Sisterlock Adoration: Finding True Hair Freedom

This blog mostly follows my hair transition to Sisterlocks(TM), but it also gives me an outlet for my occasional social commentary. I always look forward to hearing from you about my hair or my diatribes. Thanks for visiting! ***BTW- Please do not copy my pictures without permission.***

Monday, March 05, 2007

Self Hatred or Dreaded Dreads





Yesterday I was having breakfast with my fiance and his son in Cafe Brazil. As I was getting coffee, an older African American lady came up to me. She exclaimed, " I really like your hair. At first I thought it was a natural, and then I saw it was different. I'm just glad it's not those awful dreads. Some of those are (wrinkling her nose) just not nice at all."

As I looked at the down the middle of her back mess of a wig, all kinds of naughty things crossed my mind :0). Instead, I simply smiled and explained that my head full of locks where not quite dreads (locks formed by allowing the natural hair to lock over time without manipulation) but a spin off called "Sisterlocks" (locks formed by using a tool similar to a crochet needle to assist with the locking process). I launched into my standard Sisterlock spiel and abruptly stopped when I noticed her eyes glazing over. I thanked her for the (backhanded) compliment and walked away. (I decided not to even go there as it relates to "locks versus dread locks discussion." It would have been way too much.)

Recounting the incident to my fiance, we initially laughed about it, but then he noted how powerful self hatred is. This got me to thinking, is this lady's response to dreads about self hatred or simply the standard run of the mill ignorance about dread-locks. What do you guys think?