White feminist on why she decided to cut off her dreadlocks

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I let my leg and armpit hair grow long, and I let the hair on my head spiral into a nest of cords, matts, and tangles (a hairdo I would later ignorantly and appropriatively refer to as dreadlocks).

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As long as I had them, the pressure – well for me as a cis gender white woman – to achieve mainstream, heteronormative beauty standards was off the table.

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People were constantly making comments under their breath when they passed me about “cultural appropriation” – I had no idea what that meant. Some friends eventually suggested some readings and resources that would help me understand. I read them and learned more about the history and symbolism of dreadlocks in the US in context to black folk’s resistance movements against white supremacy. I learned that black folks in the US with dreadlocks are not seen as “quirky” or “alternative,” but as “dangerous” and “militant”.

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I realized that I was participating in the shitty reality that, for centuries, white people have felt entitled to taking pretty much anything their hearts desire

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2. “We live in an intercultural society. Black women wear white hairstyles, so what’s up with the double standard?” To which my friends responded: Black women are told that in order to appear “respectable” in US society, they need to invest an obscene amount of time and energy into making themselves “look more white.” Due to this fricked-up societal pressure – and due to the institutional power that white people have in determining mainstream beauty standards – it’s not the same.

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