"dreads"

I find it ironic how on a "hair discussion" board they have a whole section called "dreadlocks"...Clearly, nobody actually know the history of this style. Im from NY and if you walk into Harlem calling them DREADlocks to someone who has them, your gonna get a lot of heat. A lot of people don't know that, but it's just politically uncorrect. The people who actually know the history of them(as many of the people who have them DONT) would prefer them to be called "locks", void the 'dread'.

Yeah, the term "dreadlocks" comes from the original way White colonists would talk about the corded, unkempt hairstyle the newly empowered, rebelling people of African descent wore in the Carribean. "Dreadful locks of hair".
Nobody i know associates the "dread" term with "dreadful" anymore, although plenty of people assume they're unhygenic. I do try to compliment people by saying "nice locks" instead of "nice dreads", but "dreads" is a useful term, and we, as a country, need to stop taking offense where none is intended, and try to understand each other.

Locks, dreads, dreadlocks, we all know what the other mean, no biggie!! lol Come on!! 

 Peace and Love!!

I thought dreadlocks were called dreadlocks because of the rasta [spelling?] religion?

If I remember rightly the book i read said that the hair style was designed to make people dread the wearer of the dreadlocks, so directly translated them as dread locks. They are locks of dread.

Thats what I read anyway : )

Hayley x

we call them Dreads in the bay area, you'd never hear us call them locks

yea in dc ,maryland and va everybody callen dreads