dreads are beautiful, baby! what other reason does anyone need? if you get over the issue you have with this, you'll be able to better appreciate the variety that non-black hair has to offer this style! it's love, and love is good.

when i was 17 and first realized how beautiful dreadlocked hair was, i mentioned getting them to my boyfriend. he said that i wouldn't be "pretty" with them..i was 17..i didn't do it. this continued for 9 years; every time i wanted to lock my hair, i was told that i wouldn't be pretty that way. the summer i turned 27 (_ten_ years later), after i'd come to peace with the fact that i'm not conventionally pretty anyway, and was tired of giving up the ways that i found myself beautiful (the type of "beauty that moves"), and i decided get myself some of that beautiful, beautiful hair i'd wanted so long. when i look at, play with, maintain (see other people look at, feel other people play with, sit under somebody else helping me to maintain..), i like the way i look- sometimes i can even admit to saying i might be beautiful (at least to me!). i've never, ever been able to do that before.

looking into the history of dreadlocks, you'll also find that other cultures wore dreads. think about the celts! i'm 100% irish, so they are a part of my history (and when we came over we mated with, like, everybody, so nearly everyone has a little in them). i'm hesitant to make this point, though, because it doesn't have to matter (unless it makes you feel good about your hair, but can't it do that without making you feel bad about others' hair?), it's the human race! besides, even straight hair will knot eventually, right (my hair is coarse and wavy, but i'm assuming straight hair would knot eventually..)?

what's most is i feel at home- a feeling i want everyone to have- however they get to it. straight hair, locks, chemical, natural, african american, euro-american whatever (ya, i left out _a lot_ of stuff there- please, noone get offended- i was only addressing what was brought up in the initial note)! we have control over very little outside of our own bodies and, therefore, should relish in seeing someone control that however they see fit (i had to explain this to the principal at my first grader's school after she wanted her hair dyed super-duper hot pink).

i feel like i'm forgetting something obvious.

i love you for posing the question and opening up to the replies you'll get on this one.

I would agree with Ann and Sugar...I don't think you can really attribute one style to a particular culture...dreads may have become more popular in this century as an expression of personal preference, but if you really want to think about it, you could probably trace them back to the caveman days...I don't think they developed exclusively from one certain culture...

The closest thing I could compare to this in my way of thinking and in my personal experience, would be to compare it to the evolution of belly dance...you hear so much about exactly where the dance came from, but no one really knows...the base seems to go back to preparing the female body for childbirth, but somewhere along the way, it was shown that the same movements could become a thing of beauty and revelry, to celebrate the power of the female body...

My personal reasons for wanting dreads really have to do with my dance and my way of life...I do ATS (American Tribal Style) and Tribal Fusion belly dance and dreads are very popular with the style of dance and the general feel that we like to convey...kind of like the tendency towards lots of body art and piercings also go along with it...it's a very earthy style and since dreads are more of a boho, earthy style, they seem to fit with the atmosphere of the dance...

Personally, I think that the style of outward appearance always come from the heart and spirit and if you're being true to that, then you're being true to whatever style it is that you choose to project...I don't think it's appropriating another culture, but honouring that which is embedded deep within us as a way of showing our inner selves to the world...whether you want to call it ancestral memory, cultural, or racial...or past life...I think it all comes from somewhere...and I don't think that one culture deserves to employ these styles any more than another...we're all part of the HUMAN race, after all. :-)

Ah, yes...Sugar reminds me I forgot to answer the charge of "Cultural Appropriation".

Hair style aside, one is on dangerously thin ice when one speaks of cultural appropriation in a manner implying that each culture (or society) is distinct from jump. It is human to mimic (it is at the core of our ability to communicate in a more articulate manner than other animals) and it is human to experiment and borrow and to misuse/abuse technologies and social structures and fashion (among a long list of other things).

If a person associates "dreadlock" with "black", one would, of course, be mistaken. "Dreadlocks" (by that name) have a distinct cultural history that is not black in general, but is specifically Jamaican. Despite the teachings of Marcus Garvey (who was not Rastafarian, I might add, but raised Methodist and converted to Catholicism) which, as most know, were Afro-centric, the style & the word came from Jamaica. This is, of course, an extremely oversimplified version of history (as I'm sure you know), but it gets the point across quickly....unless one wishes to argue that there IS anything such as a unified "black culture" (or ever was), or that there is any such thing as "white culture" (or ever was).

That said, if one is talking about the style of hair that most people NOW commonly call "dreadlocks" (but in different cultures has been called many things - note the ancient Romans who feared those crazy Scots coming down from the highlands 2000 or so years ago, or the Hindu mystics, or the Biblical references), I would steer them to any number of the books on the subject, or even a simple Wiki article:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadlocks

All THAT said, if one is talking about pissed-off-because-they-don't-have-any-reason-to-be-pissed-off white upper middle class suburban teenagers who decide to smoke pot and blast reggae and where t-shirts of Che Guevara and Marley (as if Che had anything to do with Marley) and the like, or the rich businesses who simply see "reggae culture" as another convenient revenue stream (largely because of the aforementioned teenagers) along with Pier-1 and all things Green, well then I suppose one could get a bit steamed.

Steamed less because of the appropriation of FASHION (that alone is somewhat silly), but because humans think not only concretely, but SYMBOLICALLY.

Cultural appropriation is seen as a dominant culture taking from a minority culture (not just within the same society/geographical area) and stripping those things taken of their meaning. My question is this: If fashion or music or art or poetry or religion or language or architecture (and so on) are taken and the meaning is altered, why do we feel the original source is somehow diminished (especially when we realize those "original source" was likely never very original to begin with)?

Yes, I understand a fat white kid from the 'burbs with long dreaded hair & a fake accent mimicking the style but lacking substance might be annoying to someone who is deeply moved by Marley (or even annoying to someone who dislikes Marley, for that matter - hahaha!), but is it that he isn't authentic that annoys? Is it that others find it entertaining? Is it that someone feels that others find it entertaining AT THE EXPENSE of someone "more authentic"? Is it that he profits financially? Is it that he profits when others don't?

If said fat kid turns others on to beautiful music (or art or religion or art or architecture or poetry or language), has he truly done something less than admirable? Or has he done nothing more than all humans have done that assists in the march of progress in all the history art and religion and music and language and science and technology?

good to see such positive input in this thread. i was actually taken aback when first read the topic. thought it really could have been worded better. so i bit my tongue =) the dread tribes are my fav because there isnt any BS drama like so many others. adult convos can happen without any power trips.

Like others have said here I dread for a number of reasons. The thing I find very interesting is that the ONLY people who say anything to me about cultural appropriation are white liberals. I have had many a person from the Motherland compliment me on my dreads. My dreads are not forced or unnatural either. What got me thinking about dreading my hair was an incident that happened after I had my second son. My labor was long and difficult and needless to say there was a fair amount of thrashing around on the bed. After it was all done I had managed to put quite a few little dreads in my waist length red hair that took DAYS to comb out and I remember my hairdresser friend (she who helped me come them out and was Jamaican) saying they where so tight and round I should just give in to nature and dread the rest of it. So years later on my 45th birthday I took the plunge and have been happy natty girl for 5 years. Love my locks and would have it no other way.

Hi everyone! This is an awesome group :)

I'm about to start up dreads, and cultural appropriation was actually one of the things that I thought about... For me the part where they are a cross-cultural phenomenon is a big thing. But at the same time I do think that a lot of white kiddies in America were exposed to dreads via the influx of Rastafari music culture, and there has been a LOT of cultural appropriation going on in that area. I'm not saying that all white people with an appreciation for Rastafari are appropriators, but I have met way too many kids who love Marley and grass but absolutely refuse to engage with any of the issues of the ongoing effects of colonialism etc.

The real bottom line for me is, if white people never borrowed from other cultures, life would freaking SUCK for us. ;p I love bagpipes probably a lot more than the next person, but I really can't imagine my life without rock and roll.

Like I think a lot of people here I'm very into things that are originally from non-euro cultures (in my case belly dance and martial arts), and I definitely have had some dialogues about what this "borrowing" means in terms of white privilege... and not just with other white liberals. I'm really curious, where do y'all think the line between appropriation and healthy cultural exchange is? How does the historical ability of white peoples to define the "official" version of culture/history/etc. play into that? I wrestle with this a lot, and I would love to hear other people's thoughts :)

Hey man, everyone on this earth identifies with what ever struggles happened many many years ago just as much as anybody...barely. None of us have had to struggle anything other than our own economy for decades and at least not in my generation. We are homoerectus yo...we ALL come from the same ancestors, in fact, ANY two people in this world can be traced back no more than 50 generations, meaning, that we all share a common ancestor. Therefore, 1) p.s. everyones hair locs on its own, believe it or not, 2) all of our ancestors are the same if you want to be technical, the only difference being that somewhere down the line there were groups of people who migrated further from the equator, thus, lightening their skin, 3) Everyone has the right to know the history and "struggle" behind locs which in fact was no struggle at all, it was based on a belief that hair growth is the manifestation of spirit and cutting or shedding your hair would in turn weaken your spirit. What I want to know is why anyone cares? Personally, if I get the impression that someone has dreads for fashion as opposed to spirituality, it bothers me yes, but it is none of my god damn business in the first place, it has no affect on my well being whatsoever, and they're going to end up cutting them anyways and no ones the wiser. If more people worried about how we're the same and the importance of accepting eachother, than we wouldn't have corrupted the world with our foul taste in the first place. I hope you can find your answer.

I worried about this issue when I was starting my dreads... I didn't want people to be upset that a white girl like me had dreads, but I have always found them so beautiful every since seeing them as a little kid. I admit that I was somewhat relieved to read that there is evidence that Celts had dreads since my heritage is pretty much 100 percent Scottish. But I am still a little bit worried about offending black people with my dreads...

I have a good feeling Jesus had dreads, who doesn't wanna be like Jesus?

In any case I'm certain the first humanoids to roam the planet had no choice but to have dreads. Their hair grew, they wouldn't think to cut or comb or do anything with it. Before we were civil we were just as primitive as the rest of the earths creatures. We may have possesed the potential to become as we are now, but it took millions of years of accidents to build vocabulary, social skills, reasoning, etc. so locks would be inarguably the first original hairstyle of our species wouldn't they?