Reason #15: chef hats

Josh used to have the most perfect afro that I have ever set eyes upon.  It was carefully sculpted into a gentle, bulging ellipsoid.  Other than when I used to watch Mod Squad episodes as a kid, I have never had any exposure to a badass afro like Josh's.

"I wanted to wear a chef's hat." --Josh

There was a lot of pushback from his friends when he finally went ahead and got his fro locked.  Facebook was abuzz with reactions of shock and horror.  I had one person tell me, "When he turns his head quickly, I can still see the afro."

So what's Josh's reason for dreadlocks?

"I wanted to be able to wear a chef's hat," he said.  He's studying in a culinary program, and as awesome as his afro was, there is not a toque made that he could put on top without it looking ridiculous. I can't imagine how it would even work, personally: would he shove his afro up the tube, or embed that hat a few inches deep in the hair, or bobby-pin it to death on top? And how much taller than a normal human would that make him, anyway?

And it turns out that maintaining a picture-perfect afro ain't easy -- Josh was spending way more time on his hair that he wanted to be.  He described the process to me, but I'm afraid my eyes just glazed over and I was unable to grasp all the hoops he jumped through daily to make that hair of his seem like it never changed.  I was even recording the conversation, but my phone mysteriously stopped recording before we got to that part.

Eerie.

As for method, Josh got his hair braided and he is planning on just leaving it like that.