Let's Get Personal

Much like almost everyone above, I've loved the look of dreads but never did it for one of a thousand different reasons. Well late last year, I got very sick. And after much pain I wound up having to get my gallbladder removed, it infected my pancreas and basically came close to killing me. I decided after that, that I was going to become a more organic me. I already could barely eat, so I converted to vegitarian. I started weeding out the chemicals in my diet and my life. I refi dictated myself to the craft and felt the tinglings of my third eye opening back up after years of being closed tight. The depression was lifting and life was getting more tolerable day by day, though the only changes were in me. Sometime in there I was wearing my synthetic dreads and had to take them out for a good deep clean when I decided I wanted my own dreads not some clumps of back combed plastic hair braided into it. So I washed my hair, t&r'd the sections my synthetic dreads had left and have been watching my hair change and become something that for the first time ever looks like it belongs on me. Almost 3 weeks in and I'm more comfortable with my messy crazy hair than I've been with straightening, curling, dying, fake hair or anything I've ever done to my head. Oh and did I mention that feeling my tendrils is like Rebecca said a stress ball like thing. It makes me feel relaxed and happy.

Well for me it is part of my identity, it says to the world who i am and that no matter the persona they try to push on me i will not b changed to suit the babylon imageI had dreads for almost 6 yrs and caved to the pressure of looking the ryte way to fit inand because of an horrible experience i endured., but after cutting them off i felt lost and just so unsure of the world and myself. I have lived the rastafarian lifestyle for 10 yrs now and regrowing my dreads was part of my nazarite vow it was the only step i hadn't taken. There are two things i am cetain of thru dreams and such 1: My rastaman will b there by my side the day jah comes to take me home. 2: I dream of the day my great great grandchildren will one day play with my grey dreads, seems a little silly to grow dreadsbecauseofreoccurringdreams huh? But these dreams come to me vivid i wake to tears of joy and laughter and my heart is full. Even as a child my hair was matted everyday when i woke, my mother kept my hair cut really short calling it a rats nest. So when i left home i grew it long but it never felt ryte til i done my dreads.i feel like royalty with my dreads and other times i feel wild. They r my self expression stating I am many things by nature and u can't put me n a box or classify me in any way. I am 2 weeks in with my new set i started by t&r and now i am going all natural and letting them do their own thing, in return i am finding myself more at peace.

I think I wrote it in my post, but even though I don't believe in the ethereal soul, anymore, it was one of the things that drew me to locks. When I was studying Rasta, I don't believe anymore, I heard someone say that they longer and thicker your locks were, the easier it would be for Jah to pick up your soul when you died. That stuck with me even when I stopped believing in any single judeo/christian god.

But I had to share this. Just because you mentioned "4am".

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Becsley Q Penguinface said:

Hi! This is a great idea for a threat and I loved reading your reason, and everyone elses!

So here's mine. I've wanted dreads since I was 10 which was 15 years ago (eep!). I liked the look of them, I liked people that had them and I liked the decorations. I've always been a bit of a hippie, I never feel happier than when I'm by the ocean. I love nature and rain, I believe in spirits and energies and the soul. Over the years I've suppressed this part of me, because of the way I was treated for showing it. I would get laughed at, put down, mocked, I even got dumped because my boyfriend thought I was the most stupid person in the world for believing we have a soul. And so I gave in to the pressures of this society and plodded along like everyone else.

Of course, burying your true self can never go well, and so for the past few years I've been depressed, losing "friends" left, right and centre, and withdrawing completely from society as much as I can. It was at the point where I slept around an hour or so per night, spending the rest of my time awake on the computer, painting or writing or playing xbox and I was the most unhappy person for what I essentially thought was no reason.

A couple of times a year for as long as I can remember, I'd get on the internet and look up pictures of dreadlocks and dream. I think they're so beautiful and can speak a lot about the person that has them. But then I'd close the laptop and go back to bed and that would be the end of it. I was worried about what my friends would think if I got dreads, how my old school nanna probably wouldn't dig them, how I would be further shunned from a community that has already shunned me for being fat, for missing some fingers on my left hand, for being a hippie, for wearing glasses, for having tattoos.

A week or two ago, at about 4 in the morning, I stumbled across this site during my bi-annual dreadlock rummage and I made the decision. I'm not going to care about anyone elses opinions, I was going to dread my hair! I'm no longer going to be what people expect me to be, I'm going to do what makes me happy. I'm viewing dreading as much more than changing my hair, I'm using it as a turning point for the rest of my life. Even though I only have one dread in right now, just making the decision has changed my mood completely. I'm more happy, I've been sleeping, I've been talking with like-minded people who are friendly and not superficial and horrible like the people I've been surrounding myself with all my life. My parents are in full support of me and I'm amazingly thankful for having them. They are the two most incredible people. My dreads will be an extension of my soul, and will show all those morons that have made my life a misery that I am confident, happy, unique and not afraid in the least to show it :D

Peace and light to all of you x

And sorry for the super long post! :P

That's really beautiful Baba. I don't know much about Rasta, but I can see why it stuck with you, it's struck me too.

And that video is awesome! What a funny guy. Thanks for sharing it!

Baba Fats said:

I think I wrote it in my post, but even though I don't believe in the ethereal soul, anymore, it was one of the things that drew me to locks. When I was studying Rasta, I don't believe anymore, I heard someone say that they longer and thicker your locks were, the easier it would be for Jah to pick up your soul when you died. That stuck with me even when I stopped believing in any single judeo/christian god.

But I had to share this. Just because you mentioned "4am".

This iframe is not allowed