Harassment/Comments on Your Dreads

I'm curious if a lot of you face day-to-day harassment or hopefully some positive cool remarks from non-dreadied people.

I started my dreads in this tiny town I'm living in and everyone here either hasn't noticed at all, thinks my hair looks a bit messy but they can't quite tell me why, or even a few people have said, "Ribka, you need your braids redone, they have fallen out." They are so oblivious to this style that it's no problem at all.

But a few days ago I came to the capital for the first time since and holy shit! I am harassed non-stop and I don't care for it at all. I get people shouting "RASTA SISTAH!!" In the street, one man called me a whore, and so many disdainful looks. Also some positive comments, mostly from rastas trying to bond which is sweet I guess. And one note, I have kept a very plain colored tam on the entire time here, no one has even seen the dreads!

I was also told I probably can't stay on here with an NGO job b/c 'no one in the NGO world here will hire a rasta.' I'm amazed at the issues this causes and wonder if y'all face this and/or have some cool positive moments you had with non-dreadies about your hair.

 

I get attention off drunk womens when Im down the pub, no one bothers me in the street tbh. I did have one guy with 15 year old locks come talk to me because "most white people have neat locks" or something along those lines.

 

Well you are white and living in Ethiopia...

My "boss" tells me my hair is shit and that if it was upto him he wouldn't hire me. He says I look like dog shit and I'd be semi attractive if I didn't have them. He gives me the nickname "dogshit".

*Cockney accent* "Oy, dogshit get us another beer."

It's fucking hilarious.

 

Mostly idiots saying "your dreads need to be re-done!"

Ugh.

 

I've gotten a lot of, "wow, your dreads have really changed my life and helped me find inner peace" comment lately.

Mostly I just get questions abou cutting them off and how hot they get n stuff.

 

i get asked how long they take me to put in every morning............

 

Mostly people don't say anything

Sometimes I get compliments

One time this asshole security guard at a building I had to go to for my job said, "I didn't know they let rastas work at **** ***." I wanted to spit on him, but I just told him, "I'm not a rasta and you don't have to be rasta to grow locks." It was one of the only lame comments I've gotten, only because it was in a semi-professional setting. If some dude on the street calls me rasta I either ignore them are tell them that I'm not and it's no big deal.

Also while I was moving my stuff into my spot half a block from Haight Street, this family was walking up and the father is saying to his 6-8 year old son, "Get ready to see some hippies." I walk around from behind the van and he says, "See, there's one!" The thing is, while I am also not a hippie, I do have a lot of hippie tendencies so I resisted the urge to slap him in the face and ask him, "Is that what hippies do?"

It really isn't a big deal. It's just a warning sign of closeminded sheeple. Walk with confidence and be ready to explain things to people when it really matters

 

i get lots of "sweet dreads man, i'm getting mine done this weekend!"
tis a bunch of crap.


random girls:i like your dreads... how long have you had them? can i touch them?
(translation: i like you, are you attracted to me, can i touch your manliness?)


middle school kids:hey bob marley! lemme get some weed!



but then i got to a lot of reggae shows where i'm just a part of the crowd, which is really cool.

 

quoted for truth

 

me and my bf (who is also dready) get "yeah bob marley, rastaaaa!" from chavs. they tend to sing bob marley songs at us too.
most people i actually talk to are positive and say they're sweet and stuffs.

 

My dreads are only about 4 months old.. but I've gotten MANY comments on them!
It's amazing the little amount of knowledge people have about dreads! I get questioned a lot about them, I love answering the questions though because it helps people actually understand that having dreads doesn't make you all that different from anyone else, we're all one anyways =)

I haven't experianced to many rude comments from strangers (rude looks though.. *rolls eyes*), but I do enjoy when someone I don't know tells me how cool they think my hair is XD

 

I usually just get questions and sometimes compliments. When I answer they usually have a confused look on their face, but it's okay. Some people are genuinely interested.

I've only had one not so nice comment. It was in the beginning from a Nation of Islam dude. Fucker.

That's too bad about the NGOs not hiring b/c of them. I hope that doesn't happen to me, there's no way I would get rid of them.

 

I'm glad I live in Australia where no one really gives a fuck. They're all too laid back.

 

I've only ever gotten comments in school, a lot of 'you need to twist' n'stuff.
Other than that I'm treated as every other person. Although this old lady in a thrift store offered to sell me a brush, because it looked like I didn't brush my hair

 

The last guy who asked me if I was gonna get them twisted soon was cool about it when I told him that I don't do that. He was like, "oh, natural huh?"...sharp enough to understand, even if he couldn't tell just by looking.

 

amen

 

^^ That's what it was like in Santa Cruz, but not in teh big city

 

people are monsters man.

I am more scared of the sharks on the land then the ones in the sea

 

I know what you mean... The Man in Grey sees you as prey

 

I was down at the park playing with a frisbee (cool, right) with my housemates this afternoon and an older couple walking there dog stopped to ask me where I got the frisbee from. They weren't scared off by my dreads and torn sleeveless Spawn tshirt. I call that equality!