Naturally occurring dreadlocks a concept difficult to grasp

i was the same but i wasnt goth, i dressed like a metalhead, i guess i still have my roots. i dont dress like the typical college student, but yeah, your'e right. the dress code does come into affect with strangers.

Baba Fats said:

I was like that in highschool. I was the one goth in my whole school in all grades. I wore all black, black nailpolish, eyeliner, black leather trench coat (even after the school imposed a no coats in class rule), and multicoloured mohawk, and I never changed for gym and carried an umbrella if we did anything outside (Yeah I was that kid). The kids in my grade didn't get to know me until my senior year. Before that they were all afraid of me. And once they got to know me, they had to explain to all the freshmen that I wasn't going to shoot up the school.

It didn't happen until I changed my whole dress that strangers started to feel comfortable enough to come up and just talk to me. I'm not saying it's all in how you dress, but people do tend to create an image of you before they talk to you at first glance

updated by @andres2: 07/19/15 08:36:18PM

Interesting discussions. I love it when some of you share some personalexperience. When I first let my beard grow it got big fast and EVERYBODY made a comment on it, it freak people out nobody wasindifferent. I miss my beard but my skin was doingweirdtings and I had to shave the last one I had...I had two nice locks forming ( I put braids in my beard and they where locking up nicely). Reaction todifferenceis very natural it's part of how we evolve andsurvivedfor so long. Many of our social habits are 'residues' of our wild ancestors. We are domesticated (some more then others) andpredominantsocial conduct or reactions are evolutionary habits that survived until today. Some are useful others not and some limit us.

That's very insightful, I think you're onto something. We still need to be alert to what's happening around us, but being able to tell real threats from harmless differences is what distinguishes an aggressively conformist society from one that's tolerant of diversity. There's an evolutionary benefit in diversity as well. Cultural random mutation, perhaps. I'm just tossing around ideas here.

Jdwood said:

Interesting discussions. I love it when some of you share some personalexperience. When I first let my beard grow it got big fast and EVERYBODY made a comment on it, it freak people out nobody wasindifferent. I miss my beard but my skin was doingweirdtings and I had to shave the last one I had...I had two nice locks forming ( I put braids in my beard and they where locking up nicely). Reaction todifferenceis very natural it's part of how we evolve andsurvivedfor so long. Many of our social habits are 'residues' of our wild ancestors. We are domesticated (some more then others) andpredominantsocial conduct or reactions are evolutionary habits that survived until today. Some are useful others not and some limit us.

Thanks. A lot of our 'morals' areold tribal habits. Example empathy or the desire to help perfect strangers. There is no reason to, it does not give any evolutionaryadvantageto help some one we will never see again so why do we feel the need to? In a tribe helping someone always payed off because no one was a strangers and we would always get back what we 'invested'. This created a natural selection that the mosthelpfulpeople in the tribe had a greater chance of survival and passing on genes. Today helping a stranger is a kind of 'misfiring' of this trait. Like a bug flying into a camp fire. Some bugs use the sun or stars to navigate but camp fires (and porch lights) are a modern invention so them flying into it is the misfiring of their ability to navigate with the sun and stars.

hippiegal said:

That's very insightful, I think you're onto something. We still need to be alert to what's happening around us, but being able to tell real threats from harmless differences is what distinguishes an aggressively conformist society from one that's tolerant of diversity. There's an evolutionary benefit in diversity as well. Cultural random mutation, perhaps. I'm just tossing around ideas here.

I think black people get irritated with me cause I don't spend half of every one of my paychecks to go to a salon and get my hair "fixed."

c21dread said:

rofpmslmao

of course you must have been to a loctician Jdwood how else would u get such a wonderful head of hair

.nice of him to save u the bother of having to talk to him Denney

unfortunately the world is full of dumbasses.

one thing about honesty is that some idiots are scared of it and so do not bother entering your life - which is nice

People just seem to have personal issues I guess. I remember when I had dreads the first time, I was a cashier at a food Co-Op. There was a woman that would not go through my line for anything! I would be at the ten or less items line and she would be standing there with a newspaper and a coffee only. I would say I am open over here and she would turn her head the other way. Sometimes I would be the only cashier out there (there was only 3 cash registers) and she would wait till someone else came out. Or if the other lanes were full of people with huge amounts of stuff she would still wait with her 2 items to go through another lane that wasn't mine!

I later learned by the general manager that she had gone to him many times stating that I should be fired because of my hair! But everyone loved me there, so I had no worries. I am one of the nicest friendliest people out there when I work. SO she missed out. ;P And even after not working there for awhile when I went back in the general manager gave me a hug and said they would always love to have me back. Like I said that woman just obviously had some serious issues.

And I saw someones comment above about people touching their tattoos and such. I do not get that either. I mean I am super friendly but I don't go around touching strangers... That reminds me of another time I was standing in the bank and I felt one of my dreads move (not naturally!). I turned around and this woman was pulling her hand away from my head! She was like, "Oh I just wanted to see what that was.. Is it straw?" Yea lady I wear straw on my head! And why the heck are you touching something if you don't even know what it is? People are weird. lol

Yup people are weird...That is something the woman who did not want to get served by you and asked for you to get fired, some people are so hung up on looks it's sad.

It didn't happen to me, but at my old job, you weren't allowed to have dyed hair. The majority of our customers were old people, and they complained about everyone who had colourful hair. The boss finally said that if you're hair is dye, you either have to cover it, or dye it back. After that, he would refuse to hire people based on if they had dyed hair.

Love this thread,sooo much wisdom. Researching stigma revealed - before knowing of germs, it was evolutionary to avoid those who appeared different! Diversity now,that's nice.1 week bs/eo/v, no comb , Fai

Circle Dancer, it could be that you are giving off body language that cause people to not approach you with all sorts of random questions...or it could be that your set of locks is still too young for people to pay all that much attention yet. I didn't start getting all sorts of questions from strangers until about year 3. But...who knows.

The most common question that people ask me is, "How do you wash your hair." I love this question...and when I tell them you wash it just like you would undreaded hair...they stare blankly at you as if they can't comprehend that dreads are just...unbrushed hair!

Then the people who ask how I dreaded my hair...it really is amazing how they can't believe all you have to do is stop brushing it. "Really?" They ask..."Really." is the answer you all actually understand being a part of this community.

Every so often I encounter someone who after some sort of exchange about how long I've been dreading...and the method...how long they are. They get the courage to show the babies they have been nurturing. It amazes me at how often these people have been told to stop washing their hair completely...they also were told to let it dread on their own...but even though I know this community tells me I need to wash my hair more....I wash mine frequently enough that I'm known to smell good and be a clean dready!

It's these little baby dreadies who look at me in shock when I tell them that if they wash their hair once a week to every two weeks (I know you all do more...I know...) that their hair will lock up faster than the stinky, gross, and oily mess they showed me. I also told them that if they used sea salt rinses... and Dr Bronner's soap that they'll see a lot more progress! (We do have soft water in most places here in Portland and this was the advise I was giving out to people even before I stumbled on this community!
I will probably always be a turning point in that little baby dready's set of locks...sorta feels cool.

I know I mentioned this in another post...but...still the most amazing question I got after a person learned I let my hair dread naturally...is if my pubes were dreaded too. That poor person musta had one hellva mental image going on their for a minute!

I mean...why would someone dread pubes?! wow...