Reach Out and Touch Someone

I touched a dread last night!  A mature, three-years-old dread!  In real life!  I was at my favorite coffee shop to grade a few book tests after a long day of teaching, lesson prep, and a yoga class.  A hot tea and maybe a cookie was all I had on my mind, when in the door walked a girl within a few years of my own age with shoulder length dreads.  Not only that, but she had nearly my own complexion and hair color.  Therefore, the fact that I liked her dreads is a decent indication that I will like my own.

Because, you see, I'm going to dread my hair.  This isn't a new idea.  I've liked dreads since my freshmen year of high school, though I never imagined I might get them myself.  Then, two years ago, before I ever chopped my hair off, I spent hours googling pictures of dreads, and posted this.  Then I chopped all my hair off and it went from longer than this to this.  Dreads were a long way away after that.  But having the short hair has given me a lot more confidence with crazy hair.  In the past two years it's been brown, red, black, blonde, purple, bright red, and several things in between.  And now, I'm growing my hair out.  And I'm growing it out my natural color (which believe me, is taking self control through all the icky stages of growing it out).  I'm growing it out for one reason:  dreads.

It'll be years before my hair is this long, sigh.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/323153900_5258265930.jpg

My desire for dreads is becoming something of an obsession.  I have spent hours upon hours googling pictures, reading articles and opinions, and researching methods and processes etc.  Sunday morning alone I spent about 2 1/2 hours reading dread-related articles and watching videos about how to make them, prepare for them, and tips and tricks, etc.  I would estimate that I think about having dreads at least once an hour, and every time I do, my heart speeds up a bit, like someone tapping the accelerator.

"Jonny Clean" from Dreadhead HQ, the website from which I will probably order my dreadcessories.

My hair will still be pretty short at the beginning of the summer when I go to dread it, but it should be long enough to work.  I hope so.  I will need to talk to my principal about it and make sure he's ok with one of his teachers looking like a hippie.  I hope so.  I'll need to recruit some friends who don't mind spending hours helping me put the dreads in.

But despite my rabid dread-love, before last night I had never actually touched one or talked personally with someone who had them.  Now I have done both.  Dreads feel, by the way, a bit like climbing rope, or the tail of something furry.  There's a firm core in the center.  Weird.  I can't wait till my hair feels that way.