off, and start over. You may want to check into one of those ‘virtual makeover’ thingies where you give it a headshot of yourself, and it essentially cuts-and-pastes different hairstyles upon your picture. There should be at least one place out there that includes dreds as a possible hairstyle to preview.
<< This time, vacation in Hell and coming back to work wouldn’t seem so bad. >>
There was a German violinist at my high school who had dreads. They looked very nice on her. She had assorted beads and stuff on them. It was cute. In the limited contact I had with her, I didn’t notice any sort of smell.
Black people’s hair grows differently than caucasian’s hair. Straight hair is thought of as the optimum hair type. For years the idea was that a black, mostly black woman, would have to straighten her hair. A woman who had a child with straighter hair would be complimented while a woman whose child was born more kinky would be made to feel almost inferior. The hair tools used on straight hair are not good for combing the kinky hair type. This means that it is very painful to comb the hair.
So a girl child at an early ago (as young sometimes as 6 or even younger) would be forced to start undergoing the chemical straightening procedure. This frequenly leads to scalp and hair damage if not outright loss of hair. So then comes the braiding. This allowed the women to have the appearance of straight hair without as many chemicals. But what this can also lead to is hair loss.
So now the dreadlocks, they allow the hair to be disciplined without the use of chemicals yet are healthier since they do not pull the hair and scalp like braiding does. It also allows the hair to keep more of the natural oils thus the scalp and hair is healthier. It also allows a more natural look for a black person without making them go thru the agony of combing the hair.
But what some are starting to go toward is instead of dreadlocks they are doing sisterlocks[sup]TM[/sup] which is a type of dreadlock yet uses smaller locks and a certain pattern to dividing the hair. I think more blacks should have dreadlocks.
If you are white and want dreadlocks, for it to look good you are going to need someone who is good with dreadlocks so that you don’t look like you have snakes coming out of your head.
Thanks for all the replies. Up here in Burlington, I think there are a few places that do dreads profesionaly, you know, for the UVM phish heads. It might be ‘against the whole dread culture’ to get them done at a salon, but I look HORRIBLE with short hair so I dont want to frig them up and have to shave my head.
Anyway, thanks again
peace,
JB
I love natural organic crunchy hippie women and to me they always look good in dreads. But then anything they look like is cool with me.
What I want to know is why every time I see white dreads they’re a sort of straw color. It tends to be a mottled range of colors that are paler than light brown but not exactly blond either. One a single person’s head, this range of mottled colors. Does the dreadification process do that to white people’s hair color?
I once heard that you dont need to wash your hair and that this is all just a big scam by the shampoo companies. Apparently your scalp releases oils that naturally self-clean your hair.
I didnt know whether this was true or not but I thought I’d give it a try so I didnt wash my hair (using shampoo) for about a year, I just used water. I also let it grow long.
It naturally went into dreadlocks (Im white, by the way).
My hair grew to about halfway down my back.
As for the cleanliness experiment: It didnt really work but this could be because I live in London - a polluted city. Maybe out in the countryside, it would work.
As for the dreadlocks: I have to agree with Ich Bin’s post - I probably looked like a bit of an idiot. It didnt help me get any more girls (which, if Im being honest, was probably at least part of my motivation) and the whole thing was probably more trouble than it was worth.
I cut them all off eventually but at the time I did think I looked pretty cool. All the more so for the fact they were natural (not salon) dreads.