Dreadlocks are a kind of lock pattern for hair that is very curly. A lock pattern is where the hair twists around and “locks” together.
Black people pretty much exclusively have the tightness of curl needed for a dreadlock pattern, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other lock pattern hairstyles (such as a peyot, the sidelocks worn by various Jewish groups).
So like “Goldilocks” was named after how her hair took a “lock pattern”, but those locks would be comparatively loose.
This is hair with a looser curl in a lock pattern
Hair with a tighter curl in a lock pattern (Dreadlocks)
Straight hair that has been matted
What’s the difference between the last two?
► Dreadlocks are twisted together neatly, mats are tangled in knots.
► Dreadlocks are healthy hair that can be washed, mats are damaged and often non washable without risking mold.
► Dreads take effort and skill to apply, mats are the product of active destruction and neglect of hair.
► Dreads can be removed. Mats require cutting and shaving.
Now from a cultural standpoint, it’s also shit. Dreadlocks are a symbol on many different levels of Black culture, unity, and resistance to white assimilation. To take them is an act of furthering white assimilation and an act of casual racism.
Especially given that tropes about white hippies with “dreadlocks” have affected how people react to black people with dreadlocks.
So from a practical standpoint we can’t and from an ethical standpoint we shouldn’t.
for all the whites that ignored everything in this post
“…from a practical standpoint you can’t and from an ethical standpoint you shouldn’t.”
FROM A PRACTICAL STANDPOINT YOU CAN’T AND FROM AND ETHICAL STANDPOINT YOU SHOULDN’T!!!
Wow 🙌🏾
Great explanation.
Okay but it should be the persons choice to do what they want with their hair, regardless of race. And before u hit me with that cultural appropriation bs, i bet y’all have dyed ur hair before. That comes from a tradition in ancient egypt so is technically, cultural appropriation.
Just let white ppl have dreads if they want.
I never said “don’t”. I said “you shouldn’t” and also most white people are incapable because of the shape their hair takes.
Also cultural appropriation applies to living groups usually in relationship to a culture that has more institutional power than themselves making the appropriation of cultural artifacts a weapon for the assimilation of that group.
Dreads are symbolic, this is why they are cultural. They have been assigned meaning, namely as a symbol of black identity and liberation. White people have taken the form and removed its meaning. This is the real crime, not the use of forms from other cultures but their removal from meaning.
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