Dreadlocks

For many years, Afro hair has been seen as a tremendous style statement. It can be braided, weaved, relaxed, plaited, beaded…. Any number of styles can be obtained through a variety of different methods. Afro hair is different from other types of hair because it is very thick and is often brittle and coarse. This means that it must be treated with a variety of products to ensure it is maintained well. In the past, afro hair has been ridiculed and has often been stereotyped in a number of mediums, from advertising to fine art. However, increasingly, artists are choosing to glorify afro hair to ensure that black and white people can both engage and recognise the significance of afro hair, and to ensure that it is properly presented in art. Job: Man of Wood by Jamaican-based sculptor Lancelot Bryan is a typical example of the ways in which artists have started to portray afro hair. Here, the hair is in thick dreadlocks. The sculpture looks touchable, the face realistic and the hair very true to life. Bryan carved the sculpture out of lignum vitae, a very rare type of hardwood that is also very difficult to carve.

Dreadlocks have been known since around 2500BCE, when the Vedic deity Shiva and his followers wore them. The basic idea behind dreadlocks is a religious and spiritual one: followers of certain religions believe that regard for physical appearance is vanity, and so develop dreadlocks as a symbol of their faith and commitment to their religion. Perhaps the most famous of these religions is Rastafarianism, a religion which was founded in the early 1900’s and was based on ideals of peace and liberty for all. The dreadlock hairstyle became a symbol of this group. It showed the unity of the Rastafarians and reflected their aims of diffusing self-obsession and conformity.

Despite being in existence for this length of time, dreadlocks are still worn by many people who have afro hair today. Bradley Marshall from Wolverhampton, said his dreadlocks show “That I’m not like everyone else. It shows I’m proud of my roots and it suits me.” Dreadlocks then, have moved away from being purely spiritual to being something of a fashion statement.