Dreadies

I've change my hair do. Nothing too surprising. I am not someone who is intimating tied to my hair. In fact I've never been to worried about it. I never learned to do anything fancy with my hair besides change the colour of my pony tail holder. I've dramatically cut my long hair to a very short "duck's arse" hair style (the flip out at the back!). I've coloured and not coloured.

But lately I wanted something a little more different. Something that is easy but stylish. Dreadlocks came to mind. I've always wanted tiny braids. Back in grade 10 I went to Costa Rica with my school and so wanted to get my whole head done in braids. But I didn't want to give away a day at the beach to get them done. So I never did. But now I thought let's do it.

I had a few my favourite girlfriends come around one night and have a go. I had purchased a 'starter's kit' from www.dreadhq.com and thought that would be the way I wanted to go. My friends painstakingly backcombed, twisted, waxed and tied tiny little elastics to my hair. Took about 6 hours the first night. I was nervous, excited, ready and a little apprehensive. But I enjoyed the outcome.
The next morning I was a little bit overwhelmed with the tackiness of the wax and how much work it was going to take. I wanted something simple. But I also understood that it would take some time for dreads to lock up and have that final look. I had a really good chat with my friend who continued to support me and encouraged me to just give it a go. Then I went and saw my other friends who had started the process and told them that I could have crocheted the dreads as well. That got them thinking and now the dreads are all crocheted! Amazing to think that hair can be crocheted. Now they are very tight, short and spunky. And I don't need to use the wax.

These are now Day 8 and are definitely easy to maintain! I have yet to wash them. As the crochet process took some time to complete I thought I'd wait as long as possible before washing. My head is a little bit itchy but not too bad!
With my dreads I hope to become more tolerant of others - their dress and hair choices, religious view points, political standpoints and opinions. I want to be more aware of my environment and be more considerate of recycling, reusing, making what I can, reducing my carbon footprint. I want to be more earthy. I would love for us to be self sufficient on our property. We already use tank water for drinking and showering and use dam water for flushing and watering. To be energy self sufficient is our plan one day. And I plan to have a big garden too. To grow my own vegetables is so gratifying and I would love to have fresh vegetables everyday!

So although there are some deeper thoughts into a hairstyle it still comes back to "it's just hair". I could just as easily take them out tomorrow and return to smooth, silky hair. We'll see. But I also think it's kind of cool for my grandkids to say "Yeah my Granny had dreads". I can have this hairstyle just because I can.