they may take our lives... but they'll never take...

On Tuesday, my dreads turned 8 months old.

The topic of dreadlocks, mine in particular, and hair in general, is something I’ve wanted to write about for a while, but it’s been a bit hard to focus--there are so many things to say. Do I talk about the process? About the personal effects? About the somewhat political nature of this and any other “radical” hairstyle? I didn’t really feel like I could get a cohesive post with so much going on, so this is sort of a three-parter.

The Process

I get asked surprisingly often who did my dreads. That awesome person is my sister, who spent many, many hours backcombing the crap out of my head and rolling... and rolling... and rolling... It actually took three sessions to get my whole head done, I think, and I finished up the front section on my own. My hair is a bit thin these days, so I chose to go with lots of skinny dreads instead of a few fat ones. They got considerably skinnier as they tightened up, so they are really teeny now, and the ends actually still curl!

I’ve been using mostly Knotty Boy products to care for them; they all smell really nice, they’re Canadian-made, and I can actually get my hands on them where I live. I change up my maintenance ritual fairly often, partly in accordance with what the dreads seem to want, and partly because I have a hard time sticking to a routine. I give my scalp a good sudsy scrub every few days, and I try to keep the fuzzies down and keep them in nice shape by palm-rolling with either tightening gel or dread wax. Most days they require wonderfully low-intensity styling.

Most days.

There are some times when they drive me crazy by:

• trying to grow together
• forming huge, ugly loops and mats in the ends that refuse to lock up
• itching like the devil
• getting tender and pulling so that I can’t wear them up
• retaining a cloud of frizz, despite my best efforts

But you know what? I forgive them. Because I love them. Which brings us to...

The Personal

I’ve heard a few people refer to the locking process as a sort of “journey”, and I definitely feel that, while having dreadlocks hasn’t been quite a journey unto itself, the experience has been a major part of my overall personal renovations.

It was amazing to take a leap and do something I’d been longing to do for ages, something a bit risky. It was about asking myself, Who are you? and, What does that person look like? It was about not compromising in my decisions for the sake of a job (more on that later) or what other people might think.

It’s helping me practice patience and self-love, on those days when things are not going so smoothly. It demands that I take a certain amount of time out to take care of myself.

And--I admit it--I think I look really, really cool.

The Political

Hair is a pretty charged social issue--you know: “Long-haired freaky people need not apply”. A woman cuts off her hair and people start asking if she’s a dyke. Forcibly cutting off or removing an individual’s hair is a time-tested form of punishment and degradation in many eras and cultures, from the witch trials to WWII to modern India, where it is traditional for widows to be ostracized and must shave their heads as part of the process. Gender identity issues, sexual politics, religious afflilations, national security--all are tangled up in hair, to some extent.

Forgive me, but I’m lifting the following section whole from my post to the facebook group Freedom is in the Hair:

So far I haven't had any trouble at my job, but that's because I kick ass and they can't afford to lose me... but I can foresee it becoming an issue if I want to move up. The dress code has a vague blanket prohibition against "extreme" hairstyles. It actually singles out "spiked" hair--I'm not even sure what they're referring to there, as there are a lot of spiky styles that fall well within the mainstream these days, but whatever.

The thing is, customers LOVE my hair. I hear positive comments nearly every day. I polish up to a nice bank-professional level of shiny for each shift, and I'm always careful to groom my dreads and pull them back into a conservative style; within that context, I think folks enjoy the subtle but insistent reminder that the person serving them has an actual personality.

I've thought a lot about what I would say if someone from head office came down and pitched a fit about my appearance, and I think--despite the fact that I am completely irreligious--that I would have to claim spiritual reasons, because (right now, at least) I feel a strong sense of connection between the ability to present myself freely, as I see fit, and my spirit's well-being.