white people?

i agree that race shouldnt have anything to do with dreads, but from all of my experiences, it does. all i hear are black girls saying crap about my nappy hair and im trying to be black. hardly anyone that goes to a salon to get dreads care about the history of dreads.

 

Up here where I live, Black and white people respect each other to the fullest for having dreads. Florida sounds harsh in a way. Much respect for going through a constent battle..

 

Having dreads for like a year, i got more positive remarks from black people than from white. And im white. All of them that i met were cool with it.

 

when i had my dreadies, i was in town, and some black rasta guy just grabbed my arm and said 'i like you, your hair, i like i like' and his mate gave me a huge thumbs up =D

couple of black people at college think theyre awesome on white people.. they was always giving me advice and stuff, how to look after them etc, and they were fully against wax =]

 

I'm white and have dreads. Nobody has said anything about them in relation to the colour of my skin.

 

It seems like white males get the most shit.

 

QFE. I've never gotten any flack from anyone about my hair IRL. I don't give off the presence of a person that you ask random rude questions and get away with it.

 

my town's population is 92% white. im guessing old people have more of a problem with my hair than any certain race of people, although the majority of people i see everyday are white. but really, i don't get rude comments about my hair. i had 1 that i could remember, i was ready to eat this person but decided not to. most people are fascinated when they talk to me and like to ask questions. i am a pretty big person, but i dont think im so intimidating that i silence obnoxious people when i walk into a room.

 

Ha, nocareever, i am having the same situation.


If you want them, i'd go for it. My hair is a giant mess right now, and it sticking out in every direction.

And i love it

 

maybe i just live in a liberal city, but i see more white people than black with dreads. i love my dreadies.. follow your heart. never let anything affect who you feel you are, least of all your skin color...

 

I know I am a bit late coming into this tread, but as a white person I thought quite a bit about this issue before I got the dreads--mostly because I teach English and my graduate studies are focused on race and cultural studies. It is important to me that my hair didn't make it so that I couldn't be taken seriously.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it is pretty ridiculous to think that your hair could have that much influence on how you are percieved. I have never had anyone say anything negative. I am only a month in mind you, but I deal with a lot of folks at the university. Professionally it has been recieved well--even by our African American scholar from Africa.

The history of dreadlocks shows that lots of barbarians had em---and they were white. It is not an exclusively african hairstyle by any stretch of the imagination. However, since dominant culture has associated it with the Rastafarian movement--it has become identified as such. I suppose it had long fallen out of fashion wih the Europeans, lol. This current association does say one thing for sure about me--I am certainly not a racist (being that I am sporting a "black" hairstyle).

Dreads have broken more social barriers for me than it has created. Luckily I work in academia and dont have to sweat them becoming a problem. Any university that didnt hire me because of dreads would find that my ideas are way more dangerous to their institution than my hair. You dig?

The biggest concern I think one should have is whether or not they have the patience to deal with dreads. If you go the neglect method, which my cousin did, he had more bad hair days than anyone I had ever known--once the dreads were mature everyone thought he was some mystical being. Until then, he was always getting clowned on for bed-head.

Don't sweat the race issue at all. It is the simple fact that we think about it so much that perpetuates the problems.

And if that isn't good enough---White dreadies found in nature....

 

Haha. Cute pic.

I think for older folk like us Sideshow, we don't get a lot of the flack that the teenish folk get. Just something I've observed. Flack from peers comes from being in a highschool environment and flack from adults, I'm presuming, comes from adults thinking that criticizing a kid is okay and an easy target. Maybe they presume that a kid is doing it because it's a fad? (heaven forbid we think of our youth as deep thinking and capable of expressing great meaning). I dunno.

I'd seriously like to try an experiment that confirmed that hypothesis.

 

You are on to something with that. It is a worthwhile experiment. An old friend of mine and I were witting around with his brother who just turned 18. Once you have reached your mid twenties, one usually finds that they aren't nearly as full of piss and vinegar as they were and things just dont sweat them as much.

I guess on one hand it is a matter of perspective. When you are younger you are more vulnerable and impressionable and it causes you to be sensitive to negative energy. As a teenager, what people think and say about you is way more important than it will be at any other time in your life. Teens let it define how they feel about themselves and everything. Fragile creatures--humans.

The thing is we notice these patterns and that is why teens are so mean to each other. They are so worried about what people think that they jump to the gun to ridicule as a defense mechanism. Endless cycle until one is old enough to just stop and say--this is bullshit.

At the end of the day, so long as you can look yourself in the face and be happy, you are doing well. If someone would have said that to me five years ago I would have laughed tho. Often lack of experience and maturity create a veil that is not easily lifted.

Interesting stuff...

 

I am bi-racial and have dreads and have never given anyone shit for having dreads thats just bs to me especially since almost all cultures that I have read about have sported them at some time or another. The one thing I have noticed where I have live is some hippies with dreads are kinda snotty to me kinda rude but there problem not mine . Ignore the rude ones and just live your life man.

 

I've experienced that white hippie/rasta guys tend to be the most judgmental about dreads.

I think if a person sports their hair as a symbol of their faith, then they should be confident and secure enough in themselves and their faith to not be threatened by what other people do with their body. Some kid with fashion dreads doesn't diminish or mock or blaspheme any belief. That problem is with the perceiver of the blasphemy. (Unlike the church/shirt scenario that involved a conscious intent to blaspheme)