Say goodbye to bobbi pins

Dreadlocks can be sensible and fashionable

Maybe I should file this as one of my reasons for dreadlocks . . . or just under silly hair tricks.

I like wearing my hat to bed on cool nights - it's an old Boy Scout trick to keep warm.  It's nowhere near the bitter cold of even three or four months ago, but even as June turns to July it's cool enough that I won't wear shorts after the sun sets, and I definitely prefer a blanket.  I don't like how my hat falls off in the middle of the night, leaving me to cast about bleary-eyed for my security took in the morning
Guess I solved that problem.

I can't say I have a clue how easy it's going to be to take it off again once the sun comes up.  This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship, or a terrible idea that I'll laugh about  . . . once I forget how much it sucked.

Time will tell.

Reason #6: accountability

I had someone offer me a hit off a blunt one day, and I declined.

"Let me get this straight," he said to me.  "You get dreadlocks and you don't smoke weed?"

I've been told that dreadlocks can increase offers of drugs.  It's something that's just expected of people with locks.

I can't afford that, because sometimes I'm not the most mindful driver in the world.  If I get pulled over with a natty head, I'm pretty sure that the cop is going to find probable cause to search my vehicle if I can.

That's why dreadlocks make me accountable.

• I need to understand and exercise my rights.
• I need to practice one crime at a time - and realize that having dreadlocks might count at that crime.
• I must be prepared to go the extra mile to appear clean and neat, because the people who think I'm not may have influence over my life.

So please don't be surprised if I don't take a hit off your blunt.  I need to rise above and be something which people don't expect.

I'm accountable to myself.

Getting testy

It's been over two months now, and I don't know if I'm going to get any serious crap about my hair or not.

The challenge is trying to test reactions, without creating them.  For example, I've gotten comments suggesting that my police encounter really wasn't influenced by my hair.  I could have pushed the issue, and escalated it into a confrontation, but I don't think that would have shown anything about the officer's perception being altered by my locks.  My only reason to speculate was independent musings, plus a desire to attribute his rude behavior to some external factor, rather than presume that he treats everybody like that.

It's hard enough to pinpoint cases of racial profiling and other forms of discrimination; you can suspect, but it's not easy to know.  In order to do a solid job testing this hypothesis, I need to understand what has - and has not - worked while studying racism.  There's a professor of African American studies that I might look up to ask about that.

More questions than answers.  That's actually a good thing, even though it's frustrating.

But officer, I said . . .

I had a police encounter recently that I believe was negatively impacted by my locks.

First, a few words about my relationship with, and opinion of, police in general.  I like knowing that there are people who are willing to do very dangerous things to keep other people safe from crime.  It's an important role of government:  protecting the minority (in this case, potential crime victims) from the predations of others.  I have a rapport with a number of local officers, and I respect the work they do.  When it's possible, I enjoy watching their operations because I don't have any training in police procedure, and I find it pretty interesting.

On the other hand, police are trained to push the envelope, encouraging people to give up their rights.  It's legal, and many people out of ignorance do so on a regular basis.  Another reason I like to observe the police is because I want to understand better how, and how often, they get people to yield their rights to things like silence and protection from search and seizure.

So I observe police activity when it's convenient, both for my personal curiosity and because I'm a journalist.  I know people who observe and record police activity in the hope of catching cops doing something wrong, and there are people who contrive to create situations to make police look bad.  I don't have an agenda, other than to observe what's going on.

So in this particular case I had noticed an extremely intoxicated young man stumbling around the bar district of my town.  Not too long after that, he found himself passed out against a dumpster, covered in his own vomit.  Someone had the good sense to call 911; the man was probably in very real danger at that point.

When I came upon the scene, two rescue vehicles and two police officers had already responded.  There was ample room for their vehicles, as the man had passed out in the corner of a parking lot.  Most spots were filled, but the emergency responders parked in the aisles, as they are wont to do in such cases.

I maintained myself some twenty feet from the action, taking care not to get into the line of sight between the victim and any of the rescue vehicles.  I don't interfere with police and emergency activity.  I wasn't able to see the victim, but I was more interested in the police, so this didn't trouble me.

Not being able to see much, I was texting a friend from my extremely dumb phone while observing.  The way I held my phone piqued the interest of an officer, who broke away from the scene to approach me.

"He doesn't need to be embarrassed more than he is," he began, "and doesn't need to be recorded.  Why don't you step over there," he said, gesturing to a spot some 30 feet farther away.

"But officer," I began, wishing to explain that I wasn't recording.

"Sir, I asked you nicely," he said in a tone which was anything but.  "Please step over there."

I knew that I wasn't breaking any laws.  I knew that he was implying that he would find one to claim I was breaking from his bearing and tone, should I disobey.  I didn't have an ax to grind, so I obeyed.  But I knew full well that my rights had been violated.

Recently waxed, wild dreadlocks

I later confirmed that, despite my being somewhat well-known in my community, the incident was not driven by personality.  He didn't know who I was, and I didn't choose to push the issue by flashing my press ID or otherwise escalating.

I have found no credible evidence, before or since, that local police target recording of their activities and discourage it.  Some anecdotes, but nothing I can verify.  That being the case, I have a very strong suspicion that my locks altered the officer's perception, and put me on the "cop radar" as a possible problem when he may have otherwise not reached that conclusion.

The hypothesis that dreadlocks impact police encounters in a negative fashion seems a lot more valid to me now.  I had expected that I wouldn't discover anything about this question unless and until I made an error in driving (which, frankly, is bound to happen; I'm not an angel behind the wheel).  To have such an encounter while merely texting near police activity caught me entirely off-guard, but was nevertheless very instructive.

State of the locks

A brief report on how these locks of mine are maturing.

Rounding out two months or so, about two-thirds of my locks are definitely tightening up and becoming solid.  The remainder are in varying states of "mushy," and are mostly being held together by the base and tip bands alone.

As to the tips, we started to blunt some of them yesterday.

We tried it out on a handful, with some success . . . I put bands back on one or two but I'm pretty sure te others we tried will tighten up sweetly.

The loose hairs being fed into the locks seems to be an endless chore.  I've gotten pretty good at making dread balls, but I can't for the life of me get them into the lock without help.  I have a halo of hairs above my head, and little by little I hope to see them all go where they belong.

Trickier is going to be the flyaway stuff on the surface of the tighter locks.  Time and good advice should help me figure out if there's anything I need to be doing about them.

So far, so good.  I don't think wax is slowing my locking down, and my haberdasher bears that out.  Maureen is African-American, has had locks for twenty years, and recommends the use of wax in them.

A tangled web

Dreadfully dapper.

Running for office has forced me to step up my look.  My original premise, that writers are largely immune to judgments based on their appearance, is completely the opposite of politics, where votes can be won or lost based on looks alone.

When I attended the Ulster County Republican Convention, one gentleman, upon seeing me wearing my tam, asked if I were perhaps Jamaican.  Now that I've worn the thing, I have to agree that they look a bit ridiculous . . . very poofy and visually distracting.

So I'm stepping up my game.  I've taken off my Groucho glasses, so to speak, by shaving the mustache and replacing the glasses with contacts.  I stepped into Blue Byrd's Haberdashery to get advice on a better hat and, together with a thoughtful customer who told me that the cocoanut weave fedora brings out my eyes, we found one that I think works quite well.

This political game isn't what I had in mind when I began to lock my hair, but I don't doubt that it will draw out the positive and negative perceptions about the style.  I've had no less than three people suggest that I should get rid of them if I'm serious about running for office, but I have a prior commitment to my hair:  five years unless I run into some kind of icky hygiene issue.  I'm willing to serve, but I'm first and foremost a student of life, and I'm going to learn about campaigning in the context of learning about dreadlocks, and I'm just going to have to find ways to convince people to focus on my ideas, rather than my hair.

There's absolutely nothing to be lost by maintaining a professional and classy appearance, though.

Reason #5: human nature

It's part of the human condition to want to manipulate and control the world around us.  The Protestant work ethic and British sense of tidiness focus this desire on working hard to make the beauty of nature into tidy and manageable bits.  Think about Victorian England and all it wrought around the world, such as the tidiness of vast, green lawns.

In the United States those values mix with an instant-gratification ethic, so now we want all the beauty of nature in tidy rows, and we want it now.


Unfortunately nature isn't terribly tidy, and mature natural landscapes can't be replicated (except maybe on a movie set) by engineers.

I didn't like dreadlocks the first time I saw them, because of that inherent messiness.  I do think that mature locks are pretty damned impressive.  Trying to get there is a great way to get over it.

Notes from a Dreaded Republican

I started this blog to chronicle my journey to understanding about dreadlocks:  why people get them, why they keep them, their advantages and disadvantages.  I named it "Dread Like Me" in the spirit of Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin's groundbreaking book about how a white man learned what it was like to be black in the South in the 1950s.  I expected that people would start to look at me differently (or want to take pictures of the back of my head).

People are looking at me differently - but not at all in the way I'd expect.

In my little village, we've got hippies, musicians, academics, activists, environmentalists; overall it's a very engaged community which has shifted in the last twenty years from a Republican stronghold to a Democratic bastion. I've been one of the few Republicans for several years, holding to the belief that the truly core Republican principles (personal responsibility, fiscal responsibility, a nation governed by laws) can exist without hatred, bigotry, and cruelty.

Posing with the plane my father worked on.

If anything, I expected that my dreadlocks would lead me to be completely dismissed by the party faithful, but instead, they asked me to run for Ulster County Legislature.

I can now see the wisdom of their choice.  It's been a long time since trust-buster Teddy Roosevelt created the first national park, and a lot of intelligent people dismiss the idea that a Republican can actually care about real people anymore.  Wearing my locks, I send a clear message:  think again. Because I look so very different, closed minds open up a little bit, and I can actually share my ideas.

Ideas like taking the green-collar economy seriously for a change.  Better-paying jobs with an environmental focus can reduce the 7.7% unemployment rate in the county, even while preserving the pristine beauty which drives tourism.

Ideas like taking care of veterans, senior citizens, and kids, because it's the right thing to do. My father was a veteran, and he was ashamed at how poorly his combat brethren were treated.  Aging is the universal equalizer, and sidelining people once their bodies and minds begin to fail isn't a value I embrace.  Children are literally our future, and we relegate them to the crumbs after we pay for other programs.

Not all Republicans are scary, but some of them are definitely dreaded.

Picture this

Top-down self pic, dreadlocks at seven weeks

Getting pictures of my locks is a bit of a pain in the rear.  There are really only two options for getting pictures of oneself, of course:  pointing a camera at your own face, or having someone else them for you.  Pretty simple, I suppose.

Except . . . when I ask someone to take a picture of me, that tend to focus on the back of my head. Call me strange, but I think the front is more my speed.  I understand, there's some interesting stuff going on back there, but I happen to think that endless pics of the back of me 'ead is a bit boring.

Even though I'm locking my hair, the focus of my life (or this blog) isn't having dreaded hair.  Instead, it's about how the dreadlocks impact my life, how they change me and how people see me.

My other alternative, taking them myself, is limiting.  The length of my arm is the biggest factor, because I can't change that.  Clever use of mirrors and better aim definitely help.

Any pics can show you things you can't always see about yourself.  For example, I just found out by looking at this post's image that I have a part in my hair, which I think is pretty funny.

So rather than tell my friends what to take pictures of, I've got a plan that should get me in front of more cameras in general.  Update coming soon.

Reason #4: learning by doing

I'm a writer, and I write to learn.  Sometimes research into a topic isn't enough; you need to experience it to speak with authority.  I want to know how people with dreadlocks are perceived, and explore why I think those perceptions are attractive.  I still don't know if I will like being That Dreadlocks Guy, but that's what learning is all about.

Countdown to zero

I've worked out a large-scale plan for these locks of mine, still in their infancy.

Still so young . . . what will five years bring?

• I'm keeping them for five years, barring a serious hygiene crisis.  I think that should be enough time for me to understand the non-spiritual reasons for dreadlocks, as well as the challenges and detriments.
• I won't buy more dread wax after this container is finished.  Sure, it's deductible (when you're a professional writer, stuff you buy to write about is), but it's not intended for permanent use.  Besides, plenty of people vehemently oppose waxing dreads, and I want to see what difference I notice.
• Likewise, I will phase out the rest of my dreadlocks products as they run out.  I haven't seen any occasion to use locking accelerator since day one, so if anyone wants a premixed bottle, 90% full, hit me up.

Having a deadline allows me to decide if I have fallen in love with my locks, or if I want to test the theory that they can be unlocked without just cutting them off.  Honestly, that claim is intriguing to me, so I might have to divest myself just to see how well that works.  Check out my dreadlock countdown clock.

After all, it's just hair, right?

Tips for tips

The advice keeps coming, and I'm really appreciative.  If nothing else, it's validating my experimentation.

Tame locks are happy locks

One tip I got after lamenting my epic bed head was something I had tried with remarkably good results:  soaking in a hot tub.  It got those bad boys to settle down, and stay settled for days.  I don't think I will need to use wax for cosmetic reasons if a half hour of glorious immersion will do the same thing.

That same friend of mine, who tells me that she studied locking techniques for a year before she began her first set, also suggested aloe for conditioning/taming, spoke highly of tea tree oil, and suggested a semiannual vinegar rinse as well.

This is really good news to me, because my long-term plan is to divest myself of commercial products.  The shampoo I was using prior to locking is just baking soda and water with a little bit of tea tree oil, and the rinse is apple cider vinegar with a drop of vanilla and a cinnamon stick.  I still need to find out if that drop of vanilla in the formula will cause problems, but I think it's only for scent, so I'm fine with dropping it from the recipe.

One of my local locked friends, Amanda Catherine, has really amazing blunt tips on her locks.  She explained that they come from a technique which she'd been taught, but for which she did not have a name:

1. Take a lock near the base and put it between the second and third fingers of your non-dominant hand.  Your palm should be facing away from your scalp.
2. With the fingers of your other hand, grab the lock, leaving less than an inch between the two hands.
3. Use clockwise rubbing against the non-dominant hand, slowly moving that hand away from the scalp, along the length of the lock.
4. Hold the tip between thumb and forefinger, and rub your palm clockwise over it to encourage locking and blunting.

I might try using the Lock Peppa with that technique, since that's what it's for.

Lock maintenance party!

I was also fortunate enough to get an offer of working on my locks, by one master locker and one apprentice.  It's always more uncomfortable to have other people yanking and tugging at your hair, but I gratefully accepted.  It wasn't nearly as agonizing as the six hours of backcombing.

Crisp and clean, and no caffeine

I got a few more compliments on my wife's backcombing skills, and we were able to identify which locks are slower to tighten and which ones are coming along really quickly.  I am really excited about using the latch hook my wife brought home to tighten them all the more.  She didn't think we needed a lock-specific tool; it's great to have a skilled fiber artist in the house if you don't happen to live with someone who is already experienced with dreadlocks.

I also got feedback from some of my friends who hadn't seem me since this adventure began, and I was pleasantly surprised by the positive reactions of these largely traditional, professional people.  I think the fact that I didn't look like my head was exploding had something to do with it . . . I just can't imagine anyone who isn't living on the road thinking I looked remotely decent that day.

Next up:  I've worked out a timeline for what in the hell I'm doing with this hair of mine.  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail, and all that, so I'm planning on not planning to fail by failing to plan to plan.

Oh, the craziness of me

This post's title is inspired by Peter Pan ("Oh, the cleverness of me!") because I've discovered that sleeping can be hazardous to your locks, or at least it can ruin any chances of keeping them tame.  If J.M. Barrie had thought of dreadlocks, he definitely would have put them on his young hero.

Not what I would call a professional look.

The three locks which were sticking straight out from the right side of my head when I awoke yesterday morning were particularly amazing.  As they've gotten longer, I thought at first that it was the rubber bands I still have at the base of each lock which was make those particular ones so . . . pointy.  But that's not the case, because I've moved the bands around, and removed them entirely, and yet I still often wake up in this amazing condition.

The only thing I found that brought them back in line with gravity was a good, long soak in the tub.  They stayed down when I dried them, and they were still down this morning when I woke up.  This is technically a "wax on" week, but wax didn't help me beat them into shape.  In fact, there's no detectable wax in the unruly locks right now, and yet they're behaving.

This brings to mind another reaction to my locks.  "When you go in the pool, you'll look like Predator," I was told.  I imagined he meant how my hair would float in the water, but . . . not quite.  "When you get out of the water, your hair is dry," he said, which is completely the opposite of my experience so far, but maybe it will turn out that way once they're tight enough to repel moisture.

If that happens, though, washing is going to be a real pain in the ass.

More advice? Really?

I keep getting more advice about how to maintain my locks.  That's all well and good, but invariably the tips are contradictory.  Two examples:

• I got introduced to the guy who, until last September, was probably the only Republican in the county with locks.  (He cut them off after twenty years, so I guess that mantle falls to me.)  That's a lot of years, so I figure he knows what he's talking about.  His wisdom:  " Be patient, it will take some time for them to grow in. DO NOT use shampoo or soap on them! DO try and find a gentle pomade -- not pure beeswax -- that will help them cosmetically and naturally."  I pressed for details about the washing, and he said he recommends "just plain ol hot water.  Summer swimming holes work great too.  Pools and salt water, not so much."
• A friend of mine is helping her elementary-school daughter with locks (it's apparently all the rage with the tween set these days), and it was suggested to her that ocean swimming will help a lot.  My wife agreed, saying that salt water always makes her hair tangle.

I will continue to gather info, but I'm sticking to my plan and seeing it through.  It seems to be working, and changing things could make things worse if I do get problems.  So far, I'm not so committed that I don't mind cutting them off if the experiment fails, but I'm otherwise committed to five years.  That should be enough for me to learn everything I need to from dreadlocks.