There is a misconception that dreadlocks have to be dirty, but this is false. Due to the tight kinky and curly strand patterns of Afro hair, dreadlocks are more likely to form naturally with this hair type than others. They can be achieved through various methods, such as twisting the hair or through ceasing to comb through hair until dreadlocks are formed. Here is a starting block for those who genuinely don’t know, and for those who do to send to their friends so they don’t have to keep explaining things themselves.ĭreadlocks are a hairstyle in which the hair strands are locked together and manipulated into thicker individual ropes. In a week that saw Justin Bieber get dreadlocks and a black woman go viral for arguing with a white dude about having the hairstyle himself, it’s about time we answer these questions, so that you never have to ask us again. What surprised is how often the same question came up in various forms: what is cultural appropriation? Why can’t white people wear dreadlocks? Are black people who wear weave cultural appropriators too? Their dreadlocks were inspired by the Nazarites of the Bible.A while back, here at gal-dem we asked our readers to send us in questions about anything they wanted us to answer. Rastafari hold that Haile Selassie is a direct descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, through their son Menelik I. Rastafari movement dreadlocks are symbolic of the Lion of Judah which is sometimes centered on the Ethiopian flag. For this reason, many people with dreads go the extra mile to keep their locs clean. In fact, clean hair knots better and faster than dirty hair does. How dirty are dreadlocks?ĭreadlocked hair is not inherently dirty if its well cared for. Odors out of your control, like air pollution, scents from food, and smoke, can also settle in your dreads and produce an odor. It produces a mildew-like smell that’s really tough to get rid of. Mold can grow in your dreadlocks (i.e., dread rot) if your hair isn’t properly dried after washing. Historically Irish men and women wore their hair long and loose, especially women, who saw this as a symbol of their beauty. Did the Irish wear dreadlocks?Īnother set of Europeans who believed to have sported dreadlocks were the Irishmen.
There were blond haired blue eyed types in the mix as well, but a minority. On average, the ORIGINAL Celts were of medium height and complexion, had mainly dark brown to reddish hair and brown and hazel eyes, according to archaeologists and physical anthropologists. Among these are the indian ‘Jata’ as worn by shiva, the kenyan ‘locs’ as worn by the massai warriors, ‘sisterlocs’ as commonly called in Africa American communities, or the ‘Elflocks’ from the celts and the britons. What are Celtic dreadlocks called?ĭepending on the origin location, the expression of dreadlocks differs. The hairstyle was originally referred to as a “dreadful” hairstyle by the Euro centric Jamaican society. It was a means of defiance for ex-slaves to rebel against Euro-centrism that was forced on them. The dreadlocks hairstyle first appeared in Jamaica during post emancipation. When we hear of Samsons locks, we only hear of Samson and Delilah, But that’s only one half of a 5 chapter story. But the story goes much deeper than that. Who is Samson and why are his dreadlocks relevant? Samson, we are all aware, was a man who’s dreadlocks were said to be the source of his power and strength.
No matter if in stories that lived through the centuries or in religious writings, dreadlocks can be found all over the world and often played an important role in religion. The first known records connect the hairstyle to spiritual and religious traditions. So it is perhaps the Indians who have the dubious honour of ‘inventing’ dreadlocks, and we could reasonably conclude that the African Egyptians culturally appropriated dreads from them. Its also been recorded that Germanic tribes, Greeks, and Vikings often wore dreadlocks as all. The Romans reported Celtic warriors as having “hair like snakes,” which has been taken to imply that they had dreadlocks. Mummified remains of ancient Egyptians with dreadlocks have even been recovered from archaeological sites. The first known examples of the hairstyle date back to ancient Egypt, where dreadlocks appeared on Egyptian artifacts.