What took two and a half years to create was eradicated in 53 minutes. After careful consideration, I decided to get rid of my Earthy ebony locks (the Cherokee curls, as Yewande likes to call them).
I had been thinking of doing this for a while, and when I had some free time in my schedule and some money in my pocket I decided to quit thinking and start doing. Well, let someone else do it for me.
This decision wasn't made all willy-nilly like; there are numerous factors that made me come to this choice. Anyone who knows me well enough will know I'm not a high-maintenance person, but having dreads--dreads that look nice--requires me to sit in a chair for two and a half to four hours every two weeks while someone ( on numerous occasions, someone with an attitude) pulls and twists the shit out of my hair and then throws me under a dryer for another half hour. Every time I want to take a shower, I have to put on a Du-rag and a shower cap to keep any trace of moisture from my head. And to top all that off, I have to sleep in a Du-rag, bandanna, bonnet, etc.
And then there were the costs of keeping up this look. Get out your calculators folks because it's time to go to school...and math is my weakest subject. I cost me $70 to initiate the dreading process, $50 every time I wanted to get them re-twisted (which should have been every two to three weeks), $20 to get them unprofessionally re-twisted, $7 to get lined up, $5.99 each for three packs of clips to hold my hair during the twisting process, $3.99 every time I brought more locking gel, and about $2.99 every time i bought hair ties. Being the cheap son of a saint that I am, I'd much prefer to only shell out $10-$15 every two weeks for a hair cut.
Having locks got in the way of me being me. Whenever I hung out by the pool, laid on the beach, or almost died on some God-forsaken river in Marianna, Florida, the first thought that always came to mind was that I needed to keep my head above water so I won't mess up the four hours that went in to twisting that mess.
And quite frankly, I have been in a horrible mood for close to a month. I wanted to do something to myself and for myself, something drastically different and attention-worthy. I don't have enough money saved for the tattoos I want. I haven't grown enough balls to get that penis piercing people keep telling me to get. So why not cut the drapes?
I just got out of the barber chair about an hour ago (big ups to 2G), and already all the things I missed about getting hair cuts game back to me. I miss being able to feel the breeze and sun on my big ass dome. The tiny hair shavings, rather than long and curlies, that litter my shoulders. The stranger's hands that are on my hair for an undetermined about of time that somehow is acceptable so long as it's for hair cutting purposes. I might keep it like this. The only think I regret is not seeing ALL of my female relatives' reactions in person. Except for Mia. I think she actually liked the dreads.
Before anyone asks me the inevitable question, let me answer it for you.
Countless people: "Why did you spend all that time with sub-par looking dreads if you were only going to cut them off after two years?"
Me: "Because I could."
Sincerely,
B.rand
P.S. How many fucking (Sorry mom, Darryl) pair of jeans can two people wash. And why does the laundry mat have free Wi-Fi and HBO?
4 comments:
Lol! Congratulations on your breeze feeling freedom. Entertaining write.
Where are pictures of your dreds?
aw but you look nice with the cut tho. So Im not that sad...oh this AHS.
....so out of all that i what I gathered was that u got a glimpse of what life is like for a (black) woman. I hope u have newfound respect for us....u make me wanna go bald again, lol.
Very entertaining read, as always
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