On having dreadlocks

At age eight, when I realised I was doomed to be different from everyone else in thought and identity for the rest of my life, I also decided I wanted to grow dreadlocks, and they have been a manifestation of that feeling of difference ever since. I hold in them my security and strength in the face of great adversity, because if someone asks me my race, I'll tell them my parents are Roma, if someone asks my orientation, I'll tell them I'm gay, if someone asks my gender, I'll tell them I'm genderqueer or androgynous, because I'm vegan, because I'm Buddhist, because I'm adopted, because I have an English accent in Scotland, because I've got scars of varying visibility running the length of my body and because I receive several intrusive questions or comments or straight-up insults every single day based on any number of these things. Because people will be polite when asking and then sneer aggressively at my response. Because people will touch my hair and my scars without asking me and challenge the clothes I wear and the way I talk and expect me to justify myself constantly. People think that because I'm different, that they can treat me exactly how they like and that I will be humble, that they have the right to go unchallenged and have their privacy respected, whereas I have to answer ridiculous questions on every facet of my identity several times a week, if not a day.

So I wear dreadlocks to manifest that I am different and there's not a part of myself that I will dull down, even if it would make things infinitely easier for me. Dreadlocks eschew social standards of beauty, they elude fashion, they renounce mimickery or emulation. For every one person who thinks dreadlocks are the shit, there are about 20 people who think they're dirty, messy rags of hair, and for every one person who will comment that my dreads look good, there are about 20 who are prepared to pull them on the bus, or chase me, or hit me in the head, or ask me if I have fleas or lice or pretend that they can see things growing on my head or talk loudly within my earshot about how disgusting I am. And that's absolutely fine by me, for as long as I can own my difference and be proud of it and allow myself to not feel restrained by societal regulations and as long as I can know that I wouldn't want to dull myself down in order to be considered more acceptable by people I don't know and wouldn't want to be friends with. My dreadlocks represent the time and patience and dedication it's taken me to get to this stage.

Contemporary dreadlocks existed first as a sign of difference, worn by people of various cultures and are associated with overwhelming spirituality, anti-materialism and religious thought. For me, the absolute core of the wearing of dreadlocks is, and should be, individuality and maybe even purity. The intrinsic meaning is difference and every set of dreadlocks has it's own character and has required it's own specific maintenance to get them to that stage. Nowadays, I hear more and more the idea that it's okay to get dreads for the sheer aesthetics of it, the "fashion" of it, and I am absolutely opposed to this idea, in the way that I am opposed to the wearing of Che Guevara tshirts for fashion, the wearing of Palestine scarves for fashion, etc. It's one thing enjoying the delights other cultures can provide, for instance, I love Japanese food. It's an entirely different thing to appropriate from other cultures. When you see someone wearing a Palestine scarf and think, "Fuck me, that looks good, I'm going to get me one of them" you're going to, in your ignorance, leave an entire group of people marginalised. It's effectively saying that your right to look good is as important as their right to have their political beliefs represented. You leave yourself indistinguishable from those who need their voice to be heard. If someone asks you why you're wearing this big scarf and you reply that you simply like the way it looks, that response will resound in the asker of the question and they won't feel the need to ask the question again. In your ignorance, you have perpetuated ignorance and silenced the minority, when they need to be shouting louder. It's the same with dreadlocks. If you wear dreadlocks for fashion and voice that you are wearing them for fashion and do not show any indication that you understand their various origins, that will impress upon whoever hears it. Myself and whoever else cultivates dreadlocks as a manifestation of difference and a show of strength, we will be merged seamlessly with those who wear dreadlocks for shits and giggles and the importance of the strength we acquire through wearing them will again be undermined.