Dreadlocks

Dreadlocks, sometimes called simply locks or dreads, are matted ropes of hair which will form by themselves if the hair is allowed to grow naturally without the use of brushes, combs, razors or scissors for a long period of time. Although the term 'dreadlock' was originally associated closely with the Rastafari movement community, people of various cultures have worn, and continue to wear, locks.

Religious or spiritual connotations among Hindus

There are many reasons among various cultures for wearing locks. Locks can be an expression of deep religious or spiritual convictions, a manifestation of ethnic pride, a political statement, or be simply a fashion preference. In response to the derogatory history of the term dreadlocks, alternative names for the style include locks and African Locks. It is also argued that the accurate term for the process of creating the style is locking rather than dreading.

Among the Sadhus and Sadhvis, Indian holy men and women, locks are sacred, their formation a religious ritual and an expression of their disregard for profane vanity, and a manifestation of a spiritual understanding that physical appearances are unimportant. This Sannyasin, the particular phase of life in which the person develops Vairagya, a state of determination and disillusionment with material life, does not merely follow a public pattern (that includes letting his or her hair grow in matted locks), but goes through an inner transformation. The public symbol of matted hair is thus re-created each time an individual goes through these unique experiences. In almost all myths about Shiva and his flowing locks, there is a continual interplay of extreme asceticism and virile potency, which link up the elements of destruction and creation, whereas the full head of matted hair symbolizes the control of power.

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Religious or spiritual connotations among Rastafari

Similarly, the Rastafari wear locks as an expression of inner spirituality. For them, the term "dread" refers to a "fear of the Lord", expressed in part as alienation from the perceived decadence and other evils of contemporary society and a return to the Covenant with the Almighty, Jah Rastafari.

Another interpretation among the Rastafari is that "dread" refers to the fear locked Mau Mau warriors inspired among the colonial British.

Bunny Wailer's enigmatic album "Blackheart Man" tells the story of early Rastafarians in Jamaica who were shunned by the current post-colonial and colonial culture. It is no surprise, that the "stone that builder refused, shall be the head-cornerstone" as quoted from The Scriptures. Dreadlocks, as popularized worldwide by Bob Marley, has come to bring more fame to Jamaica than any other export.

Dreadlocks on a Rasta's head are symbolic of the Lion of Judah which is sometimes centered on the Ethiopian Flag. Rastas hold that Selassie is a direct descendant of the Israelite Tribe of Judah through the lineage of Kings of Israel David and Solomon, and that he is also the Lion of Judah mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

The Ngati Dreads or M\u0101ori Rastafarians, indigenous people of New Zealand, combine the Rasta teaching with the teachings of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki, a M\u0101ori leader and the founder of the Ringatu religion who preached belief in God and the rejection of M\u0101ori tohungaism.