Why did you get dreadlocks?

This is just a question that ran through my mind I wanted to ask on here. Anyone care to share reasons/stories? I'd love to know!

 

At first I wanted to get them because I was growing my hair out to get cornrows, but I wouldn't have a chance to go to my cousins to have his sister do it, plus my mom didn't want me to get them (I would have gotten them anyways) so in school xavier and tywan (my friends) were talking about how they were going to get it dreaded when theirs grew out so I decided thats what I would do. Xavier who is a huge Bob Marley fan got me into listening to more of Bob Marley which in turn made me study rasta, which in turn made me turn to Jah monday after I smoked and listened to Bob Marley so than when I got my dreads wednesday they had more of a spiritual purpose.

 

I dreaded my hair because I had dreads a couple of years ago but cut them for my wedding and really missed them. I love the care free, next-to-no-maintenance aspect of dreadlocks. Dreads, to me at least, are beautiful and natural.

 

No offense intended brother, but your research wasn't very productive.
Had you studied Rastafarians and their ways a bit more carefully you would have learned that they do not apply wax to their hair. Nor do they backcomb, but rather, let Nature go to work.

Anyways, I'm in the process of growing Locks because to me, they've always had a Spiritual aspect to them. They can be seen time and time again in different references as to how Spiritual they are. Numbers 6:5 in the Bible states this. Samson who gained power through his dreads. The ancient Celtic tribes that believed that Locks was symbolic of Power. The Rasta's and their take on it.

Those are just a few examples. None moved me more than the other. I just came to the conclusion that it is no coincidence that this is portrayed to be Spiritual time and time again. To me, it means Oneness with the Earth because Mother Nature takes her course on my hair(s).

Another reason, is that this "hairstyle" ( bear with me ) simultaneously rejects mainstream society aswell as your typical view of an Open-Minded individual.

Of course, the fact that they look Badass doesn't hurt.

Namaste, John.

 

1st time i was young was long ago only seen em couple times and just knew it felt right
as a youth it took both parents tacklimng me to cut my hair i always knew it would feel right long and free well i let em grow for couple years then ex and parents pushed me into cuttin um to gotro school...huge mistake..felt hallow empty like i lost touch with something huge
wore a hat that whole year but had to keep it short for schoool..month afyter shool ended wenmt to the woods and they started to grow again
2nd set even whren they were inches onluy i knew id have em till they dragged on the grownd and wore off on theyre own

 

I was about to graduate from high school, I became vegetarian, finally had the guts to reject Christianity, and needed some type of symbolic representation of my new life and philosophy. Also as I have not found a religion which works for me my locks represent the slow progress in forming my own unique set of beliefs. My locks are kind of like my "road of life" companions which grow and knot as I gain knowledge and life experience. The knowledge and life experiences tangle like my hair and form into who I am today. That and I don't like combing my hair

 

the heavens broke
and snakes hissed off my head-

It was time.

 

Ahh, those are all killer reasons. It's cool that your dreads all make you happier and amazing for that. I hope when I get mine they mean as much to me as they do to all of you cool cats. ^_~

Edit:: Did you ever have a time you regretted them?

 

nah

 

i feel mine not only show an expression of self(they just feel right), but they are also a return to nature in a way. Everything today is so fast and plastic/artificial, that locks stand out to me as a slower more respectful return to humanities roots. Your hair wants to be in knots let it be. The neglet-only knottyheads can grief me about backcombing if they want, but whos to say their way (or my way) is right. Do what feels right to you and enjoy yourself.

isaac

 

I hated brushing my hair

 

i had always wanted to try, and i was starting a new phase in my life. i wanted to really affirm who i am, and the fact that i will not live my life for anyone but myself. i will not change my hairstyle for a job or career, i will not look like everyone else just so i can "fit in." i was working with high functioning adults with mental retardation at the time, and i was very frustrated with how my bosses wanted me to "help" my clients to conform to the rest of the world, act like everyone else, be like everyone else. i didn't feel like i was supposed to assist them to be themselves, and that just felt wrong to me. because i refuse to be other than myself, and i want that for my clients as well.

so i put dreads in my hair, to learn patients, and to remind myself that conforming to others' standards of beauty and style and proper ways to act is just total bullshit. i actually expected to get fired over the dreads. i didn't, but it helped me realize that i needed to quit that job. because the pressure to act other than myself was so strong... before my dreads i didn't notice it so much... afterwards... well, it was nearly unbearable. but my leaving i think really helped, in subtle ways maybe, to make my point, that people are at their best when they are themselves, not when they're trying to be like everyone else.

 

You are so right about the connection between wearing dreadlocks and affirmining your identity.

If you are interested there is an Australian artist who di a book on dreadlocks
here's her mail Helen Wells helen.wells@ozemail.com.au

I wear dreadlocks because I discovered them on a trip to Jamaica in 1980.

I was taken aback by the force and the beauty and the pride exhibited by the Rastas.
They wear dreadlocks I was told because it is the natural way the kinky hair was inteded to grow. The locks were cut off and the kinks permed out and the memory of what they really looked like before encounterng the occidental world was forgotten.

The Rastas came down from the mountains to teach the ghetto dwellers about natural living and the living God.

I was told that I needed to be patient and let them form naturally.

So that's what i did

 

So this is my fourth set of dreads.. and hopefully my last. The first time I got dreads was because I had this friend back home with them, and I thought they were amazing. So I decided I wanted to get them, not for any particular reason. I got home and told my friend about it, and ironically she had decided to get them as well, so on my birthday she came over and dreaded my hair.. which came out interesting, and not how I had planned. but I decided to give them a chance, and after a while I couldn't rip them apart anymore, and they were just terrible.. I didn't have much patience back then. And they were supah waxed.
After that whole episode, after a few months I tried again.. and that was a failure. Then the November after that I dreaded them again, and I had them for about 8 months.. then out of the blue I just brushed them out. I don't know what ever compelled me to do so, and I regretted it for a long time. They were so amazing, too.

What I think happened was the friend that I had had gotten them, and they came out amazing and she's still got them, and I felt like I had always been silently, and totally one sidedly, 'competing' with myself towards her, struggling to have my own reasons for having locks. Since having brushed out my dreads the last time, I have changed a lot.
Starting just over three weeks ago, I started my current set. To me it represents finally being me for just me, and nobody else. It's just me and my dreads, now. As I grow, they'll grow with me, and mature, and form into their own being.

Usually when people ask me I don't really give them my real reasoning. I just say I don't have to fuss with it. It seems like they're just asking to ask, not because they want to know. Do people seem like that to any of you?

 

I'm in the slow process of growing mine, just because it feels like something I need to have in my life, that through life my locks will always be with me. From the tough high school days, and on into my old years. Knowing that the ends of my locks formed years and years ago, and the new always turns to old. Spirtuality at its best. A connection to earth and inner self. Learning to give up forced image, and live with how my body wants me to look. And it feels so great, it feels really really great.
Its something I know I will always have through everything, and will always make me happy.

 

yea even my friend that was rasta for years didn't know that

 

I got dreads because I hated brushing my hair and trying to please others. I cut them off because I've got a weird self-esteem. I'm growing them again because they made me realise in their absence that it doesn't matter what the others think, and besides I just miss everything about them. the way they felt, the weird little misfits, the way they smelled... yeah. that's my reason.

 

My hair looks dumb unlocked. It's super curly, and turns into a fro when it gets long. It look even worse short.

 

i started dreads not knowing what i was getting into.
all i knew was that i wanted a drastic change. i was gonna shave my head, but that seemed too... wasteful.
so i backcombed it, more or less just for the hell of it.
i wanted to be someone that most people aren't.
"i wanted to be unique, just like everyone else" hah.
after i got dreads i started getting attached.
they don't look too great at the moment, and i worry like crazy at every little thing that happens....
and people insult my hair so much.
however, this hair has taught me how to ignore what people think and it's given me the power to show a lot of self-restraint.
i used to live in a very racist neighborhood and i used to have that self-restraint, but i lost it afterwards. i really feel like this hair has brought back that great trait back to me.
i'm gonna keep these dreads for a very long time. i can tell.

 

It was out of resolve to instigate both change and commitment. A return to a state of mind I had lost and needed to go back to in order to finally move forward again.

It was also because my fine limp-ass hair looked like total crap with any length and dreads could give me both length and volume.

And lets face it - dreads just rock. You can't look at a set of dreads and not bust out a smile.