What is it about dreadlocks that seem to offend people? Yesterday in a conversation about caring for my daughter’s hair, I mentioned looking forward to when she will worry about it herself, and I got a rather odd retort of it then becoming ‘rasta’ like it would be a bad thing, I had to quickly point out that it’s what I have on my head, so it won’t be a totally bad thing.
It’s amusing. This is the 4th retort being made about ‘rasta’ from people close to me, like it’s a bad thing to have. One was a direct attack on my own locs and the three others were just disapprovals on the general idea of dreadlocks with a quick justification as though it was ok, if it was on my head but not as an acceptable hairstyle (?)
I am not apologetic for having locs and as a matter of fact not even my own father’s disapproval of my hair would make me feel any different about it (and I care what he would think….). But I am beginning to wonder though, in all honesty what you guys really feel about my hair. Can I say I would rather have the disapproval voiced out there and we can all move on? It’s odd suddenly having to wonder who else is putting up with my hairstyle simply to keep the peace. Come on guys!
This is an open invitation for you all to take that long awaited swing at how ‘disgusting’ (or your choice of words) you find locs. Don’t worry, I won’t take offense. If I had asked permission before locking my hair then it could matter what anyone thinks, so let’s have it out, it’s only hair and it is quite OK not to like it, so don’t try to like mine simply because it’s on my head. I am not my hair.
Well, I love your locs and I think they look great on you. I think disparaging comments about 'Rasta' are complicated in that people probably don't see you as a Rastafarian and since some people don't delineate between one loc and an other, they just see 'locs' going down the road to Rasta. On the other hand, when you say Rasta and locs in the same sentence it paints a pretty vivid picture, so when someone is talking about a mass of hair being trained into a mass of locs, it's pretty easy to paint one picture of locs by referring to 'Rasta' - but of course there are more than one kind of loc... I'd like to think that everyone loves your hair because it's yours, and while I love it because it's yours, I also love it because it looks great. :-)
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