Black people started wearing their traditional hair during the Black Power movement to stick it to man. It’s like saying “F*ck you, crackers. I don’t have to look lilly-white just like you. I don’t have to do what you tell me to do.”
But then white people started wearing their hair like that… ugh. I don’t like being white. 
That’s assuming that all African-Americans who have dreads do so due to cultural beliefs. What about that hip multi-cultural somewhat African-American looking guy that’s in all the commercials and advertisements and hangs out with the hip young multi-cultured friends and caucasians? That African-American dude often has short dreads. It isn’t because of traditional culture, it’s because of marketing. That African-American dude is doing as much cultural appropriation as a caucasian dude wearing dreads.
Dreads are a natural hair style and not limited to just a culture or religious thing. It’s not like people getting trendy Asian tattoos that they know nothing about (what do those Chinese characters on your arm mean?) or other blatant cases of cultural appropriation of symbols that you know nothing about. Pirates wear dreads. Dreads are not a strictly cultural thing only for those descending from African culture.
I hate to say this but I think the idea of cultural appropriation is absolute BS. Thats like saying a white guy shouldn’t work at a Japanese restaurant because he’s not Japanese. Its not Cultural appropriation. Its Racism!
There is no logical reason why a white person shouldn’t have Dread, or why a white person shouldn’t work a Japanese restaurant.
If you can come up with a legitimate excuse that doesn’t parallel racism, I invite you to do so but all you have come up with so far is that because one culture does it, another one shouldn’t.
Its like saying that because gays hang a rainbow flag, little straight kids who like all the colours of the rainbow shouldn’t be able to have one in their room.
That’s a pretty sweeping generalisation.
How do you know they don’t know shit about prayer flags?
You asked them?
It’s not like wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt just because everyone else does, or they had them on sale. Dreadlocks have practical reasons too. For example, when I wash my hair, my ponytail looks like a hairy hamster. And you don’t have to comb your hair:D
But hamster are cute? (and they don’t start riots), maybe go skinhead and see what the reaction is you get! I gotta say respect the dread’s origins, but, hey! aren’t we meant to all be a nice shade of brown nowadays…I hate all this racial/religious sh*t there is too much hate in this small world…perhaps a nice short back and sides sir and anything for the weekend?..
Uh, is that like saying cars are not for African people, because they were invented in Europe and the USA? It’s just a hair style. If a person is trying to make a political statement out of it that could be a different story, but I think most dread-wearers do it because:
a. They like the look
b. They don’t have jobs, or have jobs where it’s not an issue
c. They don’t like washing their hair 
(just kidding, back off!)
Yuck. But that’s just my opinion, to each his own!
Actually. Most people’s hair naturally form dread locks if you do the right stuff. Back during Jesus’s time or Moses’s or Abraham’s or whatever, everyone most probably had dreadlocks (well except I guess the high priests etc etc). So yeah dreadlocks aren’t only for black people…everyone can naturally have them.
a. I don’t mind the way that they look now but they looked really bad for about 9 months.
b. I don’t have a job and the career that I am training towards involves mostly being by myself or a small group of people working in remote areas so my hair should not be an issue.
c. Washing my hair was way easier before the dreads developed. And yes people with dreads wash their hair! (well at least most do, the rest probably smell bad)
My locks are slightly political but have nothing to do with the black movement in the States, to me they represent a rejection of mainstream culture and fitting the “norm”. It started when I was working up north for a summer and lost my brush so I would do the best I could keeping my hair untangled with my fingers for a while then one day sitting on a beach watching the sunset I thought “nature is the most beautiful things in the world” and who can argue with that, I stopped caring about keeping my hair untangled and started trying to keep different sections apart.
I started to twist and palm roll them after I would go swimming and they slowly started to take shape. A large matted mess developed on the back of my head which I cut off but other than that they started to tighten up and drop after a while. for the longest time I had a patch of medium length hair on the back of my head two separate mini locks started to develop and sometime this summer they combined and turned into a really nice but short lock. A few other areas with lots of loose hairs formed new locks and I never know what to tell people when they ask me when I “got” my dreads. In my opinion good dreads arn’t made they develop over time.
If I wanted more even, better looking locks I would have goten them professionally done but then they would not have nearly the same significance to me as locks that had to develop over time and grew with me during sort of a turing point in my life.
One question you should ask yourself is why do you want dreads, If your reason is strong enough it probably doesn’t matter what other people say.
I will try to find you some pics, both of when my hair just looked like a poofy tangled mess and more recent pics with the locks nice and tight.
EDIT: If I was ever to travel to India I would cut off my locks because only the holly men where them over there. I can see what Goats is saying and agree with him to a point but it is not an issue in this part of the word.
They’re ugly?
In your opinion!
I think dreads are beautiful.
Jay from Triple J radio station in Oz. (Best there is).
these were the best i could find, Don’t have much for pics
I am the guy in the middle, I think this was taken in August two summers ago, about 3 months after I stopped brushing my hair. The guy on the left has supper nice dreads, thats 13 years worth of hair on his head
this was me before riding in the MS Bikeathon, I think I just finished eating a cinnamon bun.
To each his own I suppose, but all I see when I look at dreads are nappiness, dirt, and oil. Ew.
So are Crocs but somehow people are still allowed to wear those.
Where’s your other wheel?
Hmm, I think the OP wanted pictures of Dreadlocks.
Not the entire forum bickering about the what who where when whys of Dreadlocks.
The one person who I thought wouldn’t be bringing a thread off topic so badly has.
Jerrick, shame on you.
Hahaha the decoy avatar works!!
Anyway.
here’s a bunch but they’re all pretty little.
here’s a pretty big one of some guy on google.
Personally though I think this is the look you should be going for.
As well as the decoy links in his Signature?
hmm i don’t have any recent pictures of my dreads… hold on.
