Unfolding the Stigma Behind Dreadlocks

Hair can become such a huge part of our identity, it communicates our personalities, our history and our heritage. Three women talk about how having locs has affected them on their journeys.

PHOTOGRAPHY - MAURICE CHEEKS NICOLE PHILLIP, WITH HER LOCS TIED UP

Dreadlocks also known as locs or dreads is the process of interlocking the hair together. As years have gone by they have slowly seeped their way into pop culture as seen on Lauryn Hill, R&B duo ChloeXHalle. The newest addition to that list is The Little Mermaids, Ariel.

NOVA's survey in February 2023 found that 17% of Black women have relaxed hair and 8% have locs.

At the 95th Academy awards, in March Disney released the first full length trailer showing actress Halle Bailey rocking her locs as everyone's favourite redhead. However there has been a wave of online criticism who feel that a black woman with locs is not suitable for the role. Bailey has since commented back saying how important representation is to the black community, young black children in particular.

“I think it's awesome!” says Nicole Phillip, 28. “They allowed her to express her blackness to the full spectrum of it…Halle has worn wigs before so we know a good wig would have worked, and [Disney] chose not to because it wasn't just about having an Ariel with dark skin.”

Nicole is a social media strategist & freelance journalist and has had her locs since 2018 as a way of managing her hair. “I just didn't want to deal with my hair, like having to do it every day.” says Nicole. She made the change after a year of contemplation. Afro hair can be notoriously hard to deal with if the right products and tools aren’t at hand.

“It's my fuck you to the European standard of beauty because why do I have to have straight hair to be considered sexy?” — Victoria Tyler

In western culture having straight hair is a pursuit many black women aspire to. In an exclusive survey NOVA completed nearly 30% preferred their hair straight. In the past, many black women have had an unbreakable bond with the ‘creamy crack’ aka relaxer. Relaxing is the use of harsh chemicals to straighten the hair. Nova’s survey found that 17% of black women have relaxed hair. Although, the reality of relaxers is honestly quite scary; 20 years on Pauline Rawle, 56,still remembers the “pinky-red rawness” from years of relaxer on her friends head when she was applying relaxer to her hair.

Pauline waved goodbye to her last relaxer around 30 years ago when she was pregnant with her first child as she decided to opt for a completely natural lifestyle; five years ago, she transitioned to locs.

“It was a lifestyle thing really,” since then she has not had to worry about taking shelter when it’s raining to avoid the notorious frizz that comes with rain and humidity. But “it didn't go down well with my family members, my mother certainly didn’t approve!”

Pauline is of Jamaican origin, and says that “a lot of Caribbean people believe that locs are associated with people who are not educated, down and out, homeless. Also, the whole stigma of Rastafari still resonates with some of the elders and people in the Caribbean.”

PHOTOGRAPHY - LEAH ADINA PAULINE RAWLE, WITH HER LOCS DOWN

Victoria Tyler, 36, is a social media influencer that shares her life with over 60,000 followers on TikTok. Victoria says: “What I'm experiencing now on Tik Tok is probably the craziest thing because people have a lot of misconceptions and preconceived notions about what locs or dreadlocks are. So of course, there's ‘they're all they're dirty’, ‘they stink’, ‘probably smoke a lot of weed’, you know or, ‘are you a Rastafarian?’ But frankly, it's just hair.”

Victoria has had her locs for six and a half years. She began her loc journey after finding out her grandmother had stage four colon cancer and she loc’d her hair in solidarity for her grandmother, alongside her mother, brother and daughter and they all still have locs to this day.

“It's even deeper than that because my mom started my locs for me…I say it's a gift and a curse because I would never cut them because my mom did this for me,” says Victoria.

As beautiful as the hairstyle is, having locs can be a challenge. These women are faced with presumptuous comments and unwanted touches.

Pauline recalls being on a Zoom call with her colleagues and her manager gasped and said ‘you look like you should be in Boney M and proceeded to sing a Boney M song.

“I was like wow, this is like going back to school in the 70s and people were so fascinated with your afro hair because I was a minority in Leicester City,” says Pauline.

She adds: “I'm a senior matron manager in the NHS and I do not bring my whole self to work and it’s easier to tone down who you are just for [my colleagues] to feel comfortable. I have to have my hair up anyway if I'm in uniform but I'll use a hair tie or hair wrap to cover my locs just to avoid questions.”

In Texas, where Victoria lives, having people invade her personal space is a more common issue: “I hate when strangers touch my hair. It's disrespectful. It’s the same to me as someone walking up and grabbing my breasts or grabbing my butt.” says Victoria. “I cannot respond the way I rightfully should be able to, when someone touches my body without my permission.”

She adds: “if I respond the way I should, which for me would be a smack on the hand or to say, ‘Hey! don't touch me like that.’ I'm the angry black woman. I'm a threat. I'm combative, I have a bad attitude. So, I've had to bite my tongue until it bleeds.”

Nicole remembers in September 2022 when hurricane Ian was about to hit Florida and she was in the grocery store in preparation, a woman inquisitively came up to her to ask about her locs. Nicole recalls her asking if she could wash her hair. “You still get those sorts of ignorant questions from people. But as you get older, you learn how to respond to these people. I wash my hair the same way you wash your hair. Why do you still think this is acceptable? Why do you still ask questions like this?”

Another stereotype that both Victoria and Nicole have faced is that people expect them to listen to soul music, own crystals and understand what it means for mercury to be in retrograde.

“Automatically people are kind of drawn to me, and they think that I'm peaceful and I'm this healer but I'm like, no, I'm a city girl. I mean, I garden every now and then, but I don't do all of that. I'm a regular woman. I just happen to desire to wear my hair [in locs],” says Victoria.

Nicole has found that “people instantly make assumptions of ‘you must be super earthy.’ Those are the types of guys that come up to me now, they call me empress and want me to support their non-profit.”

“I’m the angry Black woman. I’m a threat. I’m combative, I have a bad attitude. So, I’ve had to bite my tongue until it bleeds.” — Victoria Tyler

On Nicole’s TikTok account, she has a video with over 800k views. In the video she explains her friends have said she looks like a vegan who listens to Willow Smith and walks around barefoot when asking why this is the kind of attention she draws.

Nicole has noticed a difference in the workplace. She says “I personally have not been discriminated against or received any sort of microaggression because of my hair. By the nature of my job, which is working in social media, I've had at least one comment where someone tried to call my hair fake.”

For her journalistic career, she has reached a point where her CV speaks for itself. Nicole started her locs after writing for the NY times and ABC news so it didn’t prove to be an issue to break into the industry. “I am confident in everything that I'm saying and what I'm doing,” she says.

She adds: “Millennials are the bosses now, and millennials don't think about things in the same way that Gen X and Boomers do. A lot of my interviews are happening with millennials who are kind of more open. With my locs, I've gotten three new jobs.”

Despite the odd comments and weird touches, these women love their hair.

“I think I feel more empowered now, I'm probably happier in myself as a beautiful black woman,” says Pauline.

Nicole enjoys the process of watching her hair grow and is in no rush to retwist her hair at the roots. She says “this is the way my hair grows out of my head. This is me.”

Victoria understands the world she lives in and notices “there aren't many women that are presented in the media, with dreadlocks, because people don't think that they are desirable or that they can be sexy.”

In western culture having straight hair is a pursuit many black women aspire to. In an exclusive survey NOVA completed nearly 30% preferred their hair straight. In the past, many black women have had an unbreakable bond with the ‘creamy crack’ aka relaxer. Relaxing is the use of harsh chemicals to straighten the hair. Nova’s survey found that 17% of black women have relaxed hair. Although, the reality of relaxers is honestly quite scary; 20 years on Pauline Rawle, 56, still remembers the “pinky-red rawness” from years of relaxer on her friends head when she was applying relaxer to her hair.