What was your driving force?

Wow I kept getting goosebumps when I was reading everyone's dread journey. Those were some really powerful stories.As for me the decision to actually commit to dreadlocks took several months. But it goes back even further. I was raised in the midwest by a conservative farm family. Went to a small town school with no diversity. Somehow I have always been a free spirit. Some of my first memories are drawing peace signs in the snow as a little girl! My parents were really strict but at the same time they encouraged me to become an individual rather than always try to go with what everyone else was doing.Anyways fast forward through years of depression, heavy alcohol use, unstable relationships, a six month marriage engagement to a guy i was with for 5 years who did nothing but try to control me, my parents divorce and never fitting in. I stopped drinking when i was 20 after getting a minor and dedicated myself to the herb. Marijuana frees the mind and enhances life! I met an amazing guy who is 100% supportive of me and truly my soulmate. Fast forward through all that and we get to the beginning of this journey i am on now. I recently graduated from college in may and moved from mn to california with my boyfriend and 2 cats. There may or may not be some legal run ins with law enforcement back east dealing with cannabis. but i believe it should be legal so f*ck them! We came out here not knowing anyone, just looking to improve our lives. I have never felt secure in my appearance or more accurately the way my exterior expressed my personality. I've always been glad for not being blonde (just not for me) and i love my curly hair. But i wanted to express myself so as soon as i turned 18 i started getting piercings and tattoos. Now i am beginning my dreadlock journey and it's giving me the opportunity to grow and better myself. Hopefully it will get me closer to where i want to be in life, wherever that may be... Really sorry for how long this post is.
updated by @bobbi: 07/23/15 03:56:49PM

I can't remember a time when I lacked the desire to have dreadlocks. It took me 21 years to get 'em but now I know I will die with 'em. My "driving force" is that I am me.

i wanted dread since i was like pre puberty. i remeber walkin in the mall and there was this guy in long shorts with a earth toned tye dye and beautiful sandy blonde dreads and i wanted them ever since. everytime id see them id ask to touch and smell them. it was a huge infatuation with them.

i just wanted to add that your story is truly touching and i couldnt imagine a loss , you can definately see you were close to him. im sorry that this had happened to you

It all started about a little over a year ago. I've always had short hair, constantly getting hair cuts since I was a baby until the beginning of 2007. I decided to let my hair grow out for the first time to see how it would look. My hair was a complete disaster. Some parts of it were curly, other parts wavy, and some just completely bone straight. It wouldn't stay down or in place, it would just go every different way it wanted to so I ended up cutting it off and going the short way again. Then during the summer of last year, I was just thinking to myself how boring short hair really is and if I did decide to grow it out again what would I do with it. So I came to the conclusion of getting dreadlocks on my own, no outside influences. It's a different look and I thought they would be pretty cool on me. I started growing my hair out in September '08 up til now and waited until it was about 8-9 inches long to start dreading. I made a mistake and went to a salon but they just completely screwed it up. So now I'm just taking the backcomb road and I currently have 3 actual dreads but I'm waiting for my Christmas break starting next weekend to wash my hair and do them all. I'm really excited and I'm happy with the ones I have now, just can't wait for all of them to lock up nice and tight. But yea pretty much my driving force was a way to keep long hair and not having it look like a mess and also since dreads look frickin' amazing lol. Btw, that's a really inspiring story of your brother man, much respect.

I've always had long hair, since 15. I was in several failed punk bands, went thru full head of liberty spikes and a mowhawk other bad hair cuts, then got a whole dispute with my punk friends, just thought violence was stupid at 17. Then started playing in a Grateful Dead cover band type thing for a while and became much more in touch psssh Lsd and hippie like. At some point in 2005 I started my first set, they were backcombed, they looked alright for a while, but I guess since they reminded me to much of my one of my ex. and were made by her, and also because they were backcombed very badly and kind of hurt. And after snow balling thoughts of not liking the I was really drunk/god knows what. I cut my dreads and woke up depressed as hell anyway, but it was all good. I grew my hair out and eventruely got fired from a job for not looking the part. But it turned out that business went to shit town anyway. So I started dreading my hair naturally and its been almost 16 months now. My grammer and sentence structure sucks right now. I love you dreadyFolk!

i love the original post by Alden. so glad this story is shared i suppose my current driving force is a spiritual one. cutting out the vanity of outward appearances and just letting my hair be itself. i believe it is the way the Creator intended. i've always found them so beautiful to look at as well.. i love natural beauty in all things.when i was a child, we would go to the family park, i used to get in trouble for taking large amounts of sand and dumping it in my hair and then rubbing it all in and around and making it frizzy and dusty. i could and would do this for hours. i suppose it seems odd to me now, how much enjoyment i received from this, but i Loved how natural and clumpy it felt.since i have gotten dreads, i feel at least one part of me is whole again, and that has done amazing things for the soul. when it feels right.. there is no denying.

Wow Alden, don't really think there could be a better reason to keep your sweet locks around. Sorry to hear of your brothers tragedy however...I never even met a person face to face with dreads until after i started mine, now it seems like I c dreadies everywhere! My driving force has much to do with my lifestyle now that i'm older. For the last 2 years i've been teaching myself how to live without wants, sounds kinda obsurd to many people I encounter but the perks are the best. The dreads are part of another step which is reducing needs and moving ever so closer to a natural lifestyle. My ultimate goal is to have no eco-footprint by the time i'm 45. With the lack of focus on my hair appearance in general i've been accomplishing more of my goals regularly. Good discussion Alden

I wanted a natural hairstyle that required me not to cut my hair and stopped all the loose hair thing that you get when you have long hair.Cutting my hair to me feels unnatural therefore I do not like.Afirming things which I have observed through my life have also helped me in my endevor. But that is to be expected when you plant a small seed of desire it can blossom in to a great tree of life , or something like that

I grew up in a bit of a red neck town untill i was about 12, then moved to a little layed back surfing town where i discovered the "hippy" life style, respect for nature, people and spirituality.I surfed every day, meditated learned to express my self. When i was 15 we moved back to said red neck town and i spose in an effort to fit in to school etc... i gradualy moved away from my self and become some what of a thug. Drinking and fighting was about the only things to do so... At 17 i became a father of a beutifull baby girl, and grew up real fast, I started working at the local slughter house (even though i was a vege at the time) to bring in the coin... I then started volunteering with the state emergency service to increase my skills so i could get a better job some where down the line, turned out i was a natural at dangerous tree removals, so ended up getting a job as a tree climber, kkilling trees...any ways, about 2 yrs ago, i was doing a take down of a tree that prob didnt need taking down and about half way up i heard a voice(yeah sounds fucked up, but true) that said ...why? Who are you? theres a better way... spun me out so much i quit the job. it took me a couple weeks to reflect and see how far from the path i had unconciously straid. I dreaded about 6 weeks ago when i graduated my studies in aboriculture as a reminder of my growth as a human being and to celebrate a new way of life protecting and healing trees... and yes i have moved away from red neck town and am living in a small village with lots of trees and open people...