hair

[LBTC]

I've seen some pretty short dreads. ick. Once I realized that you get dreads by just not washing your hair, the romance of them completely disappeared for me!

I'm thinking your age wins on this one. Let shoe size win out in some other category!

Hugs and butteflies,

~T~

[Mr. Bloom]

Mark Twain said:
"Clothes Make the Man...Naked People Have Little or No Influence on Society as a Whole"

While they are wonderfully colorful personalities, dreadlocks don't make someone's life easier in mainstream society (unless your last name was Marley...).

I too vote for age over shoe size...

Change of Heart Edit: BUT, I just noticed that you're in a creative field...you can pull this off if you want to!

[Bad JuJu]

According to my hairdresser, whose birthday gift a couple of years ago to her teenage surfer son, was to help him start his dreds, there's more to it than just not washing your hair, especially for blonde-haired white kid. I don't remember the whole process, but basically you have to do something to break down the outer coating of each hair. And I've seen some very cute short dreds.

ANYWAY, I vote for shoe size on this one, if it won't hinder your functioning as you wish to in the circles in which you move in life: work, school, family, whatever.

Here's the thing: will you get to a point in your life when you can't do this thing with your hair and wish you had? After all, it's only hair, and if you don't like the new look, you can always change it back.

[East Hill]

What Mr. Silver said! If you are in a profession which does not rely on conservative looks to succeed, and indeed, which may benefit you to be extraordinary, go for it.

East Hill

[KnottedYet]

Depends a lot on your hair texture.

While I was in college (twenty-mmph years ago) dreds were a fad, and kids with fine straight hair looked REALLY bad with dreds. The dreds grew wimpy and uneven and the scalp that showed just looked....awkward. Some of them just looked like mats. Like matted dog hair.

Maybe fine straight hair can do it with professional assistance.

Now, the kids with thick curly or nappy hair looked great! Their dreds looked right: even and neat and round in cross section (rather than mat-like) and it didn't look like they had huge awkward bald patches on their scalps.

Good dreds look great, bad dreds just look pathetic and poseur. (do people still use that word? Poseur?) And personally I like the look of good short dreds.

I wanted dreds... sigh. Wasn't gonna happen with my hair. So every so often I go for 1 1/2 inch spikes. Spikes work very well on my thin baby-fine hair.

Edit: BTW, I work in the same field as Wahine, but with a different population. They like spikes and would probably handle dreds just fine (just not on ME). Assess your contacts carefully if you think they will be influenced by your hairstyle.

[Eden]

Interesting question. I think dreadlocks can be really nice and sexy if done right and kept up well. As far as being unprofessional - I've seen dreads that are nicer looking and neater looking than some people without dreads keep their hair so I think that its like anything else - Its the amount of effort that you want to put into it. I found a really good web site about how to make them and how to maintain them. It acutally looks like a lot of work....... http://www.dreadheadhq.com/ There is a how to and a lot of good photos (imho both of how to do it well and how not to do it) on people of all races and hair types and hair lengths.

Not washing your hair may be one way to get them naturally, but from what I read you certainly can wash your hair, in the beginning you just have to wash it less often our you'll disturb the dreads too much. I would bet if you just don't wash your hair and let the dreads form naturally then you get the nasty matted look rather than the neat smooth look. They also said if you have you have to be very very dilligent about getting getting them dry all of the way through, especially if they are fat or they could mildew - ick!

[KayTee]

I like the look of dreads on some, but they'd never do for my own work or lifestyle. Dreads I've seen on most fine-, straight-haired white people do look chunky, irregular and just not quite right. So I vote for yes if your hair texture, aesthetics sense and lifestyle will support 'em OK. Otherwise whatever involves the least amount of maintenance and results in the least offensive helmet-head! BTW, I'm a dog person and totally love dreads - er, cords - on certain breeds like pulik, komandorak and Havanese.

[KnottedYet]

Eden - cool website. Just wandered through it, fun!

[pyxichick]

My sister had dreadlock extensions. Basically, they were dreadlocks of fake hair attached to her very short real hair, which was bleached blond. It looked pretty cool, and she didn't have to go without washing her hair or do anything to her natural hair, so it was easy to remove them and do something different if she wanted.

I think dreads can look really cool, and don't worry about what other people think.

kate