Having recently lived/worked on a college campus during the big upswing in the anti-globalization movement, I’ve been exposed to a lot of the people who like to protest the WTO at every moment of the day and like to major in oh-so-useful fields like philosophy (Minoring in philosophy is a good idea, I think, but majoring is impractical beyond belief).
I won’t get into their politics, that’s too much substance for a Saturday, but I would like to comment on their HAIR.
A lot of these neo-hippies like to fashion their hair in something that tries to be dreadlocks but clearly, clearly is not. The locks are kind of haphazardly done on their head, and any part of their hair that isn’t done like this is just a plain mess.
And when you look at the hair closely, you see that the dreadlocks are nothing more than dried out, matted clumps of hair. GROSS!!!
Yesterday I was crammed on the subway standing right behind someone who had a ponytail done in this fashion. His stringy, greasy hair went down the back of his head and just sort of congealed into this dried-out mess that resembled the things I’d find when I’d look under the bed where my dog slept as a kid.
I swear, these things look like a cross between turds and hairballs. They totally gross me out. I mean, would it fuckin’ kill you to WASH YOUR HAIR?!?!
By the way, majoring in philosophy is not such a bad idea if one is going to law school.
AND at my school, most of the philosophy majors are double-majors. The ones I’ve talked to say that philosophy training really prepares them well for other disciplines as well.
AFAIK that goes for any dredlocks other than the slim pleated type whether the boomshakalack rood boy is white or black.
I tried twisting my hair into dreds years ago but after about a week and a half it was just too itchy and I had to give up.
What’s worse than crusty dreds, on us Mr Charlie types at least, are the pleated types. A friend put this kind into my hair for me once. Only after an hour of tugging and smarting did I get to see the result. A weird looking grid of exposed white scalp against black hair.
I find dreads sort of icky in concept anyway… just don’t see how you keep your scalp clean that way, but I’ve seen dreads that at least don’t look that bad. But the ones that are as big around as prescription pill bottles and look like owl droppings are just nasty as hell.
My understanding, based on my limited comprehension of the Rastafarian religion, is that dreads are supposed to be developed naturally, i.e. by not washing or combing the hair. Ever.
Good old Google got me:
It is certainly ironic that the 90’s version of the hippy has taken on the look of the Rastafarian (which grew out of black slavery), but if they’re nappy and unwashed that just means they’re being true-to-form.
Another site:
So, while I personally agree that not washing one’s hair is quite gross, the nasty, unkempt dreads are much more representative of the Rasta religion than those grown in a salon.
BTW, I’m really getting tired of people like SNenc calling people “neo-hippies” - are you, sir or madam, an expert? Did you grow up on a commune? Or do you just believe it is your Gawd-given right to decide who is or isn’t a hippy/hippie?
In high school I knew a guy who grew dreds. (White guy. There were exactly three black people in my high school.) He looked really cool with them, actually. Especially when he was up on stage (he played guitar in a promising local band named A Promising Local Band), headbanging and going with the groove.
Then they started to smell.
He shaved his head and stuck with your run-of-the-mill spikes after that. I haven’t seen him since we graduated but last I heard he was going to try to grow a mohawk.
white girl who had dreads back in the day checking in here
not washing your hair regularly, dreadlocks or no dreadlocks, is just icky. Dirty hair won’t dread better–if anything, the built up grease makes it harder for the hair to cohere. The trick is to wash, but–like waterj2’s cite suggests–never condition, and throw away your comb. The rest comes naturally.
