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During the early days, Rastas, looking for meaning in the Old Testament, found the following passage in Numbers 6:5: "All the days of the vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head.
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Rastafarianism as a religion takes in aspects of the Bible, but regards Ras Tafari Makonnen - the Emperor Haile Selassie, king of Ethiopia from 1930 - as the messiah, or did until his death in 1975. The Rastafari movement started in Jamaica in the 1930s, inspired by the visionary Marcus Garvey, who pioneered the idea of black pride and championed the back-to-Africa movement. So how did this hairstyle come to symbolise so many different things to so many different people, and where did dreadlocks come from? And as for white people with dreads, well, these days they are just as likely to be working in an office as demonstrating outside Starbucks. A black person with dreadlocks is no more likely to be a Rastafarian than a white person with a skinhead is a Nazi. And I'd like that passion - I feel as if I'm missing out on something.Īs the kind of people who wear their hair in dreadlocks has changed and diversified - they're not just a black thing any more - so too has their meaning. Those with dreads talk about them emotionally, passionately even. Yet, despite all the baggage, I've always suffered from a bad case of dreadlock envy. To you they might be no more than a fashion statement, but others won't see them that way. They come with a burden of responsibility. I've always seen dreadlocks as a positive hairstyle, and also a brave one.
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When he told them that he suspected his dreads were stopping him getting a job, they were shocked. When one black friend cut off his dreadlocks, none of his white friends could understand why and kept telling him what a shame it was. Are you a Rasta? Are they real? How long have you had them? And, inevitably, have you got any gear? Everyone has an opinion. People - black and white - will assume a level of political awareness if you have dreadlocks. As one friend puts it, "Once your mum thinks it's OK, and middle-class black kids started wearing them, it was all over."Įven if the remnants of a black-and-proud cachet cling to the afro, it is dreadlocks that are the controversial hairstyle today. But, over the years, the afro lost its ability to shock. As much as the clenched fist, it became a symbol of black power. In the 1960s, the afro was the militant black person's hairstyle of choice. Wearing your hair in any "natural" or traditional style (such as braids) is a way of turning your back on a society that is constantly telling black people that their hair in its natural state simply isn't good enough - that only short hair is acceptable (if you're a man) or chemically straightened (if you're a woman). The link between hair and the black identity cannot be underestimated. They will tell you that it's more than a hairstyle it's an attitude, a "dreadhead" mentality, a way of life. Speak to anyone, black or white, with dreads and they will eulogise them. On the other hand, to dismiss these newer dreadlocks as just "fashion" dreads also misses the point. But dreadlocks are not just about religion in fact, most of the dreadlocks you see today have got as much to do with the Rastafarian religion as a short back and sides. Hair has also long been connected to religion - Sikhs, orthodox Jews, Buddhists monks are all identifiable by their hair (or the lack of it). Hair has always carried a special significance of the wearer's sense of self and the image they are trying to project. If pressed, might you hazard a guess, they had a liking for listening to reggae and smoking joints - if they're white, might you begin thinking of anticapitalism and road protests? All that based on a person's choice of hairstyle. Maybe you assume that they are a Rastafarian. What do you think when you see someone with dreadlocks? Be honest.