dreadlocks

The word dreadlocks is usually understood to come from Jamaican Creole dread, "member of the Rastafarian movement who wears his hair in dreadlocks" (compare Nazirite), referring to their dread or awe of God.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Allsopp |first=Richard |date=1996 |title=dreadlocks |page=203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PmvSk13sIc0C&pg=PA203 |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage |location=Kingston, Jamaica |publisher=University of the West Indies Press |isbn=978-976-640-145-0 |access-date=January 1, 2024}} Compare also elflocks, an older name for dreadlocks (from the notion that elves had matted the locks in people's sleep).

Other origins have been proposed. Some authors trace the term to the Mau Mau, a group of whom apparently coined it from British colonialists in 1959 as a reference to their dreadful hair.

In their 2014 book Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps claimed that the name dredlocs originated in the time of the slave trade: when transported Africans disembarked from the slave ships after spending months confined in unhygienic conditions, whites would report that their undressed and matted kinky hair was "dreadful". According to them, it is due to these circumstances that many people wearing the style today drop the a in dreadlock to avoid negative implications.{{cite book |last1=Byrd |first1=Ayana D. |last2=Tharps |first2=Lori L. |title=Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America |year=2014 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4668-7210-3 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYhEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 |quote=ByrdTharps2014}}

The word dreadlocks refers to locks of entangled hair.{{cite book

| last1 = Evans

| first1 = T.

| last2 = Wickett

| first2 = R. R.

| editor1-last = Evans

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| editor2-last = Wickett

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| title = Practical Modern Hair Science

| year = 2012

| publisher = Allured Business Media

| isbn = 978-1-932633-93-1

| pages = 538

}} Several different languages have names for these locks. In Sanskrit, the name is jaṭā; in Wolof, it is ndiagne and ndjan;{{cite journal |last1=Morris |first1=Julia |title=Baay Fall Sufi Da'iras Voicing Identity Through Acoustic Communities |journal=African Arts |date=2014 |volume=47 |issue=1 |page=45 |doi=10.1162/AFAR_a_00121 |jstor=43306204 |s2cid=57563314 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43306204 |access-date=5 December 2023}} in Akan, it is mpesempese. in Yoruba, it is dada;{{cite journal |last1=Botchway |title=...The Hairs of Your Head Are All Numbered: Symbolisms of Hair and Dreadlocks in the Boboshanti Order of Rastafari |journal=Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=8 |page=25 |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-2-Botchway.pdf |access-date=20 November 2023}} in Igbo, it is ezenwa and elena;{{cite web |last1=Aluko |first1=Adebukola |title="Dada": Beyond The Myths To Smart Haircare |url=https://radionigeriaibadan.gov.ng/2023/06/16/dada-beyond-the-myths-to-smart-haircare/ |website=Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria |date=16 June 2023 |access-date=22 November 2023}} in Hamer, it is goscha;{{cite book |last1=Sherrow |first1=Victoria |title=Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History |year=2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9798216171683 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ganOEAAAQBAJ&dq=hamar+dreadlocks&pg=PA1966}} in Shona, it is mhotsi;{{cite book |last1=Chikowero |first1=Mhoze |title=African Music, Power, and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe |year=2015 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=9780253018090 |page=260 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o3y9CgAAQBAJ&dq=mhotsi&pg=PA260}} in Nyaneka, it is nontombi.{{cite web |title=Muila / Mumuila / Mwela / Plain Mumuila / Mountain Mumuila / Mwila |url=https://www.101lasttribes.com/tribes/muila.html |website=101lasttribes.com |access-date=21 December 2023}}

According to Sherrow in Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History, dreadlocks date back to ancient times in various cultures. In ancient Egypt, Egyptians wore locked hairstyles and wigs appeared on bas-reliefs, statuary and other artifacts.{{cite web |title=Image of Egyptian with locks. |url=http://www.freemaninstitute.com/Gallery/Egyp233_big_copy.jpg |access-date=6 October 2017 |website=freemaninstitute.com}} Mummified remains of Egyptians with locked wigs have also been recovered from archaeological sites.[http://www.egyptianmuseum.com/article16_torlife.html Egyptian Museum -"Return of the Mummy.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051230235837/http://www.egyptianmuseum.com/article16_torlife.html|date=2005-12-30}} Toronto Life – 2002." Retrieved 01-26-2007. According to Maria Delongoria, braided hair was worn by people in the Sahara desert since 3000 BCE. Dreadlocks were also worn by followers of Abrahamic religions. For example, Ethiopian Coptic Bahatowie priests adopted dreadlocks as a hairstyle before the fifth century CE (400 or 500 CE). Locking hair was practiced by some ethnic groups in East, Central, West, and Southern Africa.{{cite book |last1=Sherrow |first1=Victoria |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bETPEAAAQBAJ&dq=ethiopian+dreadlocks&pg=PA140 |title=Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History |year=2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9781440873492 |page=140}}{{cite journal |last1=Delongoria |year=2018 |title=Misogynoir: Black Hair, Identity Politics, and Multiple Black Realities |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-3-Maria%20DeLongoria.pdf |journal=Journal of Pan African Studies |volume=12 |issue=8 |page=40 |access-date=25 October 2023}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YWySINhFXP0C&q=dreadlocks |title=Dreads |year=1999 |publisher=Artisan Books |isbn=9781579651503 |page=22}}

Pre-Columbian Aztec priests were described in Aztec codices (including the Durán Codex, the Codex Tudela and the Codex Mendoza) as wearing their hair untouched, allowing it to grow long and matted.Berdán, Frances F. and Rieff Anawalt, Patricia (1997). [http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/index.php?one=azt&two=lif&id=334&typ=reg The Essential Codex Mendoza]. London, England: University of California Press. pp 149. Bernal Diaz del Castillo records:

There were priests with long robes of black cloth... The hair of these priests was very long and so matted that it could not be separated or disentangled, and most of them had their ears scarified, and their hair was clotted with blood.

File:NAMA Akrotiri 2.jpg (modern Santorini, Greece), 1600–1500 BCE.{{cite book |last=Poliakoff |first=Michael B. |title=Combat Sports in the Ancient World: Competition, Violence, and Culture |quote=The boxing boys on a fresco from Thera (now the Greek island of Santorini), also 1500 B.C.E., are less martial with their jewelry and long braids, and it is hard to imagine that they are engaged in a hazardous fight... |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1987 |page=172 |isbn=9780300063127}}{{cite book |last=Blencowe |first=Chris |title=YRIA: The Guiding Shadow |quote=... Archaeologist Christos Doumas, discoverer of Akrotiri, wrote: "Even though the character of the wall-paintings from Thera is Minoan, ... the boxing children with dreadlocks, and ochre-coloured naked fishermen proudly displaying their abundant hauls of blue and yellow fish. |publisher=Sidewalk Editions |year=2013 |page=36 |isbn=9780992676100}}{{cite book |title= A Companion to Ancient Education |last= Bloomer |first= W. Martin |year= 2015 |publisher= John Wiley & Sons |isbn= 9781119023890|quote= Figure 2.1b Two Minoan boys with distinctive hairstyles, boxing. Fresco from West House, Thera (Santorini), ca. 1600–1500 BCE (now in the National Museum, Athens). |page=31 }}]]

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The earliest known possible depictions of dreadlocks in Europe date back as far as 1600–1500 BCE in the Minoan Civilization, centered in Crete (now part of Greece). Frescoes discovered on the Aegean island of Thera (modern Santorini, Greece) portray individuals with long braided hair or long dreadlocks.{{cite journal|last1= Jenkins |first1= Ian |title= Archaic Kouroi in Naucratis: The Case for Cypriot Origin |journal= The American Journal of Archaeology |publisher= American Journal of Archaeology |volume=105 |issue=2 |date=2001 |pages=168–175 |doi= 10.2307/507269 |jstor= 507269 |issn=0002-9114 |quote= The hair in both is filleted into a series of fine dreadlocks, tucked behind the ears and falling on each shoulder and down the back. A narrow fillet passes around the forehead and disappears behind the ears. ... Two are in the British Museum (fig. 17) and another in Boston (fig. 18). These three could have been carved by the same hand. Distinctive points of comparison include the dreadlocks; high, prominent chest without division; sloping shoulders; manner of showing the arms by the side...the torso of a kouros, again in Boston (fig. 19), should probably also be assigned to this group. }}{{cite book |last1=Sherrow |first1=Victoria |title=Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History |year=2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9781440873492 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bETPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 |page=140}}{{cite book |title=Dreads |year=1999 |publisher=Artisan Books |isbn=9781579651503 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YWySINhFXP0C&q=dreadlocks}} Another source describes the hair of the boys in the Akrotiri Boxer Fresco as long tresses, not dreadlocks. Tresses of hair are defined by Collins Dictionary as braided hair, braided plaits, or long loose curls of hair.{{cite web |title=Tress |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/tress |website=Collins Dictionary |access-date=7 November 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Cartwright |first1=Mark |title=Akrotiri Frescoes |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/673/akrotiri-frescoes/ |website=World History Encyclopedia |publisher=World History Foundation |access-date=7 November 2023}}{{cite web |title=Tress |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tresses |website=Dictionary.com |access-date=7 November 2023}}

In Senegal, the Baye Fall, followers of the Mouride movement, a Sufi movement of Islam founded in 1887 CE by Shaykh Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke, are famous for growing dreadlocks and wearing multi-colored gowns.{{cite news |last1=Crowder |first1=Nicole |date=23 January 2015 |title=The Roots of Fashion and Spirituality in Senegal's Islamic Brotherhood, the Baye Fall |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2015/01/23/the-roots-of-fashion-and-spirituality-in-senegals-islamic-brotherhood-the-baye-fall/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150125072020/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2015/01/23/the-roots-of-fashion-and-spirituality-in-senegals-islamic-brotherhood-the-baye-fall/ |archive-date=25 January 2015 |access-date=21 November 2023 |newspaper=The Washington Post |agency=}}

Cheikh Ibra Fall, founder of the Baye Fall school of the Mouride Brotherhood, popularized the style by adding a mystic touch to it.{{Cite journal |last=Becker |first=Cynthia |date=Spring–Autumn 2011 |title=Hunters, Sufis, Soldiers, and Minstrels: The Diaspora Aesthetics of the Moroccan Gnawa |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/RESvn1ms23647786 |journal=Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics |volume=59-60 |pages=124–144 |doi=10.1086/RESvn1ms23647786 |issn=0277-1322}} This sect of Islam in Senegal, where Muslims wear ndjan (dreadlocks), aimed to Africanize Islam. Dreadlocks to this group of Islamic followers symbolize their religious orientation.{{Cite journal |last=Botchway |first=De-Valera |date=2018 |title=...The Hairs of Your Head Are All Numbered: Symbolisms of Hair and Dreadlocks in the Boboshanti Order of Rastafari |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-2-Botchway.pdf |journal=Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies |volume=12 |issue=8 |page=25 |via=jpanafrican.org}}{{Cite news |last=Weston |first=Mark |date=25 May 2016 |title=On the Frontier of Islam: The Maverick Mystics of Senegal |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-05-25-on-the-frontier-of-islam-the-maverick-mystics-of-senegal/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160525150023/https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-05-25-on-the-frontier-of-islam-the-maverick-mystics-of-senegal/ |archive-date=25 May 2016 |work=Daily Maverick}} Jamaican Rastas also reside in Senegal and have settled in areas near Baye Fall communities. Baye Fall and Jamaican Rastas have similar cultural beliefs regarding dreadlocks. Both groups wear knitted caps to cover their locs and wear locs for religious and spiritual purposes.{{cite journal |last1=Savishinsky |title=The Baye Faal of Senegambia: Muslim Rastas in the Promised Land? |journal=Journal of the International African Institute |date=1994 |volume=64 |issue=2 |pages=211–219 ]212 ]|doi=10.2307/1160980 |jstor=1160980 |s2cid=145284484 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1160980 |access-date=21 November 2023}} Male members of the Baye Fall religion wear locs to detach from mainstream Western ideals.{{cite book |last1=Pellizzi |first1=Francesco |title=Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 59/60: Spring/Autumn 2011 |year=2012 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780873658621 |page=133 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87JdFRl2aXAC&dq=baye+fall+dreadlocks&pg=PA133}}

In the 1970s, Americans and Britons attended reggae concerts and were exposed to various aspects of Jamaican culture, including dreadlocks. Hippies related to the Rastafarian idea of rejecting capitalism and colonialism, symbolized by the name "Babylon". Rastafarians rejected Babylon in multiple ways, including by wearing their hair naturally in locs to defy Western standards of beauty. The 1960s was the height of the civil rights movement in the U.S., and some White Americans joined Black people in the fight against inequality and segregation and were inspired by Black culture. As a result, some White people joined the Rastafarian movement. Dreadlocks were not a common hairstyle in the United States, but by the 1970s, some White Americans were inspired by reggae music, the Rastafarian movement, and African-American hair culture and started wearing dreadlocks.{{cite journal |last1=Loadenthal |first1=Michael |title=Jah People: The Cultural Hybridity of White Rastafarians |journal=Glocalism |date=2013 |volume=1 |pages=12–18 |url=https://glocalismjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/loadenthal_gjcpi_2013_1.pdf |access-date=9 November 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Wakengut |first1=Anastasia |title=Rastafari in Germany: Jamaican Roots and Global–Local Influences |journal=Student Anthropologist |date=2013 |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=60–81 |doi=10.1002/j.sda2.20130304.0005 |doi-access=free }} According to authors Bronner and Dell Clark, the clothing styles worn by hippies in the 1960s and 1970s were copied from African-American culture. The word hippie comes from the African-American slang word hip. African-American dress and hairstyles such as braids (often decorated with beads), dreadlocks, and language were copied by hippies and developed into a new countercultural movement used by hippies.{{cite book |last1=Bronner |last2=Dell Clark |title=Youth Cultures in America [2 volumes]: [2 volumes] |year=2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9781440833922 |page=358 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7vOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA358}}{{cite book |last1=Grossberg |first1=Lawrence |title=Cultural Studies: Volume 7 |year=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134863495 |page=408 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ErqIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA408}}

In Europe in the 1970s, hundreds of Jamaicans and other Caribbean people immigrated to metropolitan centers of London, Birmingham, Paris, and Amsterdam. Communities of Jamaicans, Caribbeans, and Rastas emerged in these areas. Thus Europeans in these metropolitan cities were introduced to Black cultures from the Caribbean and Rastafarian practices and were inspired by Caribbean culture, leading some of them to adopt Black hair culture, music, and religion. However, the strongest influence of Rastafari religion is among Europe's Black population.{{cite journal |last1=Savishinsky |first1=Neil J. |title=Transnational Popular Culture and the Global Spread of the Jamaican Rastafarian Movement |journal=NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids |date=1994 |volume=68 |issue=3/4 |pages=265–267 |jstor=41849614 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41849614 |access-date=14 November 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Cashmore |title=Rastaman (Routledge Revivals): The Rastafarian Movement in England |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135083748 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QeRSAQAAQBAJ&dq=rasta+tam+hat&pg=PP1}}

When reggae music, which espoused Rastafarian ideals, gained popularity and mainstream acceptance in the 1970s, thanks to Bob Marley's music and cultural influence, dreadlocks (often called "dreads") became a notable fashion statement worldwide, and have been worn by prominent authors, actors, athletes, and rappers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.essence.com/hair/dreadlocks/celebrities-with-dreadlocks/|title=19 Celebs Slaying In Beautiful Locs|website=Essence|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-06}}{{Cite journal|last1=Kuumba|first1=M.|last2=Ajanaku|first2=Femi|date=1998|title=Dreadlocks: The Hair Aesthetics of Cultural Resistance and Collective Identity Formation|journal=Mobilization: An International Quarterly|volume=3|issue=2|pages=227–243|doi=10.17813/maiq.3.2.nn180v12hu74j318}} Rastafari influenced its members worldwide to embrace dreadlocks. Black Rastas loc their hair to embrace their African heritage and accept African features as beautiful, such as dark skin tones, Afro-textured hair, and African facial features.{{cite web |title=Dread History: The African Diaspora, Ethiopianism, and Rastafari |url=https://smithsonianeducation.org/migrations/rasta/rasessay.html |website=Smithsonianeducation.org |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=7 December 2023}}

File:MAVI Pitchfork Interview Profile.jpg wearing dreadlocks]]

Hip Hop and rap artists such as Lauryn Hill, Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Snoop Dog, J-Cole, Wiz Khalifa, Chief Keef, Lil Jon, and other artists wear dreadlocks, which further popularized the hairstyle in the 1990s, early 2000s, and present day. Dreadlocks are a part of hip-hop fashion and reflect Black cultural music of liberation and identity.{{cite book |last1=Hook |first1=Sue |title=Hip-Hop Fashion |year=2010 |publisher=Capstone |isbn=9781429640176 |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2Z7DRO5BygC&dq=afro-chic+dreadlocks&pg=PA29}}{{cite web |last1=Allah |first1=Sha Be |title=Exploring Culture: Dreadlocks and Hip Hop |url=https://thesource.com/2023/03/11/exploring-culture-dreadlocks-and-hip-hop/ |website=Thesource.com |date=11 March 2023 |access-date=8 December 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Bennett |first1=Dionne |last2=Morgan |first2=Marcyliena |title=Hip-Hop & the Global Imprint of a Black Cultural Form |journal=Race, Inequality & Culture |date=2011 |volume=2 |issue=140 |pages=179–180 |jstor=23047460 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23047460 |access-date=8 December 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Fonseca |first1=Anthony J. |last2=Dawn Goldsmith |first2=Melissa Ursula |title=Hip Hop around the World [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes] |year=2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9780313357596 |pages=236, 282–283 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nOPNEAAAQBAJ&q=dreadlocks}} Many rappers and Afrobeat artists in Uganda wear locs, such as Navio, Delivad Julio, Fik Fameica, Vyper Ranking, Byaxy, Liam Voice, and other artists. From reggae music to hip hop, rap, and Afrobeat, Black artists in the African diaspora wear locs to display their Black identity and culture.{{cite news |last1=Kemigisha |first1=Martha |title=Hair goals: 8 male celebrities with gorgeous dreadlocks |url=https://www.pulse.ug/lifestyle/fashion/hair-goals-8-male-celebrities-with-gorgeous-dreadlocks/ryw5l5z |access-date=8 December 2023 |agency=Uganda Pulse |date=May 26, 2023}}{{cite web |last1=C.J. |first1=Nelson |title=How Afrobeats Artists Are Using Fashion to Tell Us Who They Are |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/features/afrobeats-fashion-evolution-history-feature-1235058245/ |website=Billboard.com |access-date=8 December 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Mercer |first1=Kobena |title=Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135204761 |pages=98, 105–109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sVrbAAAAQBAJ&q=dreadlocks+&pg=PT138}}

Youth in Kenya who are fans of rap and hip hop music, and Kenyan rappers and musicians, wear locs to connect to the history of the Mau Mau freedom fighters who wore locs as symbols of anti-colonialism, and to Bob Marley, who was a Rasta.{{cite book |last1=Ntarangwi |first1=Mwenda |title=East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization |year=2009 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252076534 |pages=32–33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WLsvID258XMC&q=dreadlocks}} Hip hop and reggae fashion spread to Ghana and fused with traditional Ghanaian culture. Ghanaian musicians wear dreadlocks incorporating reggae symbols and hip hop clothes mixed with traditional Ghanaian textiles, such as wearing Ghanaian headwraps to hold their locs.{{cite book |last1=Osumare |first1=H. |title=The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip-Hop |year=2012 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9781137021656 |pages=56, 90–91, 178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRrGAAAAQBAJ&dq=dreadlocks+hip+hop&pg=PP1}}{{cite book |last1=Talmor |first1=Ruti |title=Aesthetic Practices in African Tourism |year=2023 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780429534768 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bmbjEAAAQBAJ&dq=dreadlocks+and+black+music&pg=PT131}} Ghanaian women wear locs as a symbol of African beauty. The beauty industry in Ghana believe locs are a traditional African hair practice and market hair care products to promote natural African hairstyles such as afros and locs.{{cite book |last1=Kauppinen |first1=Anna-Rikka |last2=Spronk |first2=Rachel |title=Green Consumption: The Global Rise of Eco-Chic |year=2020 |pages=117–122 |doi=10.4324/9781003085508-11 |isbn=9781000182996 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341437216 |chapter=Afro-chic: Beauty, Ethics, and 'Locks without Dread'}} The previous generations of Black artists have inspired younger contemporary Black actresses to loc their hair, such as Chloe Bailey, Halle Bailey, and R&B and Pop music singer Willow Smith. More Black actors in Hollywood are choosing to loc their hair to embrace their Black heritage.{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Nikki |title=19 Celebs Slaying In Beautiful Locs |url=https://www.essence.com/hair/dreadlocks/celebrities-with-dreadlocks/ |website=Essence.com |date=26 October 2020 |access-date=15 December 2023}}

Although more Black women in Hollywood and the beauty and music industries are wearing locs, there has never been a Black Miss America winner with locs because there is pushback in the fashion industry towards Black women's natural hair. For example, model Adesuwa Aighewi locked her hair and was told she might not receive any casting calls because of her dreadlocks. Some Black women in modeling agencies are forced to straighten their hair. However, more Black women are resisting and choosing to wear Black hairstyles such as afros and dreadlocks in fashion shows and beauty pageants.{{cite journal |last1=Thompson |first1=Cheryl |title=Black Women and Identity: What's Hair Got to Do With It? |journal=Michigan Feminist Studies |date=2008 |volume=22 |issue=1 |page=3 |url=https://www.casalakecounty.com/fileLibrary/Black%20Women%20and%20Identity_%20What%27s%20Hair%20Got%20to%20Do%20With%20It_.pdf |access-date=16 December 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Aighewi |first1=Adesuwa |title=The fashion industry said my dreadlocks would stop me working. They were wrong |url=https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/nov/01/the-fashion-industry-said-my-dreadlocks-would-stop-me-working-they-were-wrong |access-date=19 December 2023 |agency=The Guardian |date=2017}} For example, in 2007 Miss Universe Jamaica and Rastafarian, Zahra Redwood, was the first Black woman to break the barrier on a world pageant stage when she wore locs, paving the way and influencing other Black women to wear locs in beauty pageants. In 2015, Miss Jamaica World Sanneta Myrie was the first contestant to wear locs to the Miss World Pageant.{{cite news |last1=Donato |first1=Al |title=Miss Jamaica Is The First Contestant To Wear Dreadlocks to Miss World Pageant |url=https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/miss-jamaica-is-the-first-contestant-to-wear-dreadlocks-to-miss_n_8855790 |access-date=16 December 2023 |agency=Huffpost.com |date=2015}} In 2018, Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers of Britain was crowned Miss Universe wearing her locs and became the first Black British woman to win the competition with natural locs.{{cite news |last1=Bremer |first1=Katherine |title=Dreadlocked Miss Jamaica puts Rastas in new light |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-missjamaica-idUSN2028940620070520/ |access-date=16 December 2023 |work=Reuters |date=2007}}{{cite web |title=Miss Universe Great Britain |url=https://going-natural.com/miss-universe-great-britain-is-a-beautiful-black-woman-who-rocks-locs/ |website=Going-natural.com |date=17 July 2018 |access-date=16 December 2023}}

Hollywood cinema often uses the dreadlock hairstyle as a prop in movies for villains and pirates. According to author Steinhoff, this appropriates dreadlocks and removes them from their original meaning of Black heritage to one of dread and otherness. In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, the pirate Jack Sparrow wears dreadlocks. Dreadlocks are used in Hollywood to mystify a character and make them appear threatening or living a life of danger. In the movie The Curse of the Black Pearl, pirates were dressed in dreadlocks to signify their cursed lives.{{cite book |last1=Steinhoff |first1=Heike |title=Queer Buccaneers: (de)constructing Boundaries in the Pirates of the Caribbean Film Series Volume 10 of Transnational and Transatlantic American Studies |year=2011 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=9783643111005 |page=56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m7iH9PsM4wgC&dq=dreadlocks+in+hollywood&pg=PA56}}

Locks have been worn for various reasons in many cultures and ethnic groups around the world throughout history. Their use has also been raised in debates about cultural appropriation.{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/dreadlocks-cultural-appropriation-row-intensifies-as-students-come-forward-to-provide-more-context-a6963251.html|title=Students are claiming the White man harassed over his dreadlocks isn't telling the full story|work=The Independent|access-date=2018-07-18|language=en-GB}}{{cite web |last1=Ring |first1=Kyle |title=Twisted Locks of Hair: The Complicated History of Dreadlocks |url=https://www.esquire.com/uk/style/grooming/a34465402/history-of-dreadlocks/ |website=Esquire |date=5 October 2022 |access-date=25 October 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Stephens |first1=Thomas |last2=Rigendinger |first2=Balz |title=How a white reggae band forced Switzerland to question cultural appropriation |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/how-a-white-swiss-reggae-band-forced-switzerland-to-question-cultural-appropriation/47789954 |access-date=1 November 2023 |agency=SWI swissinfo.ch |publisher=Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR |date=July 29, 2022}}{{cite book |last1=Bolton |last2=Smith |last3=Bebout |title=Teaching with Tension: Race, Resistance, and Reality in the Classroom |year=2019 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=9780810139114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwKEDwAAQBAJ&dq=white+people+wearing+dreadlocks+hippies&pg=PT341}}{{cite web |title=Dear White People: Locs Are Not 'Just Hair' |url=https://www.ebony.com/justin-bieber-locs/ |website=Ebony Magazine |date=6 April 2016 |access-date=18 November 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Thompson |first1=MJ |title=White Dreadlocks: Black Aesthetics in the Work of Louise Lecavalier and La La La Human Steps |journal=The Body, the Dance and the Text: Essays on Performance and the Margins of History |date=2019 |pages=67–72 |isbn=9781476634852 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1SqFDwAAQBAJ&dq=black+aesthetics+in+the+work+of+louise+lecavalier+and+la+la+la+human+steps&pg=PA67 |access-date=7 December 2023}}

File:-Himba woman Cropped.jpg woman with red dreadlocks]]

The practice of wearing braids and dreadlocks in Africa dates back to 3,000 BC in the Sahara Desert. It has been commonly thought that other cultures influenced the dreadlock tradition in Africa. The Kikuyu and Somali wear braided and locked hairstyles.{{cite journal |last1=Delongoria |title=Misogynoir: Black Hair, Identity Politics, and Multiple Black Realities |journal=Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=8 |page=40 |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-3-Maria%20DeLongoria.pdf |access-date=25 October 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Kasfir |first1=Sidney |title=Reviewed Works: Mammy Water: In Search of the Water Spirits in Nigeria by Sabine Jell-Bahlsen; Mami Wata: Der Geist der Weissen Frau by Tobias Wendl, Daniela Weise |journal=African Arts |date=1994 |volume=27 |issue=1 |page=80 |doi=10.2307/3337178 |jstor=3337178 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3337178 |access-date=25 October 2023}} Warriors among the Fulani, Wolof, and Serer in Mauritania, and Mandinka in Mali were known for centuries to have worn cornrows when young and dreadlocks when old.

In West Africa, the water spirit Mami Wata is said to have long locked hair. Mami Wata's spiritual powers of fertility and healing come from her dreadlocks.{{cite book |last1=Opara |last2=Chukwuma |title=Legacies of Departed African Women Writers: Matrix of Creativity and Power |year=2022 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9781666914665 |page=66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DdaEEAAAQBAJ&dq=Mami+wata+and+dreadlocks&pg=PA66}}{{cite book |title=Dreads |year=1999 |publisher=Artisan Books |isbn=9781579651503 |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YWySINhFXP0C&q=dreadlocks}} West African spiritual priests called Dada wear dreadlocks to venerate Mami Wata in her honor as spiritual consecrations.{{cite journal |last1=Kasfir |first1=Sidney |title=Reviewed Works: Mammy Water: In Search of the Water Spirits in Nigeria by Sabine Jell-Bahlsen; Mami Wata: Der Geist der Weissen Frau by Tobias Wendl, Daniela Weise |journal=African Arts |date=1994 |volume=27 |issue=1 |page=80 |doi=10.2307/3337178 |jstor=3337178 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3337178 |access-date=25 October 2023}} Some Ethiopian Christian monks and Bahatowie priests of the Ethiopian Coptic Church lock their hair for religious purposes.{{cite news |last1=Gardner |first1=Tom |title=These Preachers Perform Mass Exorcisms – And Live-Stream Them |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/02/ethiopian-christians-livestream-mass-exorcisms/579538/ |access-date=12 December 2023 |agency=The Atlantic |date=2019}}{{cite book |title=Dreads |year=1999 |publisher=Artisan Books |isbn=9781579651503 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YWySINhFXP0C&q=ethiopia&pg=PP13}} In Yorubaland, Aladura church prophets called woolii mat their hair into locs and wear long blue, red, white, or purple garments with caps and carry iron rods used as a staff.{{cite journal |last1=Oyetade |first1=Akintunde |title=The Yorùbá Community in London |journal=African Languages and Cultures |date=1993 |volume=6 |issue=1 |page=88 |doi=10.1080/09544169308717762 |jstor=1771765 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1771765 |access-date=5 December 2023}} Prophets lock their hair in accordance with the Nazarene vow in the Christian bible. This is not to be confused with the Rastafari religion that was started in the 1930s. The Aladura church was founded in 1925 and syncretizes indigenous Yoruba beliefs about dreadlocks with Christianity.{{cite book |last1=Agwuele |first1=Augustine |title=The Symbolism and Communicative Contents of Dreadlocks in Yorubaland |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783319301860 |page=135 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ATWDAAAQBAJ&dq=aladura+church+dreadlocks&pg=PA135}} Moses Orimolade Tunolase was the founder of the first African Pentecostal movement started in 1925 in Nigeria. Tunolase wore dreadlocks and members of his church wear dreadlocks in his honor and for spiritual protection.{{cite book |last1=Idowu |first1=Moses |title=Moses Orimolade Tunolase: More Than a Prophet |year=2009 |publisher=Divine Artillery Publications |isbn=9789783570450 |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6JZCAQAAIAAJ&q=Moses+Orimolade+Tunolase+dreadlocks}}

File:Hamer women attending a bull jumping ceremony (14) (29185295456).jpg women with red ochre locs]]

The Yoruba word Dada is given to children in Nigeria born with dreadlocks.{{cite book |last1=Agwuele |first1=Augustine |title=The Symbolism and Communicative Contents of Dreadlocks in Yorubaland |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783319301860 |pages=10, 80–82 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ATWDAAAQBAJ&q=dada&pg=PA90}}{{cite journal |last1=Abiodun |first1=Hannah |last2=Fashola |first2=Joseph |title=The Ontology of Hair and Identity Crises in African Literature |journal=IASR Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences |date=2021 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=37 |url=https://iasrpublication.com/uploads/article/IJHSS0101062-36-42.pdf |access-date=11 January 2024}} Some Yoruba people believe children born with dreadlocks have innate spiritual powers, and cutting their hair might cause serious illness. Only the child's mother can touch their hair. "Dada children are believed to be young gods, they are often offered at spiritual altars for chief priests to decide their fate. Some children end up becoming spiritual healers and serve at the shrine for the rest of their lives." If their hair is cut, it must be cut by a chief priest and placed in a pot of water with herbs, and the mixture is used to heal the child if they get sick. Among the Igbo, Dada children are said to be reincarnated Jujuists of great spiritual power because of their dreadlocks.{{cite news |last1=Oche |first1=Gloria |title=Dreadlocks: The myths, misconceptions, culture, and lifestyles |url=https://www.pulse.ng/lifestyle/food-travel/dreadlocks-the-myths-misconceptions-culture-and-lifestyles/fzv5f34 |access-date=10 November 2023 |agency=News Agency of Nigeria |date=2022}}{{cite book |last1=Gilbert-Hickey |last2=Green-Barteet |title=Race in Young Adult Speculative Fiction |year=2021 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |isbn=9781496833839 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MEEoEAAAQBAJ&dq=Dada+children+in+west+africa&pg=PT178}} Children born with dreadlocks are viewed as special. However, adults with dreadlocks are viewed negatively. Yoruba Dada children's dreadlocks are shaved at a river, and their hair is grown back "tamed" and have a hairstyle that conforms to societal standards. The child continues to be recognized as mysterious and special.{{cite news |last1=Agwuele |first1=Augustine |title=In Nigeria, dreadlocks are entangled with beliefs about danger and spirituality|url=https://theconversation.com/in-nigeria-dreadlocks-are-entangled-with-beliefs-about-danger-123463#:~:text=Many%20Nigerians%2C%20regardless%20of%20their,the%20Yoruba%20and%20Igbo%20people. |access-date=10 November 2023 |agency=The Conservation |date=2019}} It is believed that the hair of Dada children was braided in heaven before they were born and will bring good fortune and wealth to their parents. When the child is older, the hair is cut during a special ritual.{{cite book |last1=Biddle-Perry |first1=Geraldine |title=A Cultural History of Hair in the Modern Age |year=2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781350122833 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KiMIEAAAQBAJ&dq=dada+children+nigeria&pg=PA32}} In Yoruba mythology, the Orisha Yemoja gave birth to a Dada who is a deified king in Yoruba.{{cite web |last1=Aluko |first1=Adebukola |title="Dada": Beyond The Myths To Smart Haircare |url=https://radionigeriaibadan.gov.ng/2023/06/16/dada-beyond-the-myths-to-smart-haircare/ |website=Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria |date=16 June 2023 |access-date=22 November 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Bron |last2=Kaplan |first2=Jeffrey |title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature |date=2005 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9781847062734 |page=1035 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4L7UAwAAQBAJ&dq=dada+children+dreadlock&pg=PA1035}} However, dreadlocks are viewed in a negative light in Nigeria due to their stereotypical association with gangs and criminal activity; men with dreadlocks face profiling from Nigerian police.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-48502450|title = People with locs are seen as miscreants|work = BBC News}}{{cite book |last1=Agwuele |first1=Augustine |title=The Symbolism and Communicative Contents of Dreadlocks in Yorubaland |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783319301860 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ATWDAAAQBAJ&q=dreadlocks}}

File:Sangomas-greeting.jpg wearing white beaded dreadlocks.]]

In Ghana, among the Ashanti people, Okomfo priests are identified by their dreadlocks. They are not allowed to cut their hair and must allow it to mat and lock naturally. Locs are symbols of higher power reserved for priests.{{cite journal |title=Black Hairstyles Historical Significance and Etymology |journal=Illinois State Board of Education |page=13 |url=https://www.isbe.net/Documents/Historical-Significance-of-Black-Hairstyles.pdf |access-date=22 November 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Rhodes |first1=Jerusha |title=Fufuo, Dreadlocks, Chickens and Kaya: Practical Manifestations of Traditional Ashanti Religion |journal=African Diaspora |date=1996 |volume=28 |pages=18–19 |url=https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=african_diaspora_isp |access-date=25 October 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Cartwright |first1=Angie |title=The Dreadlocks |url=https://afrostylemag.com/ASM7/afrobeauty.html |website=Afrostyle Magazine |access-date=25 October 2023}} Other spiritual people in Southern Africa who wear dreadlocks are Sangomas. Sangomas wear red and white beaded dreadlocks to connect to ancestral spirits. Two African men were interviewed, explaining why they chose to wear dreadlocks. "One – Mr. Ngqula – said he wore his dreadlocks to obey his ancestors' call, given through dreams, to become a 'sangoma' in accordance with his Xhosa culture. Another – Mr. Kamlana – said he was instructed to wear his dreadlocks by his ancestors and did so to overcome 'intwasa', a condition understood in African culture as an injunction from the ancestors to become a traditional healer, from which he had suffered since childhood."{{cite book |last1=Ramalapa |first1=Jedidiah |title=Soweto to Beirut |year=2021 |publisher=African Sun Media |isbn=9780620931816 |page=119 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQMxEAAAQBAJ&dq=sangoma+dreadlocks&pg=PA119}}{{cite web |last1=De Vos |first1=Pierre |title=Putting the 'dread' into 'dreadlocks' |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2013-04-04-putting-the-dread-into-dreadlocks/ |website=Daily Maverick |date=4 April 2013 |access-date=26 October 2023}} In Zimbabwe, there is a tradition of locking hair called mhotsi worn by spirit mediums called svikiro. The Rastafarian religion spread to Zimbabwe and influenced some women in Harare to wear locs because they believe in the Rastafari's pro-Black teachings and rejection of colonialism.{{cite journal |last1=Chitando |title=Black Female Identities in Harare: The Case of Young Women with Dreadlocks |journal=Zambezia |date=2004 |pages=9–13 |s2cid=145067627 }}

File:Zulu-Shona African Man With Salon-styled Dreadlocks.jpg-Shona African Man With Salon-styled dreadlocks. In the Shona language, locs translate to mhotsi.]]

Maasai warriors in Kenya are known for their long, thin, red dreadlocks, dyed with red root extracts or red ochre (red earth clay).{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-21498878 |publisher=BBC News |title=South Africa's dreadlock thieves |first=Pumza |last=Fihlani |date=27 February 2013 |access-date=23 December 2020}} The Himba women in Namibia are also known for their red-colored dreadlocks. Himba women use red earth clay mixed with butterfat and roll their hair with the mixture. They use natural moisturizers to maintain the health of their hair. Hamar women in Ethiopia wear red-colored locs made using red earth clay.{{cite web |title=Discovering the Vibrant Hamar Tribe: A Glimpse into their Fascinating Culture |url=https://www.tribes.world/en/community/discovering-the-vibrant-hamer-tribe-a-glimpse-into |website=Tribes.World |access-date=28 November 2023}} In Angola, Mwila women create thick dreadlocks covered in herbs, crushed tree bark, dried cow dung, butter, and oil. The thick dreadlocks are dyed using oncula, an ochre of red crushed rock.{{cite web |title=Muila / Mumuila / Mwela / Plain Mumuila / Mountain Mumuila / Mwila |url=https://www.101lasttribes.com/tribes/muila.html |website=101lasttribes.com |access-date=21 December 2023}}{{cite web |title=Angola, Mwila Tribe |url=https://www.atlasofhumanity.com/mwila |website=Atlas of Humanity |access-date=20 December 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Nunoo |first1=Ama |title=Meet the Mwila people of Angola whose women cover their hair with cow dung |url=https://face2faceafrica.com/article/meet-the-mwila-people-of-angola-whose-women-cover-their-hair-with-cow-dung |access-date=21 December 2023 |agency=face2faceafrica.com |date=2020}} In Southern, Eastern, and Northern Africa, Africans use red ochre as sunscreen and cover their dreadlocks and braids with ochre to hold their hair in styles and as a hair moisturizer by mixing it with fats. Red ochre has a spiritual meaning of fertility, and in Maasai culture, the color red symbolizes bravery and is used in ceremonies and dreadlock hair traditions.{{cite journal |last1=Dapschauskas |last2=Sommer |title=The Emergence of Habitual Ochre Use in Africa and its Significance for The Development of Ritual Behavior During The Middle Stone Age |journal=Journal of World Prehistory |date=December 2022 |volume=35 |issue=3–4 |pages=233–319 |doi=10.1007/s10963-022-09164-1|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }}{{cite book |last1=McQuail |first1=Lisa |title=The Masai of Africa |year=2002 |publisher=Lerner Publications |isbn=9780822548553 |page=39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYT_BuP3-qsC&dq=maasai+red+ochre&pg=PA39}}

Historians note that West and Central African people braid their hair to signify age, gender, rank, role in society, and ethnic affiliation. It is believed braided and locked hair provides spiritual protection, connects people to the spirit of the earth, bestows spiritual power, and enables people to communicate with the gods and spirits.{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Monika |title=Surprising Things We Do for Beauty 6-Pack |year=2017 |publisher=Teacher Created Materials |isbn=9781493837267 |pages=22–23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AXK-DwAAQBAJ&dq=himba+women+dreadlocks&pg=PA22}}{{cite web |title=The History of Hair |url=https://blackiowa.org/digital-resources/utrdigitalexhibit/history-of-hair/ |website=The African American Museum of Iowa |access-date=24 October 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Delongoria |first1=Maria |title=Misogynoir: Black Hair, Identity Politics, and Multiple Black Realities |journal=Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=8 |page=40 |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-3-Maria%20DeLongoria.pdf |access-date=24 October 2023}} In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Atlantic slave trade saw Black Africans forcibly transported from Sub-Saharan Africa to North America and, upon their arrival in the New World, their heads would be shaved in an effort to erase their culture.{{Cite book |last1=Byrd |first1=Ayana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KERWAgAAQBAJ&q=Byrd%2C+Ayana+D.%2C+and+Lori+L.+Tharps.+2001.+Hair+Story+%3A+Untangling+the+Roots+of+Black+Hair+in+America.+New+York%3A+St+Martin%E2%80%99s+Press.&pg=PA10 |title=Hair Story : Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America |last2=Tharps |first2=Lori |publisher=St. Martin Press |year=2001|isbn=9781250046574 }}{{cite web |last1=Byrd |first1=Ayana |last2=Tharps |first2=Lori |title=Sample text for Hair story : untangling the roots of Black hair in America |url=https://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy1401/00045761-s.html |website=Library of Congress |access-date=1 November 2023}}{{cite web |title=Colonialism, Hair, and Enslavement |url=https://blackiowa.org/digital-resources/utrdigitalexhibit/history-of-hair/#colonialism-hair-and-enslavement |website=African American Museum of Iowa |access-date=24 October 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Andiswa Tshiki |title=African Hairstyles – The 'Dreaded' Colonial Legacy |url=https://review.gale.com/2021/11/23/african-hairstyles-the-dreaded-colonial-legacy/ |website=The Gale Review |date=23 November 2021 |access-date=29 November 2023}} Enslaved Africans spent months in slave ships and their hair matted into dreadlocks that European slave traders called "dreadful."{{cite book |last1=Sherrow |first1=Victoria |title=Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History |year=2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9781440873492 |page=140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bETPEAAAQBAJ&dq=ethiopian+dreadlocks&pg=PA140}}{{cite journal |last1=White |first1=Graham |last2=White |first2=Shane |title=Slave Hair and African American Culture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries |journal=The Journal of Southern History |date=1995 |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=53–54 |doi=10.2307/2211360 |jstor=2211360 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2211360 |access-date=14 November 2023}}

File:Alice Walker.jpg

In the African diaspora, people loc their hair to have a connection to the spirit world and receive messages from spirits. It is believed locs of hair are antennas making the wearer receptive to spiritual messages.{{cite journal |last1=Consentino |last2=Fabius |title=Body Talk |journal=African Arts |date=2001 |volume=34 |issue=2 |page=9 |jstor=3337908 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3337908 |access-date=25 October 2023}} Other reasons people loc their hair are for fashion and to maintain the health of natural hair, also called kinky hair.{{cite book |last1=Davis-Sivasothy |first1=Audrey |title=The Science of Black Hair: A Comprehensive Guide to Textured Hair |year=2011 |publisher=SAJA Publishing Company |isbn=9780984518425 |pages=38, 248 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WQAZAgAAQBAJ&q=dreadlocks}} In the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, the Black Power movement, Black is Beautiful movement, and the natural hair movement inspired many Black Americans to wear their hair natural in afros, braids, and locked hairstyles.{{cite journal |last1=Nyela |title=Braided Archives: Black hair as a site of diasporic transindividuation |journal=Graduate Thesis Published at York University in Toronto, Ontario |date=2021 |pages=20–24 |url=https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/877e1859-b04e-47e6-8e64-40cd7dd2e95b/content |access-date=19 November 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Jahangir |first1=Rumeana |title=How does black hair reflect black history? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-31438273 |access-date=10 November 2023 |agency=BBC News |date=2015}} The Black is Beautiful cultural movement spread to Black communities in Britain. In the 1960s and 1970s, Black people in Britain were aware of the civil rights movement and other cultural movements in Black America and the social and political changes occurring at the time. The Black is Beautiful movement and Rastafari culture in Europe influenced Afro-Britons to wear their hair in natural loc styles and afros as a way to fight against racism, Western standards of beauty, and to develop unity among Black people of diverse backgrounds.{{cite book |last1=Owusu |first1=Kwesi |title=Black British Culture and Society: A Text Reader |year=2000 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780415178457 |page=117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jAZbHuPIqVsC&dq=how+do+you+dread+white+people%27s+hair&pg=PA117}}{{cite book |last1=Connell |first1=Kieran |title=Black Handsworth: Race in 1980s Britain |year=2019 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520971950 |page=105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ggx-DwAAQBAJ&dq=afro-chic+dreadlocks&pg=PA105}} From the twentieth century to the present day, dreadlocks have been symbols of Black liberation and are worn by revolutionaries, activists, womanists, and radical artists in the diaspora.{{cite journal |last1=Ajanaku |first1=Femi |last2=Kuumba |first2=M. |title=Dreadlocks: The Hair Aesthetics of Cultural Resistance and Collective Identity Formation |journal=Mobilization: An International Quarterly |date=1998 |volume=3 |issue=2 |url=https://meridian.allenpress.com/mobilization/article-abstract/3/2/227/82939/Dreadlocks-The-Hair-Aesthetics-of-Cultural |access-date=25 November 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Mutukwa |first1=Mendai |title=Dreadlocks as a Symbol of Resistance: Performance and Reflexivity |journal=Feminist Africa |date=2016 |volume=21 |issue=21 |pages=70–74 |jstor=48725773 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48725773 |access-date=5 December 2023}} For example, Black American literary author Toni Morrison wore locs, and Alice Walker wears locs to reconnect with their African heritage.{{cite news |last1=Samuels |first1=Anita |title=Just Locks |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/23/style/just-locks.html |access-date=16 December 2023 |agency=The New York Times |date=1994}}

Natural Black hairstyles worn by Black women are seen as not feminine and unprofessional in some American businesses.{{cite book |last1=Russell |last2=Russell-Cole |last3=Wilson |last4=Hall |title=The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans |year=1993 |publisher=Anchor Books |isbn=9780385471619 |pages=82–91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5pvhD9iXolMC&q=dreadlocks&pg=PA82}} Wearing locs in the diaspora signifies a person's racial identity and defiance of European standards of beauty, such as straight blond hair.{{Cite journal |last=Montle |date=2020 |title=Debunking Eurocentric ideals of beauty and stereotypes against African natural hair(styles) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26976619 |journal=Journal of African Foreign Affairs |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=111–127 |doi=10.31920/2056-5658/2020/7n1a5 |jstor=26976619 |s2cid=225984335 }} Locs encourage Black people to embrace other aspects of their culture that are tied to Black hair, such as wearing African ornaments like cowrie shells, beads, and African headwraps that are sometimes worn with locs.{{cite journal |last1=Erasmus |first1=Zimitri |title='Oe! My Hare Gaan Huistoe': Hair-Styling as Black Cultural Practice |journal=Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity |date=1997 |volume=32 |issue=32 |pages=11–16 |doi=10.2307/4066147 |jstor=4066147 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066147 |access-date=13 November 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Shujaa |first1=Mwalimu J. |last2=Shujaa |first2=Kenya J. |title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America |date=2015 |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=9781483346380 |page=442 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooVNCgAAQBAJ&dq=African+headwraps+and+dreadlocks&pg=RA1-PA442}} Some Black Canadian women wear locs to connect to the global Black culture. Dreadlocks unite Black people in the diaspora because wearing locs has the same meaning in areas of the world where there are Black people: opposing Eurocentric standards of beauty and sharing a Black and African diaspora identity.{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Shaunasea |title='Don't Touch My Hair': Problematizing Representations of Black Women in Canada |journal=Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=8 |pages=69–70 |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-4-Brown.pdf |access-date=14 November 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=Chelsea |title=Kinky, curly hair: a tool of resistance across the African diaspora |url=https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/kinky-curly-hair-a-tool-of-resistance-across-the-african-diaspora/ |website=USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |date=18 October 2016 |access-date=19 November 2023}} For many Black women in the diaspora, locs are a fashion statement to express individuality and the beauty and versatility of Black hair. Locs are also a protective hairstyle to maintain the health of their hair by wearing kinky hair in natural locs or faux locs. To protect their natural hair from the elements during the changing seasons, Black women wear certain hairstyles to protect and retain the moisture in their hair. Black women wear soft locs as a protective hairstyle because they enclose natural hair inside them, protecting their natural hair from environmental damage. This protective soft loc style is created by "wrapping hair around the natural hair or crocheting pre-made soft locs into cornrows."{{cite web |last1=Boakye |first1=Omenaa |title=Everything You Need to Know About Soft Locs: The latest protective style you're already seeing everywhere. |url=https://www.instyle.com/hair/all-natural/soft-locs-hair-style |website=InStyle |access-date=29 November 2023}} In the diaspora, Black men and women wear different styles of dreadlocks. Each style requires a different method of care. Freeform locs are formed organically by not combing the hair or manipulating the hair. There are also goddess locs, faux locs, sister locs, twisted locs, Rasta locs, crinkle locs, invisible locs, and other loc styles.{{cite web |last1=Ore |first1=Michelle |last2=McKenzie |first2=Janae |title=41 Protective Hairstyles You'll Want to Wear This Summer |url=https://www.glamour.com/gallery/cute-protective-styles |website=Glamour |date=13 February 2018 |access-date=18 November 2023}}{{cite web |title=What Are The Different Types of Dreadlocks? |url=https://www.styleseat.com/blog/types-of-dreadlocks/ |website=Style Seat |date=28 September 2021 |access-date=21 November 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Thiga |first1=Tatiana |title=Top 20 invisible locs hairstyles to try: Trendy and classy protective hairstyle|url=https://yen.com.gh/facts-lifehacks/fashion/243466-top-invisible-locs-hairstyles-trendy-classy-protective-hairstyle/ |access-date=21 December 2023 |publisher=yen.com.gh |date=2023}}

File:Yugambeh Aboriginal Man - Jellurgal Aboriginal Cultural Centre - Burleigh Heads - Queensland - Australia - 03 (35525778080).jpg

Some Indigenous Australians of North West and North Central Australia, as well as the Gold Coast region of Eastern Australia, have historically worn their hair in a locked style, sometimes also having long beards that are fully or partially locked. Traditionally, some wear the dreadlocks loose, while others wrap the dreadlocks around their heads or bind them at the back of the head.{{cite book|title=The Customs and Traditions of The Aboriginal Natives of North Western Australia|last=Withnell|first=John G.|publisher=Roebourne |year=1901|page=14}} In North Central Australia, the tradition is for the dreadlocks to be greased with fat and coated with red ochre, which assists in their formation.{{cite book|title=The Native Tribes of North Central Australia|last=Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen|publisher=Macmillan|year=1899|location=London}} In 1931 in Warburton Range, Western Australia, a photograph was taken of an Aboriginal Australian man with dreadlocks.{{cite web |title=Aboriginal man with dreadlocks standing next to the expedition's Morris Commercial truck, Warburton Range, western Australia, 1931 / Michael Terry |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-149267890/view |website=Trove / Australian Government Library |access-date=28 October 2023}}

In the 1970s, hippies from Australia's southern region moved to Kuranda, where they introduced the Rastafari movement as expressed in the reggae music of Peter Tosh and Bob Marley to the Buluwai people in the 1970s. Aboriginal Australians found parallels between the struggles of Black people in the Americas and their own racial struggles in Australia. Willie Brim, a Buluwai man born in the 1960s in Kuranda, identified with Tosh's and Marley's spiritually conscious music, and inspired particularly by Peter Tosh's album Bush Doctor, in 1978 he founded a reggae band called Mantaka after the area alongside the Barron River where he grew up. He combined his people's cultural traditions with the reggae guitar he had played since he was young, and his band's music reflects Buluwai culture and history. Now a leader of the Buluwai people and a cultural steward, Brim and his band send an "Aboriginal message" to the world. He and other Buluwai people wear dreadlocks as a native part of their culture and not as an influence from the Rastafari religion. Although Brim was inspired by reggae music, he is not a Rastafarian as he and his people have their own spirituality.{{cite journal |last1=Grieves |first1=Victoria |title="Reggae Became the Main Transporter of Our Struggle ... and Our Love" |journal=Transition |date=2018 |issue=126 |pages=43–57 |doi=10.2979/transition.126.1.07 |s2cid=158959786 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/702741 |access-date=10 November 2023}} Foreigners visiting Australia think the Buluwai people wearing dreadlocks were influenced by the Rastafarian movement, but the Buluwai say their ancestors wore dreadlocks before the movement began.{{cite journal |last1=Gershon |first1=Livia |title=Reggae in Australia |journal=Arts and Culture |date=2023 |url=https://daily.jstor.org/reggae-in-australia/ |access-date=28 October 2023}} Some Indigenous Australians wear an Australian Aboriginal flag (a symbol of unity and Indigenous identity in Australia) tied around their head to hold their dreadlocks.{{cite book |last1=Ottosson |first1=Ase |title=Making Aboriginal Men and Music in Central Australia |year=2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781000181784 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dEQHEAAAQBAJ&dq=aboriginal+australians+and+dreadlocks&pg=PT7}}

Within Tibetan Buddhism and other more esoteric forms of Buddhism, locks have occasionally been substituted for the more traditional shaved head. The most recognizable of these groups are known as the Ngagpas of Tibet. For Buddhists of these particular sects and degrees of initiation, their locked hair is not only a symbol of their vows but an embodiment of the particular powers they are sworn to carry.{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/596567 | jstor=10.1086/596567 | doi=10.1086/596567 | title=The Dreadlocks Treatise: On Tantric Hairstyles in Tibetan Buddhism | date=2008 | last1=Bogin | first1=Benjamin | journal=History of Religions | volume=48 | issue=2 | pages=85–109 | s2cid=162206598 }} Hevajra Tantra 1.4.15 states that the practitioner of particular ceremonies "should arrange his piled up hair" as part of the ceremonial protocol.Snellgrove, David. The Hevajra Tantra: A Critical Study. vol 1. Oxford University Press. 1959. Archeologists found a statue of a male deity, Shiva, with dreadlocks in Stung Treng province in Cambodia.{{cite book |last1=Saran |first1=Shyam |title=Cultural and Civilisational Links between India and Southeast Asia: Historical and Contemporary Dimensions |year=2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9789811073175 |page=265 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ye1lDwAAQBAJ&dq=dreadlocks+in+india&pg=PA265}} In a sect of tantric Buddhism, some initiates wear dreadlocks.{{cite book |last1=Wedemeyer |first1=Christian |title=Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology, and Transgression in the Indian Traditions |year=2014 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231162418 |page=158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GvUYBQAAQBAJ&dq=dreadlocks+in+buddhism&pg=PA21}}{{cite journal |last1=Bogin |first1=Benjamin |title=The Dreadlocks Treatise: On Tantric Hairstyles in Tibetan Buddhism |journal=History of Religions |date=2018 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=85–95 |doi=10.1086/596567 |jstor=10.1086/596567 |s2cid=162206598 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/596567 |access-date=26 October 2023}} The sect of tantric Buddhism in which initiates wear dreadlocks is called weikza and Passayana or Vajrayana Buddhism. This sect of Buddhism is practiced in Burma. The initiates spend years in the forest with this practice, and when they return to the temples, they should not shave their heads to reintegrate.{{cite book |last1=Schmidt-Leukel |last2=Grosshans |last3=Krueger |title=Ethnic and Religious Diversity in Myanmar: Contested Identities |year=2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781350187412 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZFKEAAAQBAJ&dq=yellamma+dreadlocks&pg=PA101}}

File:Bearded Shiva.jpg

File:Sadu Kathmandu Pashupatinath 2006 Luca Galuzzi.jpgs (ascetic monks) with their hair in traditional jaṭā style{{cite book |title=Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion |quote=His jata (dreadlocks) are elegantly styled, and the source of the Ganges issues from his topknot. In the background are the Himalayas where Shiva performs his austerities. |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |location=University of Michigan [Michigan] |year=2009 |isbn=9781845207922}}]]

The practice of wearing a jaṭā (dreadlocks) is observed in modern-day Hinduism,{{cite web|title=Why Some Indian Women Are Terrified of Chopping off Their Dreadlocks, Even Though They Can't Move Their Necks|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/j5ynmp/why-some-indian-women-are-terrified-of-chopping-off-their-dreadlocks-even-though-cant-move-their-necks|access-date=2021-01-29|website=Vice|date=23 October 2019 }}{{cite web|last=Rattanpal|first=Divyani|date=2015-10-06|title=Hair and Shanti: What Hair Means to Indians|url=https://www.thequint.com/news/india/hair-and-shanti-what-hair-means-to-indians|access-date=2021-01-29|website=TheQuint}}{{cite news|last=|first=|date=|title=What Sadhus and Sadhvis at Kumbh Told Me About Their Long and Important Dreadlocks|work=News 18|url=https://www.news18.com/news/india/what-sadhus-and-sadhvis-at-kumbh-told-me-about-their-long-and-important-dreadlocks-2023477.html|access-date=2021-01-29}} most notably by sadhus who worship Shiva.{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/news/india/what-sadhus-and-sadhvis-at-kumbh-told-me-about-their-long-and-important-dreadlocks-2023477.html|title=What Sadhus and Sadhvis at Kumbh Told Me About Their Long and Important Dreadlocks|date=3 February 2019}}{{cite web|last=Hays|first=Jeffrey|title=Sadhus, Hindu Holy Men {{!}} Facts and Details|url=http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat55/sub388/item1345.html|access-date=2021-01-29|website=factsanddetails.com}} The Kapalikas, first commonly referenced in the 6th century CE, were known to wear the jaṭā{{Cite book|last=Lorenzen|first=David|url=https://archive.org/details/TheKapalikasAndKalamukhasTwoLostSaiviteSectsDLorenzenDelhi1991|title=The Kapalikas and Kalamukhas: Two Lost Saivite Sects|publisher=University of California Press|year=1972|isbn=0-520-01842-7|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |pages=4, 6, 14, 21–23, 41–42, 47}} as a form of deity imitation of the deva Bhairava-Shiva.{{Cite book|last=Lorenzen|first=David|url=https://archive.org/details/TheKapalikasAndKalamukhasTwoLostSaiviteSectsDLorenzenDelhi1991|title=The Kapalikas and Kalamukhas: Two Lost Saivite Sects|publisher=University of California Press|year=1972|isbn=0-520-01842-7|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|pages=4, 85}} Shiva is often depicted with dreadlocks. According to Ralph Trueb, "Shiva's dreadlocks represent the potent power of his mind that enables him to catch and bind the unruly and wild river goddess Ganga."{{cite journal |last1=Trueb |first1=Ralph |title=From Hair in India to Hair India |journal=International Journal of Trichology |date=2017 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=5–6 |doi=10.4103/ijt.ijt_10_17 |pmid=28761257 |pmc=5514789 |doi-access=free }}

In a village in Pune, Savitha Uttam Thorat, some women hesitate to cut their long dreadlocks because it is believed it will cause misfortune or bring down divine wrath. Dreadlocks practiced by the women in this region of India are believed to be possessed by the goddess Yellamma. Cutting off the hair is believed to bring misfortune onto the woman, because having dreadlocks is considered to be a gift from the goddess Yellamma (also known as Renuka).{{cite book |last1=Varde |first1=Abhijit |title=Daughters of Maharashtra: Portraits of Women who are Building Maharashtra: Interviews and Photographs |year=1997 |publisher=University of Virginia |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YP4pAAAAYAAJ&q=yellamma+dreadlocks}} Some of the women have long and heavy dreadlocks that put a lot of weight on their necks, causing pain and limited mobility.{{cite web |last1=Chakraborty |first1=Reshmi |title=Why Some Indian Women Are Terrified of Chopping off Their Dreadlocks, Even Though They Can't Move Their Necks |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/j5ynmp/why-some-indian-women-are-terrified-of-chopping-off-their-dreadlocks-even-though-cant-move-their-necks |website=Vice |date=23 October 2019 |access-date=26 October 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Torgaltar |first1=Varsha |title=This Maharashtra Group is Cutting off Superstition – One Dreadlock at a Time |url=https://thewire.in/rights/this-maharashtra-group-is-cutting-off-superstition-one-dreadlock-at-a-time |website=The Wire |access-date=27 October 2023}} Some in local government and police in the Maharashtra region demand the women cut their hair, because the religious practice of Yellamma forbids women from washing and cutting their dreadlocks, causing health issues.{{cite book |last1=Kassam |first1=Zayn |title=Women and Asian Religions |year=2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9798216166139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZHCEAAAQBAJ&dq=goddess+yellamma+dreadlocks&pg=PT183}} These locks of hair dedicated to Yellamma are called jade, believed to be evidence of divine presence. However, in Southern India, people advocate for the end of the practice.{{cite book |last1=Krueger |last2=Grosshans |last3=Schmidt-Leukel |title=Ethnic and Religious Diversity in Myanmar: Contested Identities |year=2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781350187412 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZFKEAAAQBAJ&dq=dreadlocks+yellamma&pg=PA101}}

The goddess Angala Parameshvari in Indian mythology is said to have cataik-kari matted hair (dreadlocks). Women healers in India are identified by their locs of hair and are respected in spiritual rituals because they are believed to be connected to goddesses. A woman who has a jata is believed to derive her spiritual powers or shakti from her dreadlocks.{{cite journal |last1=Allocco |first1=Amy |title=From Survival to Respect: The Narrative Performances and Ritual Authority of a Female Hindu Healer |journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |date=2013 |volume=29 |issue=1 |page=110 |doi=10.2979/jfemistudreli.29.1.101 |jstor=10.2979/jfemistudreli.29.1.101 |s2cid=145535226 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.29.1.101 |access-date=5 December 2023}}

File:RastaBongo.jpg to cover his locs.]]

Rastafari movement dreadlocks are symbolic of the Lion of Judah, and were inspired by the Nazarites of the Bible.{{cite web |title=Dreadlocks |url=https://educ.jmu.edu/~klemmjd/rastafari/dreadlocks.htm |publisher=James Madison University |access-date=22 November 2023}} Jamaicans locked their hair after seeing images of Ethiopians with locs fighting Italian soldiers during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. The afro is the preferred hairstyle worn by Ethiopians. During the Italian invasion, Ethiopians vowed not to cut their hair using the Biblical example of Samson, who got his strength from his seven locks of hair, until emperor Ras Tafari Makonnen (Haile Selassie) and Ethiopia were liberated and Selassie was returned from exile.{{cite web |title=From slavery to colonialism and school rules: a history of myths about black hair |url=https://theconversation.com/from-slavery-to-colonialism-and-school-rules-a-history-of-myths-about-black-hair-64676 |website=The Conversation |date=31 August 2016 |access-date=21 November 2023}} Scholars also state another indirect Ethiopian influence for Rastas locking their hair are the Bahatowie priests in Ethiopia and their tradition of wearing dreadlocks for religious reasons since the 5th century AD.{{cite book |last1=McFarlane |last2=Spencer |last3=Samuel Murrell |title=Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader |year=1998 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=9781566395847 |pages=133–134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iesWzLHb_GUC&dq=dreadlocks+in+africa&pg=PA133}} Another African influence for Rastas wearing locs was seeing photos of Mau Mau freedom fighters with locs in Kenya fighting against the British authorities in the 1950s. Dreadlocks to the Mau Mau freedom fighters were a symbol of anti-colonialism, and this symbolism of dreadlocks was an inspiration for Rastas to loc their hair in opposition to racism and promote an African identity.{{cite book |last1=McFarlane |last2=Spencer |last3=Samuel Murrell |title=Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader |year=1998 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=9781566395847 |pages=133–134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iesWzLHb_GUC&dq=dreadlocks+in+africa&pg=PA133}}{{cite news |last1=Kimutai |first1=Cyprian |title=Why dreadlocks were an important symbol for Kenya's Mau Mau |url=https://www.pulselive.co.ke/lifestyle/beauty-health/what-dreadlocks-meant-for-kenyas-mau-mau-fightersand-connection-to-rastafarianism/f1pt1rn |access-date=30 November 2023 |agency=Pulse |date=2022}}{{cite book |last1=Kinni |first1=Yen-Kini |title=Pan-Africanism: Political Philosophy and Socio-Economic Anthropology for African Liberation and Governance |year=2015 |publisher=African Books Collective |isbn=9789956762651 |page=838 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_fxWEAAAQBAJ&dq=kikuyu+people+dreadlocks&pg=PA838}} The branch of Rastafari that was inspired to loc their hair after the Mau Mau freedom fighters was the Nyabinghi Order, previously called Young Black Faith. Young Black Faith were considered a radical group of younger Rastafari members. Eventually, other Rastafari groups started locking their hair.{{cite journal |title=Rastafari |journal=RE: Online the Place for Excellence |url=https://www.reonline.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Rastafari.pdf |page=13 |access-date=5 December 2023}}

In the Rastafarian belief, people wear locs for a spiritual connection to the universe and the spirit of the earth. It is believed that by shaking their locs, they will bring down the destruction of Babylon. Babylon in the Rastafarian belief is systemic racism, colonialism, and any system of economic and social oppression of Black people.{{cite book |last1=Gackstetter Nichols |last2=Kenny |title=Beauty around the World: A Cultural Encyclopedia |year=2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9781610699457 |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0BbHEAAAQBAJ&dq=dreadlocks+and+black+is+beautiful+movement&pg=PA93}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2003-08-23 |title=Dare to dread |url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/aug/23/features.weekend |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=The Guardian |language=en}} Locs are also worn to defy European standards of beauty and help to develop a sense of Black pride and acceptance of African features as beautiful.{{cite book |last1=Samuel Murrell |last2=Spencer |last3=McFarlane |title=Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader |year=1998 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=9781566395847 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iesWzLHb_GUC&q=dreadlocks}}{{cite book |last1=Coertzen |last2=Green |title=Law and Religion in Africa: The quest for the common good in pluralistic societies |year=2015 |publisher=African Sun Media |isbn=9781919985633 |page=189 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IgjTCQAAQBAJ&dq=dreadlocks+in+central+africa&pg=PA189}} In another branch of Rastafari called Boboshanti Order of Rastafari, dreadlocks are worn to display a black person's identity and social protest against racism.{{cite journal |last1=Omotoso |first1=Sharon Adetutu |title=Editorial: Human Hair: Intrigues and Complications |journal=Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=8 |page=2 |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-0-Sharon-edit.pdf |access-date=14 November 2023}} The Bobo Ashanti are one of the strictest Mansions of Rastafari. They cover their locs with bright turbans and wear long robes and can usually be distinguished from other Rastafari members because of this.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/subdivisions/boboshanti.shtml. |title=Religions – Rastafari: Bobo Shanti |date=21 October 2009 |website=BBC.co.uk|access-date=6 November 2019}} Other Rastas wear a Rastacap to tuck their locs under the cap.{{cite book |last1=Lynch |first1=Annette |last2=Strauss |first2=Mitchell |title=Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia |year=2014 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780759121508 |page=248 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tiEvBQAAQBAJ&dq=rasta+tam+hat&pg=PR5}}

The Bobo Ashanti ("Bobo" meaning "black" in Iyaric;{{cite web |title=Rastafarians |url=https://minorityrights.org/minorities/rastafarians/ |website=Minority Rights |date=19 June 2015 |publisher=Minority Rights Group International |access-date=26 June 2021}} and "Ashanti" in reference to the Ashanti people of Ghana, whom the Bobos claim are their ancestors),{{cite thesis |url= http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/17357 |title=Lords and empresses in and out of Babylon: the EABIC community and the dialectic of female subordination |last=Montlouis |first=Nathalie |date=2013 |doi=10.25501/SOAS.00017357 |access-date=6 November 2019|type=phd }} were founded by Emmanuel Charles Edwards in 1959 during the period known as the "groundation", where many protests took place calling for the repatriation of African descendants and slaves to Kingston. A Boboshanti branch spread to Ghana because of repatriated Jamaicans and other Black Rastas moving to Ghana. Prior to Rastas living in Ghana, Ghanaians and West Africans previously had their own beliefs about locked hair. Dreadlocks in West Africa are believed to bestow children born with locked hair with spiritual power, and that Dada children, that is, those born with dreadlocks, were given to their parents by water deities. Rastas and Ghanaians have similar beliefs about the spiritual significance of dreadlocks, such as not touching a person's or child's locs, maintaining clean locs, locs spiritual connections to spirits, and locs bestowing spiritual powers to the wearer.{{cite journal |last1=Botchway |title=...The Hairs of Your Head Are All Numbered: Symbolisms of Hair and Dreadlocks in the Boboshanti Order of Rastafari |journal=Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=8 |pages=21–28 |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-2-Botchway.pdf |access-date=20 November 2023}}

Dreadlocks have become a popular hairstyle among professional athletes. However, some athletes are discriminated against and were forced to cut their dreadlocks. For example, in December 2018, a Black high school wrestler in New Jersey was forced to cut his dreadlocks 90 seconds before his match, sparking a civil rights case that led to the passage of the CROWN Act in 2019.{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Nadia |last2=Lemi |first2=Danielle |title=Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites |year=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780197540596 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xvYTEAAAQBAJ&dq=crown+act+and+dreadlocks&pg=PA18}}

In professional American football, the number of players with dreadlocks has increased since Al Harris and Ricky Williams first wore the style during the 1990s. In 2012, about 180 National Football League players wore dreadlocks. A significant number of these players are defensive backs, who are less likely to be tackled than offensive players. According to the NFL's rulebook, a player's hair is considered part of their "uniform", meaning the locks are fair game when attempting to bring them down.{{cite web|url=http://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=5967114|title=Matz: NFL players embracing long hair|date=29 December 2010|website=ESPN.com|access-date=6 October 2017}}{{cite news |last1=Morgan |first1=Emmanuel |title=For Dreadlocked N.F.L. Players, Hair Is a Point of Pride |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/sports/football/nfl-locs-braids-black-hair.html |access-date=18 November 2023 |agency=The New York Times |date=2022}}

In the NBA, there has been controversy over Brooklyn Nets guard Jeremy Lin, an Asian-American who garnered mild controversy over his choice of dreadlocks. Former NBA player Kenyon Martin accused Lin of appropriating African-American culture in a since-deleted social media post, after which Lin pointed out that Martin has multiple Chinese characters tattooed on his body.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/jeremy-lin-hair-dreadlocks-kenyon-martin-lil-b-curse-nets/|title=Jeremy Lin's dreadlocks have led to all kinds of comments – even Lil B's support|date=6 October 2017 }}

David Diamante, the American Boxing ring announcer of Italian American heritage, sports prominent dreadlocks.

Dreadlocks can be formed through several methods. Very curly hair forms single-strand knots that can natually entangle into dreadlocks.{{cite book

| last = Robbins

| first = C. R.

| title = Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair

| year = 2012

| publisher = Springer

| location = Berlin, Heidelberg

| doi = 10.1007/978-3-642-25611-0

}} For other types of hair various methods utilized to create dreadlocks include crochet hooks and backcombing. Dreadlocks should not be confused with matting, which occurs from the unintentional neglect and damage of any type of hair.{{cite journal

| last1 = Al Ghani

| first1 = M. A.

| last2 = Geilen

| first2 = C. C.

| last3 = Blume-Peytavi

| first3 = U.

| last4 = Orfanos

| first4 = C. E.

| title = Matting of Hair: A Multifactorial Enigma

| journal = Dermatology

| volume = 201

| pages = 101–104

| year = 2000

| doi = 10.1159/000018445

}}

{{Neutrality-section|date=October 2024}}File: Dreadlocks of an African-American person, after being unwound from Bantu knots.jpg are discriminated against and some are suspended from school for wearing locs.]]

On 3 July 2019, California became the first US state to prohibit discrimination over natural hair. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the CROWN Act into law, banning employers and schools from discriminating against hairstyles such as dreadlocks, braids, afros, and twists.{{cite web|url=https://www.jurist.org/news/2019/07/california-bans-racial-discrimination-based-on-hair-in-schools-and-workplaces/|title=California bans racial discrimination based on hair in schools and workplaces|access-date=2019-07-03|publisher=JURIST}} Likewise, later in 2019, Assembly Bill 07797 became law in New York state; it "prohibits race discrimination based on natural hair or hairstyles".{{cite web|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/452959-new-york-bans-discrimination-against-natural-hair |title=New York bans discrimination against natural hair |work=The Hill |date=2019-07-13 |access-date=2019-07-18}}{{cite journal |last1=Lee |last2=Nambudiri |title=The CROWN act and dermatology: Taking a stand against race-based hair discrimination |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology |date=2021 |volume=84 |issue=4 |pages=1181–1182 |doi=10.1016/j.jaad.2020.11.065 |pmid=33290804 |s2cid=228078854 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0190962220331443 |access-date=27 October 2023}} Scholars call discrimination based on hair "hairism". Despite the passage of the CROWN Act, hairism continues, with some Black people being fired from work or not hired because of their dreadlocks.{{cite journal |last1=Donahoo |title=Why We Need a National CROWN Act |journal=The Body Politic: Women's Bodies and Political Conflict |date=2021 |volume=10 |issue=2 |url=https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/10/2/26 |access-date=27 October 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Alcindor |first1=Yamiche |last2=Wellford |first2=Rachael |title=How hair discrimination impacts Black Americans in their personal lives and the workplace |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-hair-discrimination-impacts-black-americans-in-their-personal-lives-and-the-workplace |access-date=13 November 2023 |agency=PBS News Hour |date=2021}}{{cite web |title=Strands of Inspiration: Exploring Black Identities through Hair |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/strands-of-inspiration |website=National Museum of African American History and Culture |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=19 November 2023}} According to the CROWN 2023 Workplace Research Study, sixty-six percent of Black women change their hairstyle for job interviews, and twenty-five percent of Black women said they were denied a job because of their hairstyle.{{cite web |last1=Christ |first1=Ginger |title=Two-thirds of Black women change their hair for job interviews, even as CROWN Act support grows |url=https://www.hrdive.com/news/two-thirds-of-black-women-change-their-hair-for-interviews/643349/ |website=HRdive.com |access-date=16 December 2023}} The CROWN Act was passed to challenge the idea that Black people must emulate other hairstyles to be accepted in public and educational spaces.{{cite journal |last1=Donahoo |first1=Sarah |last2=Smith |first2=Asia |title=Controlling the Crown: Legal Efforts to Professionalize Black Hair |journal= Race and Justice|date=2022 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=182–203 |doi=10.1177/2153368719888264 |s2cid=214303469 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2153368719888264 |access-date=20 November 2023}} As of 2023, 24 states have passed the CROWN Act. July 3 is recognized as National CROWN Day, also called Black Hair Independence Day.{{cite web |last1=Payne-Patterson |first1=Jasmine |title=The CROWN Act: A jewel for combating racial discrimination in the workplace and classroom |url=https://www.epi.org/publication/crown-act/#:~:text=The%20CROWN%20Act%20is%20law,Texas%2C%20Virginia%2C%20and%20Washington. |website=Economic Policy Institute |access-date=28 November 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Hays |first1=Gabrielle |title=When CROWN acts stall in states, cities step in to ban hair discrimination |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/when-crown-acts-stall-in-states-cities-step-in-to-ban-hair-discrimination |access-date=28 November 2023 |agency=PBS News Hour |publisher=PBS |date=July 3, 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Hardaway |first1=Brittany |title=National CROWN Day celebrates Black hair independence |url=https://www.wrex.com/news/national-crown-day-celebrates-black-hair-independence/article_317677b4-19fa-11ee-a64e-af2c14790a72.html |access-date=28 November 2023 |agency=13 WREX News |date=July 3, 2023}}

The Perception Institute conducted a "Good Hair Study" using images of Black women wearing natural styles in locs, afros, twists, and other Black hairstyles. The Perception Institute is "a consortium of researchers, advocates and strategists" that uses psychological and emotional test studies to make participants aware of their racial biases. A Black-owned hair supply company, Shea Moisture, partnered with Perception Institute to conduct the study. The tests were done to reduce hair- and racially-based discrimination in education, civil justice, and law enforcement places. The study used an implicit-association test on 4,000 participants of all racial backgrounds and showed most of the participants had negative views about natural Black hairstyles. The study also showed Millennials were the most accepting of kinky hair texture on Black people. "Noliwe Rooks, a Cornell University professor who writes about the intersection of beauty and race, says for some reason, natural Black hair just frightens some White people."{{cite web |last1=Bates |first1=Kare |title=New Evidence Shows There's Still Bias Against Black Natural Hair |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/06/512943035/new-evidence-shows-theres-still-bias-against-black-natural-hair |website=NPR |access-date=21 November 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Martin |first1=Areva |title=The Hatred of Black Hair Goes Beyond Ignorance |url=https://time.com/4909898/black-hair-discrimination-ignorance/ |access-date=21 November 2023 |agency=Times Magazine |date=2017}}

In September of 2016, a lawsuit was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the company Catastrophe Management Solutions located in Mobile, Alabama. The court case ended with the decision that it was not a discriminatory practice for the company to refuse to hire an African American because they wore dreadlocks.{{cite news |last1=Gutierrez-Morfin |first1=Noel |title=U.S. Court Rules Dreadlock Ban During Hiring Process Is Legal A U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that denying potential Black employees for wearing dreadlocks does not legally constitute discrimination. |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/u-s-court-rules-dreadlock-ban-during-hiring-process-legal-n652211 |access-date=9 November 2023 |agency=NBC News |date=2016}}

In some Texas public schools, dreadlocks are prohibited, especially for male students, because long braided hair is considered unmasculine according to Western standards of masculinity which define masculinity as "short, tidy hair." Black and Native American boys are stereotyped and receive negative treatment and negative labeling for wearing dreadlocks, cornrows, and long braids. Non-white students are prohibited from practicing their traditional hairstyles that are a part of their culture.{{cite journal |last1=Banks |first1=Patricia |title=No Dreadlocks Allowed: Race, Hairstyles, and Exclusion in Schools |journal=Multicultural Perspectives |date=2023 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=30–38 |doi=10.1080/15210960.2022.2162525 |s2cid=258313128 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15210960.2022.2162525 |access-date=27 October 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Serrano |first1=Alejandro |title=Texas lawmaker again tries to block discriminatory hairstyle bans in schools and workplaces |url=https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/21/texas-crown-act-legislature-2023/ |access-date=17 November 2023 |agency=The Texas Tribune |date=March 21, 2023}}

The policing of Black hairstyles also occurs in London, England. Black students in England are prohibited from wearing natural hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, braids, twists, and other African and Black hairstyles. Black students are suspended from school, are stereotyped, and receive negative treatment from teachers.{{cite journal |last1=Joseph-Salisbury |last2=Connelly |title='If Your Hair Is Relaxed, White People Are Relaxed. If Your Hair Is Nappy, They're Not Happy': Black Hair as a Site of 'Post-Racial' Social Control in English Schools |journal=Social Sciences |date=2018 |volume=7 |issue=11 |page=219 |doi=10.3390/socsci7110219 |doi-access=free }}

In Midrand, north of Johannesburg in South Africa, a Black girl was kicked out of school for wearing her hair in a natural dreadlock style {{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}. Hair and dreadlock discrimination is experienced by people of color all over the world who do not conform to Western standards of beauty.{{cite news |last1=Magadla |first1=Mahlogonolo |last2=Sibiya |first2=Noxolo |title=Girl kicked out of school for her natural dreadlocks |url=https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2023-08-16-girl-kicked-out-of-school-for-her-natural-dreadlocks/ |access-date=28 October 2023 |agency=Sowetan Live News |date=August 16, 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Chappell |first1=Kate |title=Jamaica's high court rules school can ban dreadlocks |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/jamaica-dreadlocks-school-student/2020/07/31/2cf6db4c-cf4e-11ea-8c55-61e7fa5e82ab_story.html |access-date=17 November 2023 |agency=Washington Post |date=July 31, 2020}} At Pretoria High School for Girls in Gauteng province in South Africa, Black girls are discriminated against for wearing African hairstyles and are forced to straighten their hair.{{cite web |last1=Jackson |first1=Jada |title=Some South African Schools Still Have 'Blatantly Racist' Dress Codes |url=https://www.allure.com/story/zulaikha-patel-hair-discrimination-interview |website=Allure.com |date=2 November 2021 |access-date=29 November 2023}}

File:Tracy Price-Thompson signing autographs · DF-SD-07-44585.JPEG

In 2017, the United States Army lifted the ban on dreadlocks. In the army, Black women can now wear braids and locs under the condition that they are groomed, clean, and meet the length requirements.{{cite news |last1=Mele |first1=Christopher |title=Army Lifts Ban on Dreadlocks, and Black Servicewomen Rejoice |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/army-ban-on-dreadlocks-black-servicewomen.html |access-date=18 November 2023 |agency=New York Times |date=2017}} From slavery into the present day, the policing of Black women's hair continues to be controlled by some institutions and people. Even when Black women wear locs and they are clean and well-kept, some people do not consider locs to be feminine and professional because of the natural kinky texture of Black hair.{{cite journal |last1=Smith |title=The Policing of Black Women's Hair in the Military |journal=Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=8 |pages=51–55 |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-3-Smith.pdf |access-date=18 November 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Bero |first1=Tayo |title=Tangled Roots: Decoding the History of Black Hair |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/tangled-roots-decoding-the-history-of-black-hair-1.5891778 |website=CBC |publisher=Radio Canada |access-date=19 November 2023}}

Four African countries approved the wearing of dreadlocks in their courts: Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. However, hairism continues despite the approval. Although locked hairstyles are a traditional practice on the African continent, some Africans disapprove of the hairstyle because of cultural taboos or pressure from Europeans in African schools and local African governments to conform to Eurocentric standards of beauty.{{cite news |last1=Ntreh |first1=Hii |title=Four African countries where dreadlocks have been approved by courts |url=https://face2faceafrica.com/article/four-african-countries-where-dreadlocks-have-been-approved-by-courts |access-date=17 November 2023 |agency=Face2Face Africa |date=March 26, 2021}}{{cite news |last1=Princewill |first1=Nimi |title=Their son was banned from school for 3 years because of his dreadlocks |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/22/africa/malawi-court-lifts-dreadlocks-ban-intl/index.html |access-date=17 November 2023 |agency=CNN World |date=May 22, 2023}}

According to a 2011 article from The New Republic, Black men who wear locs are racially profiled and watched more by the police and are believed to be "thugs" or involved in gangs and violent crimes than Black men who do not wear dreadlocks.{{cite magazine |last1=McWhorter |first1=John |title=Driving While Dreadlocked: Why Police Are So Bad At Racial Profiling |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/94827/why-police-are-bad-at-racial-profiling |magazine=The New Republic |date=14 September 2011 |access-date=18 November 2023}}

On 10 December 2010, the Guinness Book of World Records rested its "longest dreadlocks" category after investigating its first and only female title holder, Asha Mandela, with this official statement:

Following a review of our guidelines for the longest dreadlock, we have taken expert advice and made the decision to rest this category. The reason for this is that it is difficult, and in many cases impossible, to measure the authenticity of the locks due to expert methods employed in the attachment of hair extensions/re-attachment of broken-off dreadlocks. Effectively the dreadlock can become an extension and therefore impossible to adjudicate accurately. It is for this reason Guinness World Records has decided to rest the category and will no longer be monitoring the category for longest dreadlock.{{cite web |url=http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Longest-Dreadlock-Record-Rested/BLOG/3083932/7691.html |title=Longest Dreadlock Record – Rested |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005033245/http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Longest-Dreadlock-Record-Rested/BLOG/3083932/7691.html |archive-date=2011-10-05 }}

• List of hairstyles
• Protective hairstyle
• Braids
• Box braids
• Elflock
• Cornrows
• French braid
• Polish plait

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Haas |last2=Toppe |last3=Henz |title=Hairstyles in the Arts of Greek and Roman Antiquity |journal=Journal of Investigative Dermatology |date=2005 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=298–300 |doi=10.1111/j.1087-0024.2005.10120.x |pmid=16382686 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite web |last1=Kerr |first1=Minott |title=Greek Kouroi |url=https://www.reed.edu/humanities/110Tech/kouroi.html |website=Reed Library |publisher=Reed College |access-date=4 November 2023}}
• {{cite web |last1=Stephens |first1=Janet |title=Know Them by Their Hair |url=https://www.archaeologynow.org/tiny-lectures/know-them-by-their-hair |website=Archeologynow.org |access-date=8 November 2023}}

{{Wiktionary|dreadlocks|dreadlock}}

• {{commons category-inline}}
• [https://blogsarchive.sites.haverford.edu/celticfringe/2017/02/17/celtic-hair-history/#:~:text=Both%20men%20and%20women%20sometime,out%20of%20bone%20or%20horn./ Celtic Hair History] from Haverford University student blogs
• [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/twisted-locks-fraught-with-meaning/2015/06/10/72949b8c-f595-11e4-bcc4-e8141e5eb0c9_story.html/ The cultural ramifications of dreadlocks] from the Washington Post
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160618174330/http://www.dreadlockstory.com/ Dreadlocks Story – Documentary by Linda Aïnouche]
• [https://www.theguardian.com/weekend/story/0,,1026426,00.html Guardian article]

{{Human hair}}

{{Rastafari}}

Category:1970s fashion

Category:1980s fashion

Category:1990s fashion

Category:2000s fashion

Category:2010s fashion

Category:Gothic fashion

Category:Hairstyles