Reason #17: no other choice

AnnMarie doesn't have dreadlocks anymore, but if you want to check 'em out, they're the ones that I used to create the header image for this blog.

They were this big!

"I didn't really have a choice," she told me.  Her reason for dreadlocks is that somebody started giving them to her and she just decided to go with it.

"The first one was really, really big," AnnMarie recalled.  In the picture here she's demonstrating where a helpful person with busy fingers got the process started, and with how much hair.  It was a big enough chunk that she thought it would be easier to let 'em lock than to try to take it out, which she figured would involve lots of hair loss.

It was at a Rainbow Gathering that she went ahead with it.  "I decided to try to do one lock a day," she said, but "there was a lot of hair," so she and her friends had a lot more work to do than could have been finished on that schedule.

Five years later AnnMarie lost her locks, and this past summer she loaned those locks to me for my blog.  Check out her first attempt at making them into a hat in this dreadlocks vlog -- she's since successfully turned them into a cool knit hat!

Hats beyond hats!

Watch the my newest vlog to find out, as I did, that hats don't just cover dreadlocks.

Stay tuned to find out what cool thing I have planned for those locks and this blog!

Poolside manner

Hot day, high humidity, recent swim in pool

The heat skyrocketed this past weekend, so I decided to throw caution to the winds and test my locks in a chlorinated pool.  I'd been warned off by two experienced lockists (one of whom told me that the chlorine would actually unlock my hair), so it took hundred-degree temperatures for me to risk it.  I finally realized in my delirium that the worst that could happen is that my experiment would be prematurely ended; I half hoped to see my hair all floating away just to have something really interesting to report.

So into the breach I went, to the local pool, and I immersed myself in the cooling 97-degree water (yes, it really was that hot).  I swam for the better part of an hour, got out, dried off, went home, and then returned in the early evening to do it again.  It felt wonderful.

My hair seemed none the worse for wear.  The first picture was a day after the pool event, and the second is from this morning, a couple of days after that.  The difference in craziness I can attribute to the fact that it was cool enough for me to fall asleep with my took on last night.  That hat does wonders for keeping my hair under control.  Probably the best lock-control mechanism I've found yet.

The fact that I spend so much time trying to keep these low-maintenance masses under control makes it clear that I'm doing this wrong.  Anyone who seriously will have their lives impacted by a thick lock of hair sticking out from the scalp at a sharp angle probably isn't going to have a low-key time with dreadlocks.

Merely hot day, low humidity, took training

So I guess I do have something to report:  this hair is forcing me to work a lot harder on a decent appearance than I ever have before, and is a whole lot less forgiving than a short haircut or shaven head would be.

Some days I just don't have the luxury to allow my head to look completely insane, so I'm finding myself coming up with shortcuts to save the day when the hair is bad.  Like washing it hard and putting it away wet.  A good, hot shower or bath will get my hair down where I want it, so if I'm in a pinch I'll wring them out and then shove them under the took for awhile.  It works even better if there's some wax in the locks, softened by the water.  (The "tame" picture here was achieved without any wax, though).  When I do that, I still need to get the hat off and allow the locks to dry so something horrible doesn't happen in there.  Did I mention that mildew is a deal-breaker?

Maybe at some point down the line I'll be able to just let the hair do whatever the hell it wants, and see how that feels.  This year, though, I'm just going to have to fight with it sometimes.

Professional engagement

Summer has driven me to take the risk that I knew it would - I abandoned my favorite hat the other night.  I had work to do in public, but it was time.  It's a well-made knit cap, and it's not made for hot weather.  I tried getting a hair net, but no matter what you make a hair net out of, it's still a hair net.

My tour of duty was a planning board meeting where I am known, and no one remarked on my hair.  I doubt they're breathless readers of my blog here.  I watched during the meeting and afterwards, when I asked some follow-up questions for my article, for any non-verbal cures, things like

• eyes drifting upwards to look at the hair, or
• a faint nasal twang to suggest not breathing through the nose, or
• a closed body posture, arms folded and turned away.

I saw no reaction from planning board members, applicants, or other journalists.  Well okay, the one applicant kept looking at me, but I couldn't tell if it was the hair or my journalist pad.  I get the latter anyway.

The following day I spoke to a number of local officials including the county executive, and attended a political committee meeting where I participated in candidate interviews.  My appearance doesn't seem to impact people who expect me to work in a professional manner.

Not sure what it means, but it's interesting.

Water, water everywhere, especially in my locks

Humidity brings the Medusa look.

So I've discovered that humidity has as much power over locked hair as it does any other.

I did have a friend (who keeps his hair no longer than half an inch) tell me that dreadlocks repel water much like an Afro does.  That had not been my experience, but I tend not to correct people in public until I just can't stand to keep my mouth shut.

Now that the moistness of the air has shot up for the summer, I'm feeling like I understand how Medusa must have felt.  Never has my hair looked more snakelike  . . . the Gorgons must have had some kind of water snakes for hair.  More on Medusa in a future post

There are ways to keep them tame, but these fierce serpents definitely like to perk up with very little provocation.

• Wax, especially wax that has been softened by a hot shower or bath, makes them malleable.  Even if you believe that wax does not help hair lock, it definitely can help shape it.
• Hats can  also keep hair down, particularly ones like my favorite took, pictured here.  If I want to use this hat to tame my locks for uncovered display, water can again be ally as well as enemy.  Even unwaxed hair, when crammed underneath the old brown-and-tan when partially dry, will yield to the demands of fashion.

No telling what's hiding under here

So water can cure what is causes, but I have to do so cautiously.  First and foremost, my locks need to be allowed to dry thoroughly or I'm setting myself up for mildew, and I cannot to begin to imagine how disgusting that would be.  If I don't ever get a chance to write about mildewed locks, I'll consider myself blessed.

I hadn't thought about how the power of weather can control your hair, locked or not.  This is new, interesting, and from a maintenance perspective, pretty damned annoying.  There are times when it's okay to look wild, but humidity doesn't compromise all the easily.

I wonder what winter will bring to this mane of mine?

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.

Promises made, promises broken

Three weeks, three days in, and there are a couple of things that I've backpedaled on.

• Waxing.  I had been thinking about cutting out the wax in my locks, but I changed my mind.  There were a few factors that swayed me.
1. I started a program, so I should follow through.  The wax controversy gave me pause, but my hair's making progress.
2. I'm getting feedback suggesting that it's locking up fast, so apparently I'm doing something right.
3. I spoke to a local business owner who used to have locks, and he used wax as well.
• Outing.  I was consider giving a talk to my business networking group which would tie together my writing and my hair, but I didn't think my locks were quite ready for prime time, and I opted to talk about poison ivy instead. When I make the shift in their consciousness from "the business writer who always wears a hat" to "that guy with dreads," I don't want them to take away ideas like messy, wacky, or disheveled.  It's important that I project a professional appearance with dreadlocks, so I want to let them settle in a bit.

I think these are acceptable shifts in strategy. What's wonderful is that I can always change gears again . . . my hair's not going anywhere, and the process is slow enough that I can mold my coif like a bonsai kitten.  My hair is locking up fast enough that I have abandoned my stocking shower cap; although I've got plenty of loose hairs and a couple of locks which are kinda meh, there is definitely improvement every day.  The progress is enough to keep me on the program, but not so fast that I want to start dangling them in every face I encounter.

Of course, I live in a small, strange town.  I now know of not one, but two elected officials who have put a single lock into their hair.  The lock acceptance rate in the rest of the world may vary.

No pictures today.  Instead I will close with a fun little montage video of the day of backcombing.  Have fun!

Hats and head coverings

The black billed tam, stuffed to simulated locks.

I bought myself a billed tam to wear once I knot the ol' locks up, because they should start taking up more room than my little knit took can handle.

Changing hats will be a big deal, because that's the one that got me started on my present course towards dreadlocks.  I started wearing my took in July of 2010.  Even though it was warm, I found that I really enjoyed how it fit my head:  not cranium-tightening, but not prone to slippage, either.  I liked it so much that I soon wore it every day.

Once I was in the habit of wearing the took all the time, it was easy to stop brushing my hair.  I didn't stop washing it, mind you, just brushing it.  I noticed that my hair started to fall together naturally into locks, something that friends of mine with dreadlocks have confirmed will happen.  I know that my hair is thick and rich enough to lock, and the idea has always both fascinated and repulsed me to varying degrees.

Me, adorned with my took

I figured that I could continue to wear the hat while I transitioned into dreadlocks, so nobody would notice if it turned out horribly.  Being a freelance journalist helps, too; people who want to get a viewpoint into the press don't quibble about the reporter's appearance all that much.

However, the hat's a teeny bit tighter than it was 9 months ago, and once my hair is locked, it's probably not going to fit at all.  Tams are a popular covering for dreadlocks, and I like think the billed looked is more professional than the round beret style.  The local store had a lot of multicolored options, but black was the only solid style available.  It's pretty lightweight, like the summer tams that I linked to above, which I'm sure I will appreciate once July comes 'round again.

I've got a few more things on order for this project, but I will wait until they show up to talk about them.