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"Don't remove the kinks from your hair. Remove them from your brain." |
As with many aspects of African American culture, this minor trend has managed to stir up major controversy. As more and more African Americans are wearing these styles to work, a large number of employers are banning the style, calling them unprofessional and against company dress code. In fact, several Dallas police officers have been put on suspension and even fired for wearing the popular hairstyle. Dread wearers have found this staunch opposition puzzling since usually all that most companies' Codes of Conduct have to say about hair is, "it must be clean, neat, and close to the head."
Nowhere in the dress code does it say "straight."
One wouldn't ask a person with natural curls to get their hair straightened would they? Yet the same is asked of African Americans every single day. If a professional woman of African descent wants to wear long hair without braids or dreads, her only option is to get it "relaxed" otherwise known as a "perm". Relaxing black hair is an arduous and painful task in which powerful chemicals such as sodium hydroxide (lye-based) and calcium hydroxide (no-lye) are applied in order to destroy the protein in hair that provides its natural shape. If the substance accidentally remains in contact with the skin for an extended period of time, the woman will find that she as a new excruciating chemical burn on her scalp. But that's not all; once the hair is finally straight, it needs to be styled. The way the hair is styled is by applying heat with blow dryers, curling irons, and hot combs, burning the hair into position, making it to brittle. These devices are usually so hot that it's extremely easy to scorch the scalp, causing severe and sometimes permanent scarring.
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"As I watched, thrones were set in place; and the Ancient One took his seat.
- The Complete Hebrew Bible
Now you know why older black women have such an affinity for wigs.
African American males do have it a little easier than their female counterparts, however. Short hair is the preferred style for men in America, but you do regularly see white men with hair measuring several inches long. If an African American male wants to have his hair that length, he has two options: dreads or an Afro. Seeing as how it's no longer the 1970's, the Afro is not going to be sported that often.
Dreadlocks are simply the natural form black hair takes when it is allowed to grow on its own. If a person of African descent, man or woman simply stops combing, brushing, and applying chemicals to the hair, the short, curly strands will eventually spiral around each other, until it forms a lock beginning almost at the root. For the more trendy dreads, a stylist would have to braid the hair into the specific designs then let it lock, or make twists and apply beeswax to them periodically throughout the growth process to secure the shape of the dreads.
However, I also believe that the trend toward wearing dreadlocks goes much deeper than maintaining healthy hair and fashion. It's also a way for African Americans to express themselves and pride in their culture.
Throughout the entire history of African Americans in the United States, African culture has been looked down upon. Everything from skin color, music, language, and art has been considered inferior to their equivalents from other cultures. Only in recent times have people of African descent on the whole begun to realize that their African and African American heritages are a source of pride, the same way Irish and Italian peoples for example, are proud of their heritage.
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Now in America's new "tolerant" society, African Americans desire a way to express themselves and their pride in their heritage. One such way is to cast off the products of racial insecurity that made entrepreneurs like Madame C. J. Walker, the inventor of the straightening comb, millionaires. They can throw away the hair straighteners, skin lighteners (can you believe BLEACH was once sold as a skin-lightening product?), and all other gels, pomades, accessories, and solutions designed to make black people look like something they aren't. Since people of African descent are supposedly no longer oppressed, it doesn't make much sense for them to continue to emulate their oppressors.
Music legend and Rastafarian Bob Marley realized the importance of claiming one's true heritage, and expressed it in many of his song lyrics. One of his most popular pieces is one specifically dealing with dreadlocks, called "Natty Dread" ("natty" meaning "knotty"). In it he pleads, "children get your culture/ and don't stay there and gesture/ or the battle will get hotter/ and you won't get no supper/…roots Natty!" A great deal of his songs, as well as those of other Reggae artists, repeatedly mirrors these themes. Owning one's true culture is important to one's self worth.
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Unfortunately, those who choose to "go natural" and wear dreadlocks have many stigmas to overcome. Countless myths and misconceptions about these descendants' knotty hair have been passed down over the years, casting a negative shadow on those who simply want to express their true nature. The following are just a few of those myths:
"All Dreadlocks
are Dirty": This is probably the biggest myth about
dreadlocks. One popular urban legend concerning this myth is
that when Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981, the doctors found
a few dozen new species of lice in his hair. This simply is not
true. Far from being dirty savages, Africans have had methods
of cleaning and caring for braids and dreadlocks for centuries.
With today's modern science, even more ways exist to clean dreads
with commercial soaps and solutions specifically designed for
this style of hair. Scores of these dread care products are available
online.
"Dreadlocks
are Long, Big and Thick": I can only presume that one
of employers' biggest fears is that their employees will show
up at work one day with the thick, loose, knotty dreads that
Marley helped to popularize. What they fail to realize is that
there are many different styles of dreads that can easily conform
to almost any dress code. In fact, the most popular styles of
dreads nowadays are the small, tight twists that can fit under
most hats. All the employer needs to do is specify the length
(shoulder, middle of back, etc.) and the employee can be responsible
for making sure that it looks professional.
"Anyone
Who Wears Dreadlocks Smokes Marijuana": This is a myth
I was absolutely unaware of until recently. It seems that some
people associate dreads with weed smokers, probably because of
the hairstyle's connection to Rastafarians and their exaggerated
connection to marijuana smoking. The truth is that wearing dreads
has absolutely nothing to do with having an affinity for marijuana
smoking. In fact, actual Rastafarians do not smoke marijuana
recreationally. Pious Rastas only advocate smoking "ganja"
as "wisdomweed", an aid to meditation and an "incense
pleasing to the Lord." This aspect has been insanely sensationalized
by the media, keeping Rastas and those who look similar to them
stereotyped as drug selling and abusing criminals.
Marcus Garvey, the founder of the Back to Africa movement, said it best, "Don't remove the kinks from your hair. Remove them from your brain." For African Americans, the difficulty lies in accepting and respecting themselves and their culture enough to even consider the decision to let their hair grow naturally. For other groups, accepting people of African descent wearing dreads and naturals may be difficult, but it's no harder than accepting other aspects of black culture like music, fashion, and language. America has proven that it has absolutely no problem with assimilating those.
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