Dread Natty Dread

Hippies dig dreadlocks. It’s true. Dreadlocks – essentially, long sticky knots of hair that are so tangled up that even God couldn’t get them straight – are seen as the mark of true commitment to the hippie cause. After all, the longer the dreads, the longer the hippie has bucked authority and societal mores. The longer the hippie has been avoiding the materialistic drudgery of the modern world. The longer he or she has been Taking on The Man. Dreadlocks originated in Jamaica as part of the Rastafarian religion – really, just a sham of an excuse for smoking prodigious amounts of marijuana – but quickly became a part of the Northwest hippie culture, even though the Northwest hippie doesn’t really follow Rastafarian ways – except the weed-smoking. Nope, hippie dreadlocks in the Northwest are just another example of a wealthy culture co-opting – and bastardizing – the ways of a poorer culture. It happens all the time, and is often referred to as the “American-ization” of something. Like Mexican food in the Northwest…it resembles nothing like true Mexican food, it’s been modified to please our very non-Mexican palates. Ironically, hippies usually hate the American-ization of other cultures, preferring instead “authentic” cultural experiences. But in the case of dreadlocks, I guess they make an exception.