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What is Dreadlocks

What are Dreadlocks?

 

Dreadlocks occur naturally when you don’t comb your hair because the hair eventually will tangle in tufts. You can also do them on purpose by filtering the hair in tufts.


Many believe it was Bob Marley and the Rastafarians who in their time started this hairstyle. But dreadlocks have been around since ancient times, in fact dreadlocks are one of the oldest hairstyles known. Even within the cultu
ral and spiritual worlds, dreadlocks are by no means an exclusive Rastafari phenomenon.

 

Since the dawn of time, Hindu sannyasis (ascetics who give up the world to strive for spiritual perfection) have often worn their hair in tangled locks. On murals, statuettes and artifacts from ancient Egypt people are depictured with hair in tufts like dreadlocks and mummified remains of Egyptians with hair in "tufts" are also excavated from archeological sites.During the Bronze Age and Iron Age, many peoples of the Middle East, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, the Eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa, such as the Sumerians, Elamites, and ancient Egyptians, were depicted in art with dreaded or braided hair and beards.

But how did dreadlocks become a part of the Rastafarian movement from the 1930s and onwards?

Historians have three main theories about this. The first theory is that Rastafarians were inspired to have dreadlocks by biblical passages. For example, the parable about Samsons hair and the belief that his strength derived from his uncut hair, and the Nazarite Creed in the Book of Genesis ordering against the trimming of the hair and beard of devout believers. The second theory is that Indian Sadhu shamans serving under the British rule of India brought dreadlocks along with curry and marijuana. The third theory encompasses the fact that the Mau Mau warriors of what is now Nigeria had dreadlocks, mostly for practical reasons, and the fact that they fought the unjust British imperial rule in their part of Africa. The Rastafarian movement was a neo-religious movement against European dominance in Africa, and they may have been inspired by these dreaded warriors.

Conclusively the reason that dreadlocks became a part of the Rastafarian movement is probably a mix of all three theories, but you can’t ignore the fact that Rastafarians and the Mao Mao shared a antipathy towards British dominance and rule.

Today, the intention behind having dreadlocks is probably more frequently a rebellion against accepted norms of appearance, and it’s a hair trend that has grown massively, and is still growing. Recent years, dreadlocks have been a hotly debated topic. Most recently Justin Bieber was accused of cultural appropriation for having dreadlocks, because some people feel that dreadlocks belong to “black” culture. We Love Dreadlocks! we feel that they belong to us all, and we think it suits all people regardless of their cultural background.

 

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According to various spiritual masters, hair itself represents a kind of spiritual radar, or an X-ray into us by solar energy. Today, this ‘radar’ power of human hair is minimal, but some spiritual seekers still intentionally grow their hair long, in order to be able to pick up on these subtle energies.

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