[Closed] DREADLOCKS

They look really really stupid on white people.

They look really really stupid on white people.

They look really really stupid on white people

These days I would say that they have the effect of making you look like you take something very very seriously..

Or that you are a beggar..

So if neither of these two conditions apply to you.. think carefully before embarking on the frustrating.. itchy.. laborious and unrewarding journey that is growing dreadlocks or you could end up feeling like a bit of a wally

well you need really curly hair to start with, but it needs to be much longer than you think, you can get them done professionally or you can just not brush your hair for about a year and they will kind of form themselves with a bit of help and patience -note you will have to invest in somew hats
best done whilst at uni

i have them and im white and i look the schnizzle so bacdafucp up wackhander 😉

I imagine them to make you smell like that really dirty hair smell. All the time. I could be wrong though.

There is no way they can be clean. I'm sure headlice love them!

I had them, easy to grow, a bugger to maintain unless you want a set of pukka crusty dreads that look like chimps fingers.

knotty boy wax is your friend if you want to do it the easy way

according to backhander I must have looked stupid, although having a ****in massive dready mohawk and lots of piercings no-one ever seemed to pluck up the courage to say anything to my face. 😀

I now look respectable and quiet and nice and fluffy

Head lice prefer clean hair, so probably pretty safe on that count!

hair doesn't have to be curly, they don't have to smell and they don't have to be itchy. Suit some people, don't suit others, quite easy to do. Looks neat if done by hairdresser, hard to do your self, easy if someone willing can help. might look a bit scruffy, will affect the way people treat you.

Dreads look stupid on most people,at least rastas stick theirs under a loud hat

Just go see a Levellers concert, sure you can get lots of advice there. Reduced entry for those with a dog on a string.

Reduced entry for those with a dog on a string.

I'm going to see them in 12 days.. I wish that your comment had some truth to it..

oh yeah and people do treat you different but they do if you have a skinhead

and they certainly dont have to smell wash mine once a week but they take ages to dry!

and chicks will find you utterly irresistable in my experience
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Wax to put in, then don't wash - easy really. Not great if your going to get dusty very often. Smell when it rains. Not itchy after the first couple of months. If put in by a hairdresser they look a bit too neat in my opinion. You lose loads of hair if you ever attempt to brush them out.

20 years ago but i can just about remember. 🙂

+1 for the female attention. Got a lot more interest with them than without, although no idea why.

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Looks even worse on girls as kimberley is demonstrating.....

Got a lot more interest with them than without, although no idea why.

because

they have the effect of making you look like you take something very very seriously..

even if the thing that you take seriously is just looking rebellious

I look a LOT more serious with a skinhead, so it can't be that. 🙂

The dreads combined with a checked shirt and beige tie is not a look you see very often.........the chandeliers somehow compliment the incongruity of it all 8)

I used to have foot long dreadlocks (for the OP if you are starting off with short hair it'll take about 3 - 4 years for them to reach about a foot), because its effectively felt your dreads will be roughly half the length they would be if your hair was undreaded.

One night in a pub a young woman sidled up to me and asked
"is that a french perm?"
"no they're dreadlocks"
"are you sure its not like a really tight french perm?"
"yes I'm sure"
"Oh well you see I'm a trainee hair dresser and today I gave a woman a french perm and it turned out looking like your hair"
"was she happy about that?"
"no....but it'll just brush out, right?"

Anyone who judges someone simply because of their hairstyle is a narrow-minded idiot. To each their own.

Interested to know why they might look stupid on a white person. Don't get that.

I don't know about growing them, but a work customer had them and complained constantly about people pre judging him as a misfit, crusty, theif, down and out, work shy freeloader etc etc. He turned up one day with it all cut off, forced into it, because he didn't like that stereotype. He wanted a decent job, wanted to walk round a shop without being followed by security guards, but liked the idea of dreadlocks. You can't have dreads and live a normal existance, it appears.

well not sure it will turn you into a pariah, i have a decent job and security dont seem to follow me everywhere, i reckon your customer was hitting the skunk too hard and getting the fear

living in that london helps, people out in the shires might lynch you though

I used to have a housemate with dreads. He was a white brummie, if that matters. Anyway, he decided to cut 'em all off and shave his head. It all came off in one big stuck together lump and the underside of it was this this thick layer of dead skin and scalp holding it all in place. It was gross. It stank.He also had some sorta ribbons or something in it.

He then kept it in his wardrobe in a carrier bag, like a dead pet, and gave a dread to anyone that came round the house. Like it was some some meaningful sacrificial memento or something.

He was a nice bloke though.

brummies....

So 80s .... 😆

stupid on white guys.

He then kept it in his wardrobe in a carrier bag, like a dead pet, and gave a dread to anyone that came round the house.

How sweet!

Some people are just too nice.

stupid on white guys

Why Jeremy, why?

Why Jeremy, why?

because it doesn't fit his racial stereotyping?

I thought the Brummie guy looked quite cool with the dreads, he pulled more ladies without it though. but then he did lose loads of weight as well, went on a weetabix diet, eating only weetabix. Oh, and cocaine. I wonder what happened to him.

Weetabix?

Shitting hell...

so my advice is: shave your head and get whacked out on weetabix and cocaine. The ladies love it.

Don't like Weetbix or Cocaine.

What about toast and Ketamine?

Why - a sign of a dreadful sad wannabe.

Anyone who judges someone simply because of their hairstyle is a narrow-minded idiot. To each their own.

It's facial discrimination.

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OK i will keep to my soul glow gel perm

OK i will keep to my soul glow gel perm

I know someone who can help you out with the perm 🙂

Head lice just like hair. They don't care whether it's clean or not

got nothing but positive vibes about mine

had to cut mine off in the end as i was swimming too much , they dont really lend them selves to sweating/drying/washing too often and the chlorine was starting to rot them.

My nephew had dreads for about 6 years - he's just cut them all off because he "was just fed up of them". They took a long time to keep neat looking, they were heavy, took forever to dry if he washed them.
He cut them off and apparently loads of his female fans went into mourning. Including some of the little old ladies who he looks after in his job!

I think he looked better with them but I think it's just because he looks like he has a tiny head now. Guess I will get used to that though.
He also says the novelty of having a shower and washing his hair and it being clean and dry in minutes won't wear off for a long time. 🙂

So I guess like any hair style, they suit some people, they don't suit others.

Sounds lovely trail_rat 🙂

Do it if you want but obviously you've got to expect that people rightly or wrongly will judge you for it. If you're a bit of a tryhard trustafarian type in character then you can hardly complain though if your personality makes it clear that your hair is an attempt to give out a very specific impression and people react accordingly to that.

A (white) friend of mine has/had them but his happen naturally (black relatives a little way back in his family tree) unless he cuts his hair really short so it's funny to hear TJ's narrowmindedness amongst others.

They do have the air of ****lessness about them, met a girl in Finland who had dreads and she was stunning.

A mate called dready Pete looked like a predator (from the film 🙂 ) with his, he got fed up and chopped them off after Uni.

Puffy Bordin looks great with dreads 🙂

and the chlorine was starting to rot them.

Having something stuck to my head that might start rotting is enough to put me off.

well dont swim in a pool 3 or 4 times a week then - go in the sea !

4 words, short back and sides.

TandemJeremy - Member
Why - a sign of a dreadful sad wannabe.

Less maintenance than having to shave every day.

Surely being beardless is the ultimate wannabe affectation - trying to look like a pubescent teenage boy. 😆

I don't shave every day.

Next!

TandemJeremy - Member
I don't shave every day.

I know that. We've met.

Just pointing out there are male beauty procedures even more unlikely.

I have only skim read this thread and I fear I'm about to agree with TJ (albeit unwittingly)
The thing I have never got with dreads is this:-
On white people, as a general rule I beleive they as supposed to indciate some kind of slacker/counter culture affectation- "I'm not too inclined to bother with my hair, as I'm too busy bucking the system"

But the time, effort and products required to get your hair into dreads kind of belies or offsets the percived indication.

Isn't it a bit like turning up for an anarchist ralley with a take away from McDonalds.

Getting dreads done by a hairdresser sounds like total fakery.

"Getting dreads done by a hairdresser sounds like total fakery. "

+ 1

i had mid back length fairly curly hair .... all i had to do was stop brushing it and separate it now and again to stop it from going into one big mass .....

my advice is dont use wax because once its in - it doesnt come out ... i used it occasionally and i suspect that was what was rotting ....also youll be surprised at how short dreads long hair produces when they tighten up - mine took about 6 months

i think parctical mat is being far too practical

im with trail rat on the wax thing
mine dreaded on their own, if your hair is super curly, like mine its pretty easy and quite frankly my curly locks p!ssed me off as i could never have curtains like my trendy school mates so it was a number 3 all over for me back then,

as have been demonstrated by some of the comments on here some people are narrow minded and may treat you different if you dont look act and dress just like them,
most people will treat you like normal however and judge you on your personality rather than your hairstyle
and as i said earlier the ladies go all wibbly over us fake rastas

Its nothing to do with being narrow minded or judging people on their looks. Its more to do with Dreads being a symbol of religious conviction that I don't believe the white wearers have. Its like wearing a cross or a turban as a fashion item.

Its more to do with Dreads being a symbol of religious conviction

only if you believe in religion ...

and as i said earlier the ladies go all wibbly over us fake rastas

just done a quick straw [pun intended] poll with the girls in the office here kimbers
You're right they did go all wibbly when they saw your photo 😆

Its more to do with Dreads being a symbol of religious conviction that I don't believe the white wearers have.

That's like saying only Scotsmen can wear kilts.

Lots of Black women straighten their hair, so they can wear it in styles that afro hair can't cop with. Is that wrong also?

TJ I'm surprised at your narrow-mindedness on this one, I must say.

Its not narrow mindedness. I am sorry you can't see it. I believe thay look like stupid wannabes. You can't be a rasta or a sadu if you are white

Why cant you be a rasta if you are white?

so wait tj what your saying because my hair naturally dreads of its own accord i have to be some kind of religous type?

basically you are a hairstyle fascist

[i]Its more to do with Dreads being a symbol of religious conviction[/i]

Think about it, that's a pretty limp excuse for dismissing them. How many aspects of other cultures are diluted and used by people not connected with that culture. It's like saying people shouldn't have spikey hair these days because they're not punks. No-one can have a mohawk cos they're not a native American etc etc.
OK, if you think it looks stupid (like my examples do) just say it!

why do you have to be a rasta to have dreads -

all you folk out there with mustaches are hitler followers ....

Well said DezB.

TJ is a fascist. It's official.

My mum's White and likes to wear Indian style clothes. Should she revert to 'more appropriate' western style clothing, or is she 'sad wannabe'?

[b]Despite attempts at a rescue, the good ship TitanicJeremy sank into the inky depths. All souls on board were lost to the freezing waters of despair.[/b]

The very word "dreadlocks" comes from rasta. Dread as in "in fear of god" Do you live a dread life?

Other religious groups have had the unwashed uncut and uncombed hair as a symbol and IMO you look like a wannabe or a wigga if you wear dreads and you are white. Its like that dreadful put on accent and slang Westwood uses.

Edit - elf - are those clothes a religious symbol? Does she wear a castemark as well?

Thats the difference. its more like wearing a turban

hmmm.... I'm not so sure that white kids with dreads these days are associating the style with rastafarianism so much as the 80's traveller and road protester movement which adopted the matted style..

Many folk I have met may simply have strong feelings about environmental issues.. or veganism.. or anti-capitalism.. or anarchism.. rather than a desire to associate themselves with any religious group.. or any aspect of that religious groups lifestyle..

That's just my experience..

By and large though.. folk with dreads do harbour very strong beliefs about [i]something[/i] and it would seem that often the dreadlocks are a sign of devotion whatever that devotion may be..

[i]Lots of Black women straighten their hair[/i]

Given that the chemicals you have to use are pretty feirce that's not a great example

fwiw
i saw a white student girl about 22 with shoulder length light coloured dreads yesterday in town.
she stood out from the crowd.
she gave me the horn.

+ 1 on some of the TJ comment apart from the dancing on the pin justifications. It just looks daft.

Dreads on a white guy = middle class rebelion.

Of course in my day it was a red and blue mohican.

Afro hair makes good dreadlocks, anything else just looks skanky.

What about dreads on Black people who aren't Rastafarians, like several of my friends? What about dreads on mixed-race people?

Seriously TJ, this is some of the worst crap you've ever come up with. You're saying that unless someone is of a particular cultural group, they're not allowed to wear styles or hair of that group? What a load of bollocks. People can wear what the F they like, have their hair how they like, cover themselves in piercings, whatever, it's up to them. Who are you or anyone else to act like you are the arbiter of taste or style?

I would imagine that ancient tribal people in Britain would have had hair similar to dreadlocks, before the Vikings/Romans etc came over and 'civilised' them.

Would it be acceptable to you for a Black or Brown person to be a Goth?

My mate Kenny was a black skinhead.

[img] [/img]

Its true, dreads on white people just ain't the real deal, no matter how much wax and other crap is applied. Dreads should be a result of throwing the comb away, and letting the hair become dreadlocks by knotting itself... not by waxing and twisting etc into silly evenly sized, centrally parted, shoulder length faux locks. Fashion dreads (black or white)... not appreciated by rastas. And, on white people, normally associated with that horrible smell of patchouli oil. Yeuch! Non- rastas don't have 'dreadlocks', as someone said earlier, dread is the fear of God, so they should really be called locks or knots, as they are on JA. I reckon all dreads should be worn like David Hinds did in the 80's...GORGON, RASTA!!!

Elf - I simply fail to agree. Dreadlocks are the hairstyle equivalent of Westwoods accent IMO. They have a meaning in some religions and cultures but on a white guy you simply look like a wannabe.

Goth has no religious or symbolic meaning

Elf - I simply fail to agree

Well then you're a fascist.

hindu shaivas have been wearing dreads long before rastafari became prevalent. so any comments about race sounds like nonsense to me.

indeed thom thumb. Its a religious symbol in several religions as I alluded to.

BTW elf - I'm a fascist 'cos I disagree with you over a hairstyle?

Cripes TJ, has someone nicked your log-in?
Even I know that religions aren't racially exclusive and I can't believe you used "wigger"! That work is obviously made up predominantly from a from a very offensive term. No wonder Fred's gone into orbit! (may want to cool that or the mods will duff you up again).
I just think they look a bit daft, like a fat rider wearing white lycra in the rain or a woman with overhang in a boob tube. I wouldn't judge anyone for it though and I'm sure Kimbers is a thoroughly decent chap.

Fashion dreads (black or white)... not appreciated by rastas.

So? Rastafarians adopted the dread style from other cultures. Many BLack people wear dreads without being Rastafarians, as the dread style is something that originates from Africa, which they want to associate with. Some White people might choose to wear them because they may also feel an affinity with the Africa, it's up to them. Certainly, the reasons why some Black people wear dreads can be equally as spurious as Whites.

Mix it up, I say. So Westwood might adopt a 'street' accent (you do know it's part of his schtick and only really tongue in cheek, don't you?), as do many White kids. Black culture and style is fashionable.

Goth has no religious or symbolic meaning

I'm sure those devoted to the subculture might disagree with you.

This is all about the fact that you Middle Classly disapprove of White folk wearing dreads. I think ultimately this reveals your racism by proxy. You target White dreads because deep down you're scared of 'others'....

Ah, lunchtime, methinks.