| Comment | Dreadlocks became a symbolic accompaniment to oppositional collective identities associated with the African liberation/Black Power movements. Its spread among African liberationists, womanists, radical artists of African descent reflects counterhegemonic politics.
Before any political affiliation with having such fashion, dreads are simply what happens when hair is not cut, combed or brushed. It is
therefore almost certain that some representatives of every tribe on Earth had dreads at some time. Even the Romans regarded the Celts as having 'hair like snakes' and were recorded to have lime-washed their hair.
Dreadlocks aren't exclusive to one denomination due to their historical complexity. They can both be considered as an example of culturally contextualized everyday resistance in a contemporary aesthetic light or as a historical happenstance in another.
\- 'Kuumba M., Ajanaku F., *Mobilization: An International Quarterly,* (1998), Dreadlocks: The Hair Aesthetics of Cultural Resistance and Collective Identity Formation' |
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