When I first met Jonathan, he was sitting in front of me at an event, and I couldn’t stop looking at his lion-like golden dreads. 3 years later, when we ‘got together’ he had shaved his dreads, and grown his hair out. It was long and beautiful.

After a few years together, I discovered his dreads in a Best Buy Bag in the closet. They were marvelous snakes of hair, ropes of red-gold, some of them almost 4 feet long. Usually, hair that has been cut off the head is a bit creepy. These unattached dreads were stunningly strange and beautiful.

When I fell in love with Jonathan, I fell in love with a wild man of the woods, who worked with his hands, raised his dogs like his sons, cooked incredible Sunday brunch, and looked great in a bathrobe. He will always be that wild woodsman to me, the one I fell in love with.

Together, we are raising 2 daughters now. He begrudgingly followed me to a life in the city, where the freeway hums ( we pretend it is ocean sounds) and our small back yard is our little farm. We dream of a life in the woods, somehow, teaching our kids to chop wood and keep the home fires safely burning. We will need to get creative to make that work. But it will happen, watch.

I used Jonny’s unattached dreads in a fashion show, once.

It was sort of a cave-woman/Mad Max theme. They were really fun to work with.

I have been looking for ways to feature hair stories that represent more of a social statement/art form, and Jonny’s dread story seemed the perfect subject for a little Q and A, with a man who is so very dear to my heart.

Babes, I’d like to introduce you to Jonathan, my Jonner bear.

A Boy and His Dreads

How long did you have your dreads?

How long? uhhhhhhhhhhhh. I don’t really know now. Hang on. 16-18 years.

How did you start them?

I started them by just wearing a knit beanie hat all the time. I had long hair, shoulder length. After showering, my hair would clump up and I’d put my hat on. Eventually I had like 5 huge matted clumps. Gradually they start to define themselves by multiplying and off-shooting, some of them grew sprouts, and I would have to separate them when I needed to. I tried not to groom them very much at first. I washed my hair once a week and stopped using conditioner. The dryer my hair was, the quicker it dreaded.

What made you decide to let your hair dread?

The punk and reggae scene was coming together in a cool way in Kansas City in the 80’s. There were a lot of overlaps in venues and philosophies. We were bucking the system, through music, philosophy, imagery and fashion. I was very open at the time, to new things. I really identified with both punk and reggae and I wanted to be a part of it.

In my mind, I was a typical teenager, just totally anti-establishment and my mom said I couldn’t get dreads. She had asked a rasta if a white boy could get dreads and he said no, which was all the more reason to do it. I wore a pin for a long time that said ‘the world is not ready for white people with dreadlocks.’ I wore it with a Sinclair gas station jacket, chucks, and a Pizza Hut cap and black jeans.

(He laughs)

Having dreads was a sort of right of passage for me. I felt I had to run the social gauntlet. I had a lot of white guilt, growing up in Kansas City in the 80’s. Kansas City was, and still is a very racially divided town. At the time, for me, it was all about Native rights and apartheid in South Africa. I empathized with the downtrodden and I wanted to be closer to it and understand it.

Did you ever get mistaken for a hippie?

Most people want to lump you into a category. Being long haired and generally uncategorizable in the American south, I got pegged a hippie. I was vehemently not a hippie. I was just a man living in the woods…….

Did you do anything to maintain your dreads over the years?

At one point this lady who lived in Jamaica told me I needed a creme rinse, and so I started occasionally using conditioner after that. I sometimes used coconut oil in my hair, mixed with tea tree oil. But like I said, I didn’t do much in the way of grooming. I didn’t have running water for many years, and I worked outside in the sun. My dreads never were stinky, though. Turns out, our hair doesn’t need much washing. They did freeze once, though. They stuck to the window.

I would recommend avoiding pond water in the dreads at all cost. Nasty hippo dreads.

Give us a picture of what your life was like while you had dreads? Where did you live? What did you do? What was your dream for the future?

How did you generally wear your dreads?

At first, I just wore them in a beret or a knit hat. Baseball hats were out because I really couldn’t fit in them. As my dreads got longer, I eventually had to wear them in a big rasta tam. Someone asked me once on a canoe trip if that was my lunch up there in my hat. I had to wear a baseball hat for a job I had, and I couldn’t buckle it so I just had dreads flowing out the back. People asked why they hired a guy with ropes in his hat.

Later, I would tie it up in a beehive…….Summers were so hot, I had to get them off of me. It made for an extremely strong neck!

Did chicks dig your dreads?

It seems like chicks with dreads liked my dreads. It really put most people who didn’t know me off in a big way. Hippies seemed to be into me, though.

Did your dreads have any surprising practical uses?

Pillow. Helmet. Eye pillow. Head warmer. Rope. Weapon. Sponge. Social avoidance.

What made you decide to cut them?

Anyone who’s hair is past their waist, probably considers cutting their hair, no matter who they are. The heat in the south…..One day, I had it tied up in a beehive and I was cutting a roof rafter tail from on top of the rafter, leaning over a circular saw, and my beehive came untied and fell on top of the saw. I let it wind down to a stop, praying my dreads didn’t get sucked up in it. It scared the shit out of me. Also, I was looking to redefine myself. There is nothing more liberating than changing your hair.

I knew people who burned their dreads, made sculptures out of them, floated them down the river when they cut their dreads.

What did you do with yours once they were cut off of you?

I kept em. I always thought I would make a sculpture, or sew them into a hat so I could still rock em. I don’t know why I saved them. I should probably get rid of them, huh? (No! lets make a chandelier out of them!)

How did you feel once they were gone?

Well I shaved my beard and cut my dreads at the same time. Shaved it all. Ironically, I went to a salon called ‘The Lions Mane.’ I felt light, liberated, invisible, young.

Do you miss your dreads?

Not really. One of the best joys of not having dreads is being able to brush your hair and scalp. I’m lucky I didn’t end up with stretch marks and bald spots. I don’t miss the fact that I almost got to the point of damaging my own scalp with my dreads. When I see white kids with dreadlocks all groomed up, trendy clean cut city kids, It makes me glad I don’t have dreads anymore.

Do you feel like you still carry some of the legacy of your dreads in your general swagger?

I still have my same ‘fuck it’ attitude. Having dreads from 16-32 was pretty formative. Having them forced me into a reality that I still live in, for sure. My friend Lynn call it ‘fringe-dwelling.’ I am still there.

Jonny, thanks for sharing your words on your hair journey. I find it extremely interesting and meaningful.

xoxo, HTHG

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The post A Boy and His Dreads. And love for my wild-man. appeared first on How-To Hair Girl.