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by JACQUELINE SCOTT
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series exploring the history, current status and experience of having dreadlocks.
Five years and three months ago senior sustainable development major Cassie A. Glinkowski began a love affair.
Her newly backcombed dreadlocks became the heart of this affair.
 Photo by The Appalachian.
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“Around year two to three, I loved everything about my dreads. It was a kind of attachment,” Glinkowski said.Due to the strain the dreads put on her scalp and neck, however, “it’s now at a point of a love/hate relationship.”
Historically
worn by Egyptian pharaohs and throughout the Rastafari movement,
dreadlocks were the mark of spiritual status, according to
thebutterflytribe.com.
Priests of diverse deities were required, at least for a specific period of time, to have dreadlocks.
More
recently, however, dreads have become a trend stereotypically linked to
smoking pot, listening to The Wailers and chilling, Glinkowski said.
Despite
the many accompanying stereotypes, sophomore public relations major
Maggie L. Osborn decided to begin the dreading process Saturday, Jan.
30.
Osborn
had a donation ‘dread party’ with friends each taking turns backcombing
and rolling the dreads, a multi-hour process that began Friday evening
and ended Sunday afternoon.
“It just
kind of hit me when I was in the coffee shop,” she said. “I was tired
of regular hair and ready for something different. Hair’s hair.”
“I can always cut them, and I’ve always wanted to see what I looked like with a bald head anyway,” she said.
The $50
Osborn raised will go to GlobalGiving projects to prevent childhood
malaria deaths by providing insecticide treated bednets, malaria
education, or treatment.
Osborn, unworried about her parents’ reaction, will surprise them Easter Sunday.
Glinkowski described her mother’s reaction as first upset, then pride and acceptance.
“In the
beginning, it was poofy like an afro and not matted down,” she said.
“It was really ugly. [My mom] joked all the time about approaching me
in my sleep with scissors.”
“She
also jokes that I’ll never get married, that I’ll never make it in the
real world. I feel like I’ve already disproved her in a way, though,”
Glinkowski said.
Since becoming a dreadhead, Glinkowski has worked two corporate office jobs and plans to intern in Honduras for spring break.
Having a college student’s budget sometimes doesn’t allow for such expenses.
Fortunately, Glinkowski’s mother agreed to pay for her trip, under one stipulation: if she cut her hair off before graduation.
Glinkowski received help with payments but her mother has since forgotten about the deal.
Glinkowski said “pretty” is the last word that she would use to describe how she feels with dreads.
“I
didn’t have a boyfriend the entire time I’ve been at App and I really
thought [dreads were] the reason why I wasn’t meeting anyone. It wasn’t
working because I had really atrocious hair. Sometimes I just want to
be pretty,” Glinkowski said.
She plans to cut her dreads off within the year.
“I’m not as attracted to the image anymore.”
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