Answered: Nosy Questions about Dreadlocks

Let’s get right down to business, because I know you essentially know what dreadlocks are — you’ve seen them, they’re coming out the back of every other NFL player’s helmet, you know who Bob Marley is and, hopefully, you know who Ava DuVernay is as well. So, if you have questions of a basic, not-nosy variety (e.g. about the history or various methods of forming dreadlocks), leave now and try the Wikipedia page for dreadlocks or Google them, though there’s plenty of disinformation out there, so be warned. Otherwise, if you’re feeling nosy (of course you are), I’d like to give you the answers to the things people really seem to want to know about dreadlocks…because I’ve been asked. A lot.

The feeling when you love your hair, but don’t always love awkward questions from total strangers…

• Do you wash them? Yes, yes I do! They’ve been growing from my head for 8 years as of September 2018, and I have in fact washed them countless times.
• How do you wash them? With shampoo, actually! Always remember: dreadlocks are hair. Even when U.S. federal courts say I could legally be fired for my dreadlocks, and some private schools would deny my kids entry if they ever have dreadlocks, they really are just hair on a scientific level. I myself use gigantic family-sized bottles of clarifying shampoo, work up copious amounts of lather which is vigorously squeezed through from roots to tips, and I rinse exhaustively and repeat at least a couple of times. I follow up with conditioner as well! So then, you might be wondering, well…
• How often do you wash them, anyway? As with all of these questions, I can technically only answer for myself, but washing my hair every 1-2 weeks is fine if I’m being fairly sedentary, not working up sweats (as is kinda my preference in life!). My scalp is naturally on the drier side, it doesn’t produce much sebum or oil to begin with, and the nature of afro-textured dreadlocks is such that there is virtually no chance of oil traveling from my scalp and spreading through my highly textured hair, at all. So as long as my hip-length dreadlocks can avoid my kids’ food, my food, my kids’ diaper changes (OMG), my toothpaste — no small tasks, but I’m experienced at this point — then washing every 7-10 days is ideal, for me. For me. And don’t get me started on the fact that air-drying them can be a 12+ hour process even in a hot arid climate, so I usually employ a blow-dryer on high heat for as long as I can stand it.
• Can I, a perfect stranger, touch them at will? No, do not do this. Please ask first, and be ready for a full-stop “no” or a rather dubious “hmmm…okaaay,” (while my face still reads “heck no”) because I just don’t see anyone else out there petting any part of anyone else on the street (pregnant bellies could be the one exception; been there and done that and have the same stance on it), and there’s just a tiny hint of circus freak spectacle to the whole ordeal that makes me feel a bit awkward. I suppose asking to touch my hair is also the true dictionary definition of objectification, and I always try super hard on principle to be so much more than a mere object, in all aspects of my life, even for the nicest and most well-meaning unknown street persons, so try not to take my rejection personally! Plus, although I’m pretty conflict-avoidant, I still don’t know the last time you or the next person washed your hands or what you’ve done with your hands since that time, and it’s generally safest to assume the worst on that front, alright? Because we just talked about the wash routine, so…next!
• Do your dreadlocks mean that you: consume cannabis / eat vegan or vegetarian or organic or non-GMO or gluten-free / meditate / belong to the LGBTQIA community / practice Rastafari / hail from Jamaica / (insert stereotype)? You will literally need to ask every single individual dreadlocked person any of these sorts of questions you may have — in a most respectful and tactful manner, if that’s ever even possible — because there are absolutely no rules regarding what dreadlocks imply about a person’s life. I will tell you I ADORE junk food (don’t even start me on that Shake Shack vs In-N-Out nonsense, both are wholly and uniquely necessary). And I do just so happen to be a first generation American of Jamaican parentage, but my parents are actually of a lofty social class that tends to disapprove of dreadlocks, so again, you just can’t assume anything. Once more, my dreadlocked hair is simply some hair, albeit the most extraordinarily cool hair that starts lots of very personal conversations with total strangers everywhere I go. Speaking of where I go…
• Do TSA agents need to give you extra-thorough security checks at the airport? You might not have ever wondered about this particular issue, but let me just say: this is an unfortunate grey area. While I’m sure there is no official TSA rule saying I or other deadlocked individuals must be pulled from every TSA checkpoint every time, it happens frequently enough to make one wonder. Especially when the TSA agent gives the pat down while also saying, “I wouldn’t have to do to this if you didn’t have all this interesting hair here.” Well, I’m keeping the hair, so the agents can keep running their gloved hands through it for sharp objects and explosive residue and whatever else they look for during those moments.

Do you dye them? Nope, never have!

• What final juicy tidbit can you share about your life with dreadlocks? Well, about a month ago I was getting undressed for a chest X-ray (I’m fine, but I was stressed out at the time), and the technician politely asked if I could put my hair up. Before I could wonder why, he told me, “it looks like your dreads are thick enough to show up on the X-ray and potentially confound the image.” I’d never heard of thick hair confusing an X-ray before, and I was…thoroughly proud? No other human being on Earth has ever had a hand in any aspect of my dreadlocks’ formation or maintenance in any way in all these 8 years I’ve had them, and while I do miss being pampered sometimes (and probably will try to treat myself to a specialty salon experience, one day), this hair of mine is like one of my kids, or a best friend, or a masterpiece of a personal project. I just love them, they identify me whether I want them to or not (and I do want them to), and in a hospital setting that was fueling my anxiety, my dreadlocks still felt comfortingly like the coolest thing in the room, at least to me…even if they were about to interfere with ridiculously expensive medical imaging technology. In my opinion, that moment in the X-ray room made my hair all the more fierce and hardcore than it always was, and certainly anything but “dreadful.”

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About the author:

Kristin Rose is an MIT-Harvard PhD biologist, and a full time mom to two high-energy humans. She loves to write with honesty and passion, and laugh along the way. You can connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn. West Coast!