Editing Dreadlocks (section)

===African diaspora===
[[File:Alice Walker.jpg|thumb|Alice Walker delivering a speech.]]
In the [[African diaspora]], people loc their hair to have a connection to the spirit world and receive messages from spirits. It is believed locs of hair are antennas making the wearer receptive to spiritual messages.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Consentino |last2=Fabius |title=Body Talk |journal=African Arts |date=2001 |volume=34 |issue=2 |page=9 |jstor=3337908 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3337908 |access-date=25 October 2023}}</ref> Other reasons people loc their hair are for fashion and to maintain the health of natural hair, also called [[kinky hair]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis-Sivasothy |first1=Audrey |title=The Science of Black Hair: A Comprehensive Guide to Textured Hair |year=2011 |publisher=SAJA Publishing Company |isbn=9780984518425 |pages=38, 248 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WQAZAgAAQBAJ&q=dreadlocks}}</ref> In the 1960s and 1970s in the [[United States]], the [[Black power movement|Black Power movement]], [[Black is Beautiful]] movement, and the [[natural hair movement]] inspired many [[African Americans|Black Americans]] to wear their hair natural in [[afro]]s, [[braid]]s, and locked hairstyles.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nyela |title=Braided Archives: Black hair as a site of diasporic transindividuation |journal=Graduate Thesis Published at York University in Toronto, Ontario |date=2021 |pages=20–24 |url=https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/877e1859-b04e-47e6-8e64-40cd7dd2e95b/content |access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Jahangir |first1=Rumeana |title=How does black hair reflect black history? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-31438273 |access-date=10 November 2023 |agency=BBC News |date=2015}}</ref> The Black is Beautiful cultural movement spread to [[Black British people|Black communities in Britain]]. In the 1960s and 1970s, Black people in Britain were aware of the [[civil rights movement]] and other cultural movements in Black America and the social and political changes occurring at the time. The Black is Beautiful movement and Rastafari culture in Europe influenced Afro-Britons to wear their hair in natural loc styles and afros as a way to fight against racism, Western standards of beauty, and to develop unity among Black people of diverse backgrounds.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Owusu |first1=Kwesi |title=Black British Culture and Society: A Text Reader |year=2000 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780415178457 |page=117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jAZbHuPIqVsC&dq=how+do+you+dread+white+people%27s+hair&pg=PA117}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Connell |first1=Kieran |title=Black Handsworth: Race in 1980s Britain |year=2019 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520971950 |page=105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ggx-DwAAQBAJ&dq=afro-chic+dreadlocks&pg=PA105}}</ref> From the twentieth century to the present day, dreadlocks have been symbols of Black liberation and are worn by revolutionaries, activists, [[Womanism|womanists]], and radical artists in the diaspora.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ajanaku |first1=Femi |last2=Kuumba |first2=M. |title=Dreadlocks: The Hair Aesthetics of Cultural Resistance and Collective Identity Formation |journal=Mobilization: An International Quarterly |date=1998 |volume=3 |issue=2 |url=https://meridian.allenpress.com/mobilization/article-abstract/3/2/227/82939/Dreadlocks-The-Hair-Aesthetics-of-Cultural |access-date=25 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mutukwa |first1=Mendai |title=Dreadlocks as a Symbol of Resistance: Performance and Reflexivity |journal=Feminist Africa |date=2016 |volume=21 |issue=21 |pages=70–74 |jstor=48725773 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48725773 |access-date=5 December 2023}}</ref> For example, Black American literary author [[Toni Morrison]] wore locs, and [[Alice Walker]] wears locs to reconnect with their African heritage.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Samuels |first1=Anita |title=Just Locks |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/23/style/just-locks.html |access-date=16 December 2023 |agency=The New York Times |date=1994}}</ref>

Natural Black hairstyles worn by Black women are seen as not feminine and unprofessional in some American businesses.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Russell |last2=Russell-Cole |last3=Wilson |last4=Hall |title=The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans |year=1993 |publisher=Anchor Books |isbn=9780385471619 |pages=82–91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5pvhD9iXolMC&q=dreadlocks&pg=PA82}}</ref> Wearing locs in the diaspora signifies a person's racial identity and defiance of European standards of beauty, such as straight blond hair.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Montle |date=2020 |title=Debunking Eurocentric ideals of beauty and stereotypes against African natural hair(styles) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26976619 |journal=Journal of African Foreign Affairs |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=111–127 |doi=10.31920/2056-5658/2020/7n1a5 |jstor=26976619 |s2cid=225984335 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Locs encourage Black people to embrace other aspects of their culture that are tied to Black hair, such as wearing African ornaments like cowrie shells, [[bead]]s, and [[head tie|African headwraps]] that are sometimes worn with locs.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Erasmus |first1=Zimitri |title='Oe! My Hare Gaan Huistoe': Hair-Styling as Black Cultural Practice |journal=Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity |date=1997 |volume=32 |issue=32 |pages=11–16 |doi=10.2307/4066147 |jstor=4066147 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066147 |access-date=13 November 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Shujaa |first1=Mwalimu J. |last2=Shujaa |first2=Kenya J. |title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America |date=2015 |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=9781483346380 |page=442 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooVNCgAAQBAJ&dq=African+headwraps+and+dreadlocks&pg=RA1-PA442}}</ref> Some [[Black Canadians|Black Canadian]] women wear locs to connect to the [[Black studies|global Black culture]]. Dreadlocks unite Black people in the diaspora because wearing locs has the same meaning in areas of the world where there are Black people: opposing Eurocentric standards of beauty and sharing a Black and African diaspora identity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Shaunasea |title='Don't Touch My Hair': Problematizing Representations of Black Women in Canada |journal=Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=8 |pages=69–70 |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-4-Brown.pdf |access-date=14 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=Chelsea |title=Kinky, curly hair: a tool of resistance across the African diaspora |url=https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/kinky-curly-hair-a-tool-of-resistance-across-the-african-diaspora/ |website=USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |date=18 October 2016 |access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref> For many Black women in the diaspora, locs are a fashion statement to express individuality and the beauty and versatility of Black hair. Locs are also a [[protective hairstyle]] to maintain the health of their hair by wearing kinky hair in natural locs or faux locs. To protect their natural hair from the elements during the [[Season|changing seasons]], Black women wear certain hairstyles to protect and retain the moisture in their hair. Black women wear soft locs as a protective hairstyle because they enclose natural hair inside them, protecting their natural hair from environmental damage. This protective soft loc style is created by "wrapping hair around the natural hair or crocheting pre-made soft locs into cornrows."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Boakye |first1=Omenaa |title=Everything You Need to Know About Soft Locs: The latest protective style you're already seeing everywhere. |url=https://www.instyle.com/hair/all-natural/soft-locs-hair-style |website=InStyle |access-date=29 November 2023}}</ref> In the diaspora, Black men and women wear different styles of dreadlocks. Each style requires a different method of care. Freeform locs are formed organically by not combing the hair or manipulating the hair. There are also goddess locs, faux locs, sister locs, twisted locs, Rasta locs, crinkle locs, invisible locs, and other loc styles.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ore |first1=Michelle |last2=McKenzie |first2=Janae |title=41 Protective Hairstyles You'll Want to Wear This Summer |url=https://www.glamour.com/gallery/cute-protective-styles |website=Glamour |date=13 February 2018 |access-date=18 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=What Are The Different Types of Dreadlocks? |url=https://www.styleseat.com/blog/types-of-dreadlocks/ |website=Style Seat |date=28 September 2021 |access-date=21 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Thiga |first1=Tatiana |title=Top 20 invisible locs hairstyles to try: Trendy and classy protective hairstyle|url=https://yen.com.gh/facts-lifehacks/fashion/243466-top-invisible-locs-hairstyles-trendy-classy-protective-hairstyle/ |access-date=21 December 2023 |publisher=yen.com.gh |date=2023}}</ref>