All over the glamour cities of the world from, London, New York, Berlin, Brussels, Brisbane, Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, Jo Burg just to name a few, the fad for the youth, both black, white, mixed and colored is to sport dreadlocks hairstyles, this is done by celebrity musicians, actors, footballers, comedians, rugby players, baseball you name it. Most of the dreadlocks sported are artificial or as they say extensions, but then who cares it is the in thing. A few examples of the celebrity are, Tracy Chapman, Lenny Kravitz, Jaden Smith, whoopi Goldberg. Footballers like Rigobert Song, The then Ruud Gullit, Taribo West and other Celebrity in different professions.
Whoopi Golberg
Jaden Smith
Rihanna
Elthan Ampadu
Tammy Abrahams
Aside celebrity you have everyday people sporting dreadlocks hairstyle across the streets of the major cities of the world, white, black, mixed colored, they all sport this hairstyles, male and female inclusive.
Origins
Dreadlocks have been with man since the ages, it is said that the prophets of God in the Christian Bible like Samuel wore dreadlocks, i.e they never got their hair cut. Another Biblical story of Dreadlocks wearing Judge was Samson in the Bible. Samson was a very powerful Judge of Israel who went into a Romance with Delilah, prior to that he was virtually invincible, but Delilah acting on behalf of the Philistines wanted to find out Samson's source of power, I am sure we all know the Story. Samson told Delilah that the secret of his strength lay in his uncut locks. Delilah thereafter got a scissors and cut off his locks and Samson was said to lose his power. It is said that dreadlocks were worn in antiquity by the, Romans, Vikings, Celts, Indians, Ethiopians just to name a few.
There is a contention as to the origin of the dreadlocks, be it India or ancient Egypt.
Indian Dreadlocks
The question is why do people wear dreadlocks. Dreadlocks is the joining of two words i.e dread and lock, dread means something to be feared or something that evokes fear or trepidation, lock means to kind of tangle i.e twist
Dreadlocks are believed to confer on the wearer a kind of presence and some spirituality and a kind of inner force that elicits some fear, recognition and presence. once a person wearing dreadlocks hairstyle enters a gathering he or she is immediately noticed
Modern day dreads
We cannot speak of dreadlocks without speaking about the Rastafarians of the Caribbean i,e Jamaica, T&T, Barbados. The Rastafarians believe they are descendants of the lion of the tribe of Judah, emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, whose name was Ras Tafari, from which Rastafarianism is derived. Its a philosophy in which the Afro Caribbean believes Ethiopia is home and one day they shall return to Mother Africa, they of course have their culture and norms and belief system and the smoking of weed or ganja or hemp is an integral part of that. Can we mention Rastafarianism without Robert Nesta Marley ( Bob Marley), URoy, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear just to mention a few.
Robert Nesta Marley
Massive Dread
Bunny Wailer
Burning Spear
Dreadlock in Contemporary African Culture
In the Nigerian and and some African culture some children are born naturally with their hair in locks. Such children are called Dada in Yoruba etymology and are called Elena in Igbo . It is believed that children born this way are special gifts of the Gods and must be preserved. And their hair must not be combed. Some African parents however do not subscribe to such beliefs and decide to cut the locks for a fresh mold of hair to grow. They have to perform some rituals before the locks are cut .
Dada
Dada
As i said earlier most dreadlocks wearing persons , i.e both celebrity and everyday people adorn artificial dreadlocks , these are not natural, they are obtained by adding attachments or what is euphemistically called extensions to some underlying hair outgrowth and do not be surprised if some even adorn dreadlocks wigs, it is all in the name of being trendy and having a presence. enjoy below different style dreadlocks
Dreadlocks wig
Natural Locks
Different Styles of dreadlocks Extensions
Phew that was fast.
Many thanks to Wikipedia and google for research materials and pictures and other media organizations whose images we have used.
Click the link below to listen to the songs of the Artists featured on the Blog
Good write up.