Why did you decide dreads were for you?

Hey everyone, I've been lurking on this forum for about 3 months and decided to post. I have about 2 and a half month old natural dreads.

I was wondering what prompted you guys to start your dreads. I had been pretty listless for a while after I dropped out of high school, and after about 5 months of doing nothing, I decided I needed a change. I had toyed with the idea of dreading my hair for a few years, but I figured I would finally do it, kind of as a reward to myself for starting my life back up. Since I've started dreading my hair, I've gotten my GED, applied to the local community college, and got a job, so I see my dreads as a guiding positive force in my life.

So what made you decide to start the journey?

 

Well I actually remember every bit of my hair history. It used to be really short and I would cut it everytime it became a bother, well one day I was watching The New Guy and there was this extra with a huge poof thing that looked awesome, so from there I decided to grow mine out to get it like his, but when it was growing I found that my hair was super curly, and it looked kind of good so I let it go like that for awhile. So one night I got bored and I saw a hair pick laying next to me and I started to fro my hair. It was the biggest fro I have ever seen. So then I just let it go like that for the longest time, most of the way through middle school. Then a little less than a year ago, I was getting tired of how it was looking so I was looking for a new hairstyle. Well on another bored night I was looking at some pictures and I found one of Shaggy from ICP with some pretty long dreads, and as of September 15th of 2006, I have had dreads, it was the best hair choice I have ever made, I love ever one of them and I don't regret for a second getting them....sooo yeah that's the short of it

Sorry for the long wall of words, but you know how it is .

 

mines a simular but opposite story
i had dreads & parents & hypermaterialistic ex convinced me the right path was to cut my dreads go to school & join corporate hell
all i wanted all my life was to avoid that at all costs
i cut my dreads felt empty & lost but completed school
at my graduation party brke my back, spent the same amount of time in the hospitol i spent in school & pretty much forgot everything i learned
there were just so many signs tellin me my life was going in the wrong direction no matter how much i was told that was the direction i should head in
couple months later started growin em again & livin very happily outside all that corporate bullshit world
that was 17 years ago & never regretted it a single day

 

yeah im in highschool now, i really dont want a job, i hate school and when im in school im always waiting for spring/summer break....i cant imagine 9-5 every weekday until i retire....i just wouldnt know what i would do if i didnt work

 

Because I can't be bothered to brush my hair!

 

Mine worked well with a personal journey. I'd had depression for a couple of years and met this girl who really showed me life again. I'd toyed with the idea of locks for ages and i decided to make it a goal. Something to teach me pateince and resiliance.. as they grow and lock, i grow as a person. I even wrote myself a letter for 2 years time, i'm looking forward to opening that letter with a hefty set of locks upon my head

 

I have my dreads because I personally love the look,
non of my blood family have ever had dreads and i thought it would be interesting to shock a few people, lets just say it did LOL
I dont want to go back to normal hair again. Bring on the matty stuff

 

My hair is naturally curly and it's a big ole nuisance.

Thus, dreads.

Plus, they just make me a happy, happy person.

 

I have loved dreads for some time and about four maybe close to five years ago my sister in law did hers and they were sweet... I kept thinking about doing mine and I was decently unhappy with myself and lots going on in my life at that point... I tried but I had bleached my hair a short while before and my sister in law gave me some sea salt spray and it had a bad reaction with the bleach which made my hair all kinds of brittle and most of the hair broke while I was tryin to dread it.... big bummer... I made a few more bad choices (including getting married to a guy that I knew was the wrong one) and about a year later I was ready for some sweet changes.. I dreaded my hairs even though I had really short hair still and I left the guy and other bad choices behind me.. now I love my hair and have gone the longest time (in my life) with out changing it and am extremely happy with a guy who seems to be perfect for me.

 

thats why I dreaded my hair.

 

I've had an obsession with dreads for a while...maybe 5 or 6 years?
Also with gauged ears. I see both things as beautiful and unique (even though they're not unique. ) and special...it's a very individual thing in the sense that it's just you and your hair, a personal journey.

I kept discouraging myself, telling myself that people thought it was ugly so I shouldn't do it, because I wanted to be pretty. So I dyed my hair, wore makeup, spent outrageous amounts of money on clothes and shoes and cute underwear.

I'd never been less happy in my life...I had an eating disorder for three years, I second guessed every little thing I did or said, I self mutilated in several ways...I did so many things that weren't good for me. I surrounded myself with people who didn't really care about me.

I finally woke up recently and realized that that person is not who I want to be, and I don't need people to verify that I'm worth being around and I don't need to be considered good looking.

I guess it was a way of freeing myself from my old, bad concepts and standards.

 

since i was 6 korn have bin my favourite band and others like soulfly and ill nino and well they all got dreads. my bro used 2 have dreads aswell so iv always wanted them but never dared to get it dun then i met my gf who im still with...that was like 8 months ago and she rly wanted me to have dreads so when she went on holiday for 3 months i dreaded them as a surprise for her coming back hehe she loved them and i still love them im so glad i got it dun. 6 months having dreads now it feels gr8! i cant go back to normal hair now...it just aint happenin.

 

well, im not quite sure how to say it, but i just think im supposed to have dreads.
and guaged ears, like knot dirty said.
i never really thought about why i have dreads...
when i was little i always had really long hair and if i had known about dreads, it would have been dreaded. every week my mom would brush my hair. it would be all full of mats and knots and bits of forest and i would be just miserable as she brushed it all out. i never knew anyone with dreads and i dont think my parents did either, but i think at some level, thats what my hair was supposed to be like.
by the time learned about dreads, i was in lame conformist mode and it didnt occur to me that dreads were what id always wanted.
then, when i was 16, i said fuck it and just dreaded my hair. i loved it, but decided to let go of it, along with my messed up early teen years and immaturity, and experience short hair for a few months.
now that its dreading again, i just feel right. everything about my hair suits me and im never unhappy with it even though it might not look like much yet. i feel beautiful.

 

I like this thread. =)

Ever since I could talk I've been 'different'. Weird. Unusual. The girl who loved bugs and didn't like other girls and drew bizarre things. I never liked to fit inand I'm deeply interested in all things society labels taboo. conformity is death in my eyes - so naturally I dressed much different (and still do) than all the other kids. I got bullied, harassed, degraded.. day in and day out.
So up until about the last two years or so I was a mental mess.. extremely self conscious, hated how I looked, did some self-destructive things etc etc.
A few things that occured began to improve the situation, but nothing like the day I first dropped acid. It cleared my head; magnified each destructive aspect of myself, and helped me to overcome them.
Now.. I've always loved LOVED dreadlocks. Ever since I first saw 'em. I had been hesitating on dreading my own hair.. but the acid's lesson totally obliterated the self-conscious obstacles and so about a month later I did it.
My dreads symbolize what I have gone through, a transformation. They signify the loss of a HUGE weight and a fresh new chapter of life. I am no longer even close to how self conscious I once was. Dreads are liberating, I am completely free with them. Plus it fits the nonconformity

 

Hey everyone, thanks for the replies. I just find it absolutely fascinating how locks can mean such a myriad of things to different people.