Dreadlocks, also known as dreads or locs, are a hairstyle made of rope-like strands of hair. Locks have been worn for various reasons in many cultures and ethnic groups around the world throughout history. This iconic hairstyle has crossed eras and borders, becoming a symbol of resistance, freedom and a celebration of diversity.
Let's delve into the fascinating history and cultural importance of dreadlocks, particularly within the African American community.
Ancient Origins and Global Presence
According to Sherrow in Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History, Locs date back to ancient times in various cultures. In ancient Egypt, Egyptians wore locked hairstyles and wigs appeared on bas-reliefs, statuary and other artifacts. Mummified remains of Egyptians with locked wigs have also been recovered from archaeological sites. According to Maria Delongoria, braided hair was worn by people in the Sahara desert since 3000 BCE.
Dreadlocks were also worn by followers of Abrahamic religions. For example, Ethiopian Coptic Bahatowie priests adopted dreadlocks as a hairstyle before the fifth century CE (400 or 500 CE). Pre-Columbian Aztec priests were described in Aztec codices (including the Durán Codex, the Codex Tudela and the Codex Mendoza) as wearing their hair untouched, allowing it to grow long and matted. Bernal Diaz del Castillo records: There were priests with long robes of black cloth...
The earliest known possible depictions of Locs in Europe date back as far as 1600-1500 BCE in the Minoan Civilization, centered in Crete (now part of Greece). Frescoes discovered on the Aegean island of Thera (modern Santorini, Greece) portray individuals with long braided hair or long dreadlocks. Another source describes the hair of the boys in the Akrotiri Boxer Fresco as long tresses, not dreadlocks.
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In West Africa, the water spirit Mami Wata is said to have long locked hair. Mami Wata's spiritual powers of fertility and healing come from her dreadlocks. West African spiritual priests called Dada wear dreadlocks to venerate Mami Wata in her honor as spiritual consecrations.
Dreadlocks in African Cultures
The practice of wearing braids and dreadlocks in Africa dates back to 3,000 BC in the Sahara Desert. It has been commonly thought that other cultures influenced the dreadlock tradition in Africa. Some Ethiopian Christian monks and Bahatowie priests of the Ethiopian Coptic Church lock their hair for religious purposes. In Yorubaland, Aladura church prophets called woolii mat their hair into locs and wear long blue, red, white, or purple garments with caps and carry iron rods used as a staff.
Prophets lock their hair in accordance with the Nazarene vow in the Christian bible. This is not to be confused with the Rastafari religion that was started in the 1930s. The Aladura church was founded in 1925 and syncretizes indigenous Yoruba beliefs about dreadlocks with Christianity. Moses Orimolade Tunolase was the founder of the first African Pentecostal movement started in 1925 in Nigeria.
The Yoruba word Dada is given to children in Nigeria born with dreadlocks. Some Yoruba people believe children born with dreadlocks have innate spiritual powers, and cutting their hair might cause serious illness. Only the child's mother can touch their hair. "Dada children are believed to be young gods, they are often offered at spiritual altars for chief priests to decide their fate. Some children end up becoming spiritual healers and serve at the shrine for the rest of their lives." If their hair is cut, it must be cut by a chief priest and placed in a pot of water with herbs, and the mixture is used to heal the child if they get sick.
Among the Igbo, Dada children are said to be reincarnated Jujuists of great spiritual power because of their dreadlocks. Children born with dreadlocks are viewed as special. However, adults with dreadlocks are viewed negatively. Yoruba Dada children's dreadlocks are shaved at a river, and their hair is grown back "tamed" and have a hairstyle that conforms to societal standards. The child continues to be recognized as mysterious and special.
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It is believed that the hair of Dada children was braided in heaven before they were born and will bring good fortune and wealth to their parents. In Ghana, among the Ashanti people, Okomfo priests are identified by their dreadlocks. They are not allowed to cut their hair and must allow it to mat and lock naturally. Locs are symbols of higher power reserved for priests.
Other spiritual people in Southern Africa who wear dreadlocks are Sangomas. Sangomas wear red and white beaded dreadlocks to connect to ancestral spirits. Two African men were interviewed, explaining why they chose to wear dreadlocks. "One - Mr. Ngqula - said he wore his dreadlocks to obey his ancestors' call, given through dreams, to become a 'sangoma' in accordance with his Xhosa culture. Another - Mr. Kamlana - said he was instructed to wear his dreadlocks by his ancestors and did so to overcome 'intwasa', a condition understood in African culture as an injunction from the ancestors to become a traditional healer, from which he had suffered since childhood."
In Zimbabwe, there is a tradition of locking hair called mhotsi worn by spirit mediums called svikiro. Maasai warriors in Kenya are known for their long, thin, red dreadlocks, dyed with red root extracts or red ochre (red earth clay). The Himba women in Namibia are also known for their red-colored dreadlocks. Himba women use red earth clay mixed with butterfat and roll their hair with the mixture. They use natural moisturizers to maintain the health of their hair.
Hamar women in Ethiopia wear red-colored locs made using red earth clay. In Angola, Mwila women create thick dreadlocks covered in herbs, crushed tree bark, dried cow dung, butter, and oil. The thick dreadlocks are dyed using oncula, an ochre of red crushed rock. In Southern, Eastern, and Northern Africa, Africans use red ochre as sunscreen and cover their dreadlocks and braids with ochre to hold their hair in styles and as a hair moisturizer by mixing it with fats.
Historians note that West and Central African people braid their hair to signify age, gender, rank, role in society, and ethnic affiliation.
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The History of Locs: Past and Present Spiritual, Mental, and Physical Meaning of Locs
Rastafarianism and Dreadlocks
One of the most famous associations with dreadlocks is the Rastafari movement, which originated in Jamaica in the 1930s. Cheikh Ibra Fall, founder of the Baye Fall school of the Mouride Brotherhood, popularized the style by adding a mystic touch to it. This sect of Islam in Senegal, where Muslims wear ndjan (dreadlocks), aimed to Africanize Islam. Dreadlocks to this group of Islamic followers symbolize their religious orientation. Jamaican Rastas also reside in Senegal and have settled in areas near Baye Fall communities. Baye Fall and Jamaican Rastas have similar cultural beliefs regarding dreadlocks.
The term dreadlocks (first used in the 1950s) was considered derogatory, referring to Jamaica’s marginalised poor people. For Rastafarians, dreadlocks are more than just a hairstyle; they are a symbol of devotion to spirituality and nature. Rastafari influenced its members worldwide to embrace dreadlocks. Perhaps the most familiar feature of Rastafari culture is the growing and wearing of dreadlocks, uncombed and uncut hair which is allowed to knot and mat into distinctive locks. Rastafari regard the locks as both a sign of their African identity and a religious vow of their separation from the wider society they regard as Babylon.
Some historians attribute Jamaican interest in locs to the Howellites who settled in Jamaica between 1942 and 1954. Other historians attribute the style to East Indian slaves, and others to the Kenyan Mau Mau warriors whose image and history were influential in the formation of several afrocentric movements in Jamaica, but more recent work - based on the author’s personal encounter with sources from the various political and social groups of Jamaica around the time of the adoption of “dreadlocks” - suggests that “dreadlocks” actually appeared in Jamaica, with cultural significance, when adopted by the Youth Black Faith somewhere around the 1940s.
From Rastafari & Other African-Carribean Worldview: “They elected to wear their hair matted, like the outcasts from society, because not only where they treated thus, but they did not consider themselves part of it.” The author goes on to further justify his conclusion by saying “In bringing this chapter to an end, I need to point out that the position that I have presented does support Horace Campbell, except in one respect. While we concur that “dreadlocks” was a phenomenon of the 1950s, not prior, he nevertheless maintains that it was adopted in keeping with the warrior image of the Mau Mau, whereas I have argued that it was adopted in keeping with the lunatic image of the outcast.”
Dreadlocks in the Diaspora
In the African diaspora, people loc their hair to have a connection to the spirit world and receive messages from spirits. It is believed locs of hair are antennas making the wearer receptive to spiritual messages. Other reasons people loc their hair are for fashion and to maintain the health of natural hair, also called kinky hair. In the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, the Black Power movement, Black is Beautiful movement, and the natural hair movement inspired many Black Americans to wear their hair natural in afros, braids, and locked hairstyles.
The Black is Beautiful cultural movement spread to Black communities in Britain. In the 1960s and 1970s, Black people in Britain were aware of the civil rights movement and other cultural movements in Black America and the social and political changes occurring at the time. Natural Black hairstyles worn by Black women are seen as not feminine and unprofessional in some American businesses. Wearing locs in the diaspora signifies a person's racial identity and defiance of European standards of beauty, such as straight blond hair.
Locs encourage Black people to embrace other aspects of their culture that are tied to Black hair, such as wearing African ornaments like cowrie shells, beads, and African headwraps that are sometimes worn with locs. Some Black Canadian women wear locs to connect to the global Black culture. Dreadlocks unite Black people in the diaspora because wearing locs has the same meaning in areas of the world where there are Black people: opposing Eurocentric standards of beauty and sharing a Black and African diaspora identity.
For many Black women in the diaspora, locs are a fashion statement to express individuality and the beauty and versatility of Black hair. Locs are also a protective hairstyle to maintain the health of their hair by wearing kinky hair in natural locs or faux locs. To protect their natural hair from the elements during the changing seasons, Black women wear certain hairstyles to protect and retain the moisture in their hair.
Black women wear soft locs as a protective hairstyle because they enclose natural hair inside them, protecting their natural hair from environmental damage. This protective soft loc style is created by "wrapping hair around the natural hair or crocheting pre-made soft locs into cornrows." In the diaspora, Black men and women wear different styles of dreadlocks. Each style requires a different method of care. Freeform locs are formed organically by not combing the hair or manipulating the hair.
Cultural Appropriation and Modern Interpretations
Whenever someone asks about the history of locs, or as many still call them, “dreadlocks” they’re almost always interested in finding out who started rocking the style first. When black people ask this, they’re usually trying to assert cultural ownership over the style, and when white people ask this, they’re typically trying to obtain some sort of external evidence that it’s okay for them to rock “dreads” - the thought process being that if black people don’t own “dreads” then black people technically can’t object to white people rocking them.
The word hippie comes from the African-American slang word hip. In the 1970s, Americans and Britons attended reggae concerts and were exposed to various aspects of Jamaican culture, including dreadlocks. Hippies related to the Rastafarian idea of rejecting capitalism and colonialism, symbolized by the name "Babylon". Rastafarians rejected Babylon in multiple ways, including by wearing their hair naturally in locs to defy Western standards of beauty. As a result, some White people joined the Rastafarian movement. Dreadlocks were not a common hairstyle in the United States, but by the 1970s, some White Americans were inspired by reggae music, the Rastafarian movement, and African-American hair culture and started wearing dreadlocks. According to authors Bronner and Dell Clark, the clothing styles worn by hippies in the 1960s and 1970s were copied from African-American culture.
In Europe in the 1970s, hundreds of Jamaicans and other Caribbean people immigrated to metropolitan centers of London, Birmingham, Paris, and Amsterdam. Communities of Jamaicans, Caribbeans, and Rastas emerged in these areas. Thus Europeans in these metropolitan cities were introduced to Black cultures from the Caribbean and Rastafarian practices and were inspired by Caribbean culture, leading some of them to adopt Black hair culture, music, and religion.
When reggae music, which espoused Rastafarian ideals, gained popularity and mainstream acceptance in the 1970s, thanks to Bob Marley's music and cultural influence, dreadlocks (often called "dreads") became a notable fashion statement worldwide, and have been worn by prominent authors, actors, athletes, and rappers. Hip Hop and rap artists such as Lauryn Hill, Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Snoop Dog, J-Cole, Wiz Khalifa, Chief Keef, Lil Jon, and other artists wear dreadlocks, which further popularized the hairstyle in the 1990s, early 2000s, and present day. Dreadlocks are a part of hip-hop fashion and reflect Black cultural music of liberation and identity.
Many rappers and Afrobeat artists in Uganda wear locs, such as Navio, Delivad Julio, Fik Fameica, Vyper Ranking, Byaxy, Liam Voice, and other artists. Youth in Kenya who are fans of rap and hip hop music, and Kenyan rappers and musicians, wear locs to connect to the history of the Mau Mau freedom fighters who wore locs as symbols of anti-colonialism, and to Bob Marley, who was a Rasta. Hip hop and reggae fashion spread to Ghana and fused with traditional Ghanaian culture. Ghanaian musicians wear dreadlocks incorporating reggae symbols and hip hop clothes mixed with traditional Ghanaian textiles, such as wearing Ghanaian headwraps to hold their locs.
Ghanaian women wear locs as a symbol of African beauty. The beauty industry in Ghana believe locs are a traditional African hair practice and market hair care products to promote natural African hairstyles such as afros and locs. The previous generations of Black artists have inspired younger contemporary Black actresses to loc their hair, such as Chloe Bailey, Halle Bailey, and R&B and Pop music singer Willow Smith.
Although more Black women in Hollywood and the beauty and music industries are wearing locs, there has never been a Black Miss America winner with locs, possibly because the hairstyle has not been popular with many conservative standards of beauty. For example, model Adesuwa Aighewi locked her hair and was told she might not receive any casting calls because of her dreadlocks. Some Black women in modeling agencies are forced to straighten their hair. However, more Black women are resisting and choosing to wear Black hairstyles such as afros and dreadlocks in fashion shows and beauty pageants. For example, in 2007 Miss Universe Jamaica and Rastafarian, Zahra Redwood, was the first Black woman to break the barrier on a world pageant stage when she wore locs, paving the way and influencing other Black women to wear locs in beauty pageants.
The Question of Cultural Ownership
As such, the real question here is where did the modern interest in locs manifest? To answer that question we have to take a look at the history of Jamaica. Locs or “dreadlocks” became popular there somewhere around the 1930s to 1950s. Nobody can claim exclusive cultural property over these hairstyles, but the issue is that they are often an excuse to discriminate against people.
In today’s age, many black dread heads go to dreads for uniqueness and expression. Dreads are very popular among youth in retaliation of the beliefs of the old working-class society. Like I said earlier In the corporate world, dreadlocks are frowned upon. They’re seen as unprofessional and wild. 80s hipsters and influential musicians (rappers) have given dreads an identity for people trying to go against the normal. Almost like a big Fuck you to society and they’re standards. Still though as time goes on dreads are becoming more and more accepted into corporate America, and still somehow keep their cultural meaning.
For example, when it comes to “dreadlocks” the most common stereotype is that people who wear locs are lazy, dirty, stoners. A vivid example of this is found in the comments made by Giuliana Rancic of E!’s Fashion Police. When 18 year old Zendaya Coleman sported faux-locs on the red carpet, Rancic said “I feel like she smells like patchouli oil … or weed.” Reducing that to people who rock “dreadlocks” must “smell of weed” is exactly what cultural appropriation looks like, which is exactly why it is a form of erasure and violence against minority cultures by the majority.
It’s important to know the history a little bit, in order to respond to accusations in a calm manner. Dreadlocks and many braided hairstyles were made popular by African descendents, especially in the US and the UK, but the history of humanity is a history of cultural exchange. For example, the act of smoking ganja in the Rastafari Movement comes from the Indian slaves that were brought to the Caribbean. Finally, it’s good to keep yourself informed about these important topics, but try to not overthink it. A caucasian-looking person with dreads/braids can have African descent and still be accused of cultural appropriation, while a person of colour can wear braids or dreads as “just a hairstyle”, meaning they don’t express anything in particular but they just look beautiful. At the end of the day, anybody with dreadlocks or braids is just a person who is using their hair as a means for self-expression.
Whether your white, black, tall, short, nice, mean. Anyone can have dreadlocks and make them look unique. Even though dreadlocks are originated from people of color I think everyone should be able to enjoy the gift that is dreadlocks.
Discrimination and Social Justice
We should defend our fellow humans when they experience discrimination: after all, we all would like to see others defending us when we’re victims of injustice. Systemic racism is a reminiscence of a history where people of ethnic minorities have been systematically stripped of their human rights. When a person of colour wears dreadlocks or braids, they often get abused at work, in school, in sports, etc. If a white person wears dreadlocks or braids, they rarely get abused. Therefore it’s clear that these hairstyles are often used as a way to express racist ideology. The first thing is, of course, to acknowledge that the accusation of “cultural appropriation” is a result of ongoing social injustice.
No ‘dreadlocks’ policy sends Oklahoma black girl home from school “in tears”. The school told this little black girl that she was not ‘presentable’. Her crime, not living up to Western standards of beauty. This is yet another example of the damage caused by cultural appropriation, which is itself a result of racism and erasure. Imagine for a moment what would happen if a little white girl attended a predominantly black school and was sent home for wearing her hair in a pony-tail, or for not wearing her hair in an afro (despite the fact that her hair cannot be easily placed in a style that lends itself to afrotextured hair). That’s essentially what happened to another little black girl who was told she’d be expelled from school if she did not straighten her hair.
Black women and men are made fun of (and even fired from their jobs) for rocking short hair, and for rocking fake hair, and for rocking their natural hair in protective styles such as locs, braids, and twists. If you don’t have natural afrotextured hair then you might not know that it often takes an entire day to wash, condition, and care for afrotextured hair when opting to rely on heat and other styling methods to achieve straight hair (i.e. to conform to Western standards of beauty without chemicals). If you have afrotextured hair and you do opt for chemicals to straighten your hair (i.e. to conform to Western standards of beauty) you will either spend a small fortune on products to keep your hair healthy and straight, or you will suffer from dry, damaged, brittle hair that looks unnatural and breaks if you so much as look at it in the mirror.
The Personal Journey of Dreadlocks
After struggling through my own dreadlock journey with book after book, product after product, and days of itchy scalps, I’m not so high and mighty about policing who does and does not don the wild hairdo. I’ve read and spoke to others with dreadlocks or past experience with locking, and I finally understand that the point of dreadlocks is inclusion into a lifestyle change, not an exclusive cult to join. As someone who, like many Black people, has had image issues with my skin tone and hair, dreadlocks helped me shed those insecurities almost instantly. This liberation caused by my dreadlocks is mine alone to embrace and enjoy. I do not own the concept alone, and I do not own a hairstyle, but the current political climate against non-White beauty standards causes pride for many Black Americans to swell.
Dreadlocks hold a special place of pain and pride for the Black community. Dreadlocks are one of the few hairstyles that have always felt unique to the black community. For thousands of years, the black community has been shunned for their thick coarse hair, so when a hairstyle as popular, fresh, and afro-centric as dreadlocks come along it must be cherished, even when white, professional America deems it as unprofessional.
