Stepping Out by Connie Briscoe

Author:Connie Briscoe [Briscoe, Connie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Published: 2023-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

Dreadlocks, Dreads, Locs

Although dating back thousands of years, dreadlocks, dreads, and locs, or locks, as they are varyingly referred to, were introduced in the United States in the 1970s when legendary reggae musician Bob Marley burst onto the scene. Even those who had little idea who he was likely were familiar with the face of the Jamaican Rastafarian rocking his free-spirited hairdo. It appeared everywhere. He was mostly deemed an acceptable anomaly given his artistry, as were a few others sporting locs, like street artist sensation Jean-Michel Basquiat.

It wasn’t until about a decade later, when actress Whoopi Goldberg popularized the hairstyle and it was seen more as a fashion statement than as a social or political declaration, that it began to be noticed and adopted by others, even if not generally accepted. Celebrated authors Toni Morrison and Alice Walker also locked their manes early on. As the locs movement happened on the heels of the civil rights era, a segment of African Americans began to adopt them to illustrate opposition to the oppressive social and political order of the day. Over time, locs—now the preferred term due to negative associations with the term “dreadlocks”—became more broadly appealing as a positive statement of self-identity, artistry, and pride. Nevertheless, the mainstream largely shunned them as uncouth and unclean, and many Americans—Black and white—perceived them as a threat to the norms of society. Schools banned them and employees were ordered to snip them. Everyday wearers were often greeted with ridicule and rejection.

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