Why Dread, Why Red?

“So dread is no longer a white garment church hair and now a fashion wave?” — Mum.

I have no idea if it’s just me, but let me ask o, did white garment and dreadlocks(aka; Dada) originate from the same place?

You’re curious now,

“Where is she going with this?”

I’d start by telling you first that I’m assuming the age 19 forever, so in any case, best believe I’m 19.

As a child, I used to be so excited about people with dreadlocks, it was one very unique and different hair type, I think I mentioned it to my mum so she deep dived into telling me how I was once like that.

I remember being at Eko market with my mum one time too and a couple with dreads passed by us, my mum went on to tell me how pretty they were and i could see the longing in her face while she repeated the already known fact that I used to also be like that.

“Why am I no longer like that though?” I was curious,

Imagine the disappointment I felt when I couldn’t get a tangible answer. One thing I could get though was that the reason my natural follow-come dreadlocks were taken off my head was because of the fear of discrimination. My parents as well as so many others were cutting their kids hairs to avoid the “white garment church” stereotype.

“But I was born, baptized and ordained in a white garment church so what was the need”?

This question kept rolling around in my head as I grew up but the curiosity didn’t last long, I saw what my parents meant everytime I told a new person about my white garment church roots.

It’s the side looks, the calling me a witch to my face, the constant and very casual way people imagine I’m more spiritual than I am and not in a good way, not that I’m disputing or agreeing to anything, you never know, but imagine I had the dreads on my head to cement it all.

“Then one day I wake up and it’s a fashion wave”

You know the moment you wake up and find out that one single thing you’d thought lost forever could be retrieved?

Aha!!

Everyone started doing it, doing it basic, doing it neutral, doing it okay, so I went on Pinterest and looked up the most provocative way to make locs, I’d been looked and spoken at regardless for 19 years, you can guess that I fully intended to pursue the agenda of making people choke on their stereotypes.

RED DREAD GIRL.

So I did it, I did it Red and put a cowrie on it, lol.

— You got to the end of this article?

Here’s your sign to fight stereotypes or loc your hair or color your hair or cut it all off or all of the above if that’s possible.

The End.