Dreaded: A 3-Part Series On That Time I Had Dreads

I'd always wanted dreads but I worked in corporate America and that did not bode well with my employer. Then I moved to South Africa, worked at a faith-based non-profit, and got dreads. Nine of them to be exact. I had partial dreads for 4.5 years, just recently removing them after moving to Ohio. I had dreads longer than some people go to college!

My husband said he wanted to start a grief club and many others conferred. Many. Meanwhile I was just happy I could feel the back of my head, brush my hair, and take normal showers.

You see, what they don't tell you about dreads is how much of an affect these knotted pieces of hair will have on your head, reputation, and even your self perception. I'd grown attached (pun intended) to these nine locks of hair and what they stood for in my life: creativity, determination, uniqueness,commitment, and if I'm being real they also stood for my love of Africa. 

My dreads stood out, literally almost a foot past my non-dreaded hair, and soon after I'd come back from South Africa and settled into my new American home in North Carolina, I became known as "the girl with dreads." 

This was my identifier. Everyone has an "identifier." Whether your identifier is self-proclaimed, given, earned or changing, we've all got one. I was the girl with dreads.

Now, this series is mostly for my own sanity but also for those of you who wanted to start a club, because somehow my dreads added something special to your life, it added and took away something in mine. It's because I'm no longer the girl with dreads. I'm just the girl who used to have dreads. This series is so we'll all know, self included, that an identifier changes and with the passing of one identity comes a new one.

Pull up a seat. Be amused. Let's get down dreaded. 

Photo by: Natalie Roush