Stuff You Should Know - How Dreadlocks Work

Episode Date: November 25, 2010

Dreadlocks are matted coils of hair that form a very distinctive (and often misunderstood) hairstyle. So what's the deal with dreads? In this episode, Josh and Chuck examine the long history of dreadlocks and walk you through the process of dreading hair. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I and I am Josh Clark, and with me is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. I knew you were going to, I was waiting for it. You had no idea I was going to do that. I didn't know that, but I just, I knew there was some sort of reggae thing coming up.

That was all with the cuff, too. Really? No way. It really was. I thought about it, and like my stomach got all butterfly-ish, and I was like, ooh, I'm going to do it. No, I did it. A plus, sir. Thank you. Chuck. How you doing? I'm great. You're feeling good today, aren't you? I've been under the weather. Again? Yeah, just don't feel quite right. Like if 10 is feeling great, and one is sick, I'm at like a, like a five or six. Wow. Is it that staff infection still? I don't know what the deal is. I would imagine that would have lasting effects after, after, you know, it's not like a normal stomach bug. Sure. It's like a stomach terrorist. Our podcast is on a watch list now that I just said that. Is it? I think so. Does that mean more

audience? Possibly. At least the NES will be listening. Good. Chuck. Yes. Back in my hippie days, there was this question that was on everyone's mind. There was a piece of knowledge that wasn't passed around adequately among the hippie counterculture that I was hanging out with. Okay. And that was exactly how to dread your hair if you didn't have kinky or curly hair. So the people that did that kept it a guarded secret? Or else they didn't tell anybody or they were vague when they did tell. Sure. What I suspect is based on the, um, my experience with humorless hippie people. Sure. Uh, they, they did say because they didn't want to overtly make themselves look like jerks and say, you know, I'm not telling. Right. They would just be very vague and unhelpful. Plus

they probably don't want to make it seem like it took too much work, you know. That's probably part of it as well. Cause that's not as cool if you had to like work at it three or four hours a day. Or if, if your mom was helping you on a Saturday night in the kitchen, like, you're like, it's just going to happen, man. So I remember having this conversation with this, um, friend of mine who, uh, actually ended up on TV later on, because I guess the dreads didn't work out. He had a TV show, um, on HGTV actually. Um, really? Yeah. He, uh, it was called Bushwacked. Huh. He went and like, guerrilla, garden people's landscapes. That's awesome. Anyway, he was, he was talking to me once he was playing with his hair. I noticed that it was really, really greasy. Um, like hadn't

been washed in several days, greasy. This one he had dreads. No, he was trying to get, I asked him, what are you doing with your hair? Right. And he's like, I'm trying to dread it. And I was like, you actually have to wash it, man, because that grease is keeping it from tangling. And I remember this look coming over his face like, wow, you just blew my mind. Yeah. That was the closest I ever came to being able to explain how dreadlocks work until today. Now, after years of wondering, and then even more years of not caring, we get to the point where I finally understand how dreadlocks are formed among white people, especially. Yeah, sure. And I think it's, I think the history is a little more interesting than, than my stupid anecdote. No, no, than the actual process, but

we'll cover the process too, because there's people out there right now that are wondering. It behooves us. They're, they're 19, 20 year olds out there who are, who have greasy hair and can't figure out why it's not dreading. Or they put gasoline, you ever hear that? No. Oh, that was a very bad rumor that gasoline in your hair helped it not up. Not true. No, it helps your hair catch on fire. Yeah, I'm sure that happened more than once. All right. So Chuck, you were saying about the history of the dreadlock. What are we talking about? We were talking about the history of the dreadlock. How's that ever come back? I can't wait to hear how Jerry edits that. Good luck. So Josh, prehistoric humans probably had some form of dreadlock from the neglect method of

forming dreadlocks. Yes. Letting it tangle up. Yeah. Letting it do its own thing and mat, mat up and weave itself into dreads. Right. And right about here, I think people are going to have a question like, well, didn't, didn't people who, you know, lived in prehistoric eras, they didn't wash their hair. So how did their hair dread? Why wasn't their hair greasy? You want to know the answer to that that I've heard? I do. Prehistoric people lived out in the woods and slept on the ground and leaves and dirt got in their hair and actually carried the grease away. Oh, really? Is that true? That's what I've heard. I didn't do my standard intensive research for this particular podcast. I don't know that that's true,

but let's go with that. That's a Josh theory. I like it. Thanks. Well, dude, they have discovered mummies, Peruvian mummies as old as 200 to 800 AD had dreads. Well, and more recently than that, Aztec priest in the 14th and 15th century had demanded dreads. Right. Yes. And they're not all. There's also contemporary groups, religious groups specifically. Dreads tend to pop up, it turns out, in as a sign of religious devotion in a lot of cases, right? Yeah. The fact like this is God's body and even grooming it would be, would not be an aesthetic valve. So if you take that aesthetic value, you're not even, you're not going to do anything to your body. Right. You're just leaving your hair to do what it will naturally, right? Exactly. And so,

who do we have? I know the Coptic Church in Ethiopia. Yeah. Priests in that church still their hair, right? I say that as if Christians are anti-trade. There's Christians in Africa. In India, the Sadhu sect of Hinduism, they have the old dreads in honor of Shiva. Wouldn't it be weird to see an Indian guy with dreads? You know, I've seen dreads on so many different kinds of people now and I don't think anything would surprise me. I'm with you. Yeah. But I think one of the few ethnic groups that I've not seen dreads on are South Asians. Yeah. Well, and actually like in Japan, it's pretty popular now. But yeah, I've seen Asians with dreads. I've never seen an Indian. Interesting. Yeah. With dreadlocks. That's why I'm like,

huh, let's call for a listener mail right now if you are of Indian descent. And you have dreadlocks. Please send in a photo. That's right. Okay. Now back to the show. Rasta Buddhist in Japan, that's what we were just talking about. Members of the black Muslim Bay Falls sect in Senegal. Right. Maoris in New Zealand, the Kiwi, our Kiwi friends. Maoris. Isn't it Maori? I don't know. I'm going to go with Maori. Okay. And different African tribes were dreadlocks. Angola and Namibia, places like that. Right. And the Rastas, right? Well, yeah, sure. So when you think of dreadlocks, you think of Bob Marley. And when you think of Bob Marley, you think of Ray Gay and Rastafarianism, basically, right? Among other things.

Yeah, I left one thing out, didn't I? Yeah. And he was pretty much the poster boy for dreadlocks and Rastafarianism. And he almost, you know, you don't want to say single-handedly, but he was a large force in introducing dreadlocks to the West. Sure. And the symbolism, the mythology behind them, and how it was associated with Rastafarianism, which, it turns out, Jamaican Rastafarianism isn't that old. Yeah, I thought it was much older than, what, 80 years. Yeah, it came out in the 30s when Hale Selassie, the first, was thrown emperor of Japan. Yeah, of Japan. Did you know that? Of Ethiopia. Right. And there apparently a sect of Jamaicans believed him to be the Messiah and built a religion, Rastafarianism, around him. Exactly.

And the dreadlocks were a big part of that because they feel that it has to do with keeping you in a pure state, as God created you as well. And they point to Samson in the Bible, even though we're going to get to that. That's a myth. Yes. So they say. And they also, it was sort of a sort of rebelling against the European invasion of the world. Right. The imperialism, European imperialism. And the author of this article, Matt Saylor, who I do not know to you. No. Must be a freelancer. Matt Saylor points out that it's rooted in the idea of the West as a place of captivity in Africa's paradise. And as you were saying, it kind of rebels against European ideals of beauty. Yeah. Right. Or it did at the time. We're not going to have

the lustrous blonde hair, fine hair. Exactly. We're going to go together, matted clumps. Right. And we're going to be proud of it. In your face. In your face. And it's possible that the Rastafarians were inspired by the Mao Mao tribe. Yeah. That's what I wanted to know is where it came from. Well, this is possibly where it came from. The Mao Mao are located in Kenya. And they were a tribe that rose up against British colonial rule. Right. And actually, there's a Magnum PI episode that puts Jonathan Higgins in the middle of a Mao Mao uprising really in the 50s. Yeah. You should see that one. It's good. Sounds familiar. I think I might have actually. There's a guy with a spear. There's like a Mao Mao warrior that's stalking the

estate, the Robin's Nest, as it's called. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, they think that they were inspired by the Mao Mao and their uprising against British colonial rule, which makes a lot of sense. And they also think that this may be where the name Dreadlock came from. Right. Yeah, that it inspired Dread in the in the hearts of the British soldiers. Right. And it's possible that it's not necessarily attached to the Mao Mao that our Rastafarians realized that it possibly inspired Dread in the hearts of Westerners. Right. It's always Dread in the heart. Dread in the yeah. You're not going to feel that anywhere. Maybe just in the heart. Maybe stomach. Dread in the loins of the British soldiers. Loin Dread is the worst, Josh. It is. So Dreadlocks today,

they spread. Obviously, you said Bob Marley had a lot to do with that with his popularity. So I'm told in the 1970s, you know, I posted a Bob Marley video on the Facebook page one day and I got killed for it. Why? I didn't know that there were so many anti-Rege people out there. And I'm not Mr. Rege like at all, but I like a little Bob every now and then. Sure. And as did some people, but some people are like, I can't believe you posted this. Rege is the worst. How are you? No. Yeah, it's not correct. Well, thank you. That's really weird. I don't think I've heard of people who are like, no, I'm not really into Rege. Like it seems like one of those music genres that's not really polarizing. It's either you kind of like it or you're really into it.

Not you're really into it or you hate it. They hated it. That's crazy. I think they were, you know, are you sure they weren't confusing it with country music? Maybe so. Maybe. Maybe. They thought Bob Marley is a country music guy. So he and his whalers in the 70s made it very popular in the United States and actually everywhere. Well, sure. He made it popular on one hand, but it also increased the anti-dreadlock. I wouldn't say it's a movement, but like with the whole marijuana thing and it was tied to, you know, some people would say like drug use. How so? Well, the Rastafarians, they like their pot. Explain from what I'm told. There's no explanation. And the writer, Mr. Dreamsailer, also pointed out that movies like

Marked for Death and Predator. Two. Predator two. Both released in 1990. Actually had something to do because they depicted menacing gangs with dreadlocks. I don't know about that. I don't know if they hastened it or else if they were maybe born out of, you know, some sort of public view of dreadlock and dreadlockianism. Yeah. You know, but it's a good point. Like he's saying we used to view people with dreadlocks as menacing drug dealers who corrupted children. Now we view them as, you know, wealthy kids who go to college. And yeah, follow Fish Around on tour. Because that's popular. So Chuck, let's say you are an aspiring fish tour kid, right? Is fish even on tour any longer? Do they get back together and break up and get back together again?

I don't know. We'll find out. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that will piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for

what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil asset for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, y'all. This is Dr. Joy Horton Bradford, host of the award-winning weekly podcast therapy for black girls. Our incredible community of sisters has been building the therapy for black girls podcast for five years running. And over that time, we've published over 250 episodes and gained over 18 million podcast downloads. During this time, we've tackled the stigma surrounding mental health and shared conversations to help us all understand ourselves and others a little better. Hundreds of incredible licensed mental health care professionals and other experts

have joined us to share tips on taking better care of ourselves. We flipped through the pages of your favorite romance novels with author Tia Williams, checked in with Grammy award-winning artist Michelle Williams, and discussed the hurdles of balancing competitive sports, motherhood, and mental health with Olympic athlete Natasha Hastings. Five years down and many more years of work to be done. Join us now by checking out the therapy for black girls podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Let's say you're following somebody, string cheese incident, let's say, right? You got your hula hoop and your little fairy wings and you're like, it's time for me to take the third step, which is to dread my hair, right? And you

want to get things started. And we're going to, we'll talk about how to do with kinky hair and with straight hair, right? Yeah, much easier with kinky hair. Let's, let's start from the beginning. What's, what's step one? Because we've literally, there's literally a step-by-step list of instructions in this article. Step one, Josh. Yeah. Which is what your friend did not do. You got to wash your hair. Yeah. And you got to dry it. Yes. That's the very first thing you do. And a really good recommendation is to wash your hair with a very natural. Sure. Um, type of shampoo because those things strip your hair and you want your hair stripped and dried basically. You don't want any residue on it whatsoever. None. Certainly no grease. No grease.

Step two, Josh, you want to divide it into sections and by sections, what we mean is when you pull a clump of your hair together and you can either like clamp it with something or you can just do one section at a time or you can separate it all out. Right. Well, you want to clamp it at the end, the tip. Well, yeah, but what you got to remember is, is make little squares basically. So you can see your scalp in a little square and that's a section. Right. But each section, in theory, will end up being its own dreadlock. Right. So if you, if you want five huge dreadlocks, then you're going to have five sections, but you don't want that. Well, some people do. Well, yeah, sure. Some people let them grow together. Have you ever seen those like the

Beaver Tail? Sure. Those are awesome. Yeah. They're impenetrable. We'll talk about that in a minute. Actually, well, step three, Josh is, well, like I said, pay attention to the size of the section. Right. Like you said, when you pull your hair, it's going to, it should form a pretty much a perfect square. Yeah. And the bigger the square, the bigger the dread is going to be. Yes. Right. So that's kind of your rule of thumb. Exactly. Step four is you want to add a little product. And this is probably the most contentious step. Yeah. Cause some people are purest, right? They don't do that. Some people just use a little water. Right. Some people say wax. A lot of people say wax. Aloe. Cream. Yeah. This is, this is, we should say this is for kinky hair.

Is it? Well, yeah. Aloe and cream is for sure. Okay. Well, and they say the Rastafarians are really the purest and they only use like purified water too. Right. So they're not putting wax in their hair. But if you use straight hair and you're going to use product, you should use wax. Okay. Where are we? Step five. You want to start twisting in a clockwise direction. And the reason you do that is so you always remember which direction you've started. Because if one day you go to palm, roll it counterclockwise, you're going to start undoing your dreads unknowingly. And when you, when you twist your hair lock, you want to, you want to clip it at the end and explain back combing. Cause I don't, I don't fully understand that. Oh, it's easy. Um,

have you ever, have you ever approached a cat and it was just sitting there and it looks all happy and content. And you're like, I hate cats. So you pet it the opposite way of the way its hair goes. Yes. Cats don't like that. No, they don't. It's hilarious as it rubs them the wrong way. That's where the phrase comes from. This is pretty much the basis of back combing. So what you do is you have your tight product counterclockwise rolled hair. Actually, we should say this is for straight hair. You don't back comb kinky hair. Okay. Um, so you, you haven't, you haven't hand rolled your, your hair yet if it's straight, but you have some product in it. You have your, your segments that are eventually

going to become dreads. Maybe it's clipped at the bottom. Okay. What you're, what you're doing is you're taking a fine toothed metal comb. Okay. Uh, you're holding the tip of the hair and you're combing it upward all the way to the root and you keep doing this again and again and again until basically you really can't get the, um, the, the comb up through the hair any longer because you've just tangled it so badly. And then you move on to the next segment and do that again and again until basically what you're doing is you're just jumpstarting your dreadlocks. Well, yeah, we say jumpstart because if you want dreadlocks tomorrow, you're out of luck. Not necessarily. You can pay through the nose and probably be made fun of in certain circles.

Um, a lot Titian to go to a lot Titian who will, um, use a crocheting kit and crochet your hair. Did they really look like dreads? They look like braids. Uh, I don't know. It probably depends on how messy the lot Titian makes them look. You know, I'm going to go ahead and go out on a limb and say that's not genuine and they don't look like real dreadlocks. Well, yeah, if you're one of those people who will only wash your dreads in natural pure water and that's it, you're probably not going to go to a lot Titian. I'm a purist, Josh. Are you? That's how I roll. Okay. So if you are a purist and you don't want to go to a lot Titian and pay a lot of money and look silly, then it's going to take a while and it ranges depending on your hair, you know, uh, the

texture of your hair anywhere from a few months to like a year sometimes. Right. And for kinky hair, there's actually a couple of stages. Um, the budding stages where, uh, the locks really start to kind of, um, intertwine this lasts anywhere from like a two months to six months. Right. Right. Uh, and then at the end of that, um, at the end of that, that budding stage where it's really starting to kind of like not close to the scalp, right? It'll start growing out and it'll keep nodding as it grows out. Right. What you have, my friend is called a dreadlock. You're in the locking stage, AKA the point of no return. Yeah. Yeah. And since you mentioned the root, if it, you don't want to, uh, tangle it too close to your scalp because that can,

it can actually break off and like kill that knot. So you want to also really hurt. Well, yeah, I'm sure give you, give you the old headache. Uh, you want to have a little bit of space there so your hair can still grow normally. And this is something I didn't know, but it makes perfect sense as your hair grows and dies, it's just becomes part of the dread. Right. So it's not like when you see a 14 inch dreadlock, all that goes back to the root of the scalp. Right. Most of that is dead hair. Yeah. It just kind of like gets caught up and it never falls out. You can't shed. It's pretty cool. And you're certainly not cutting your hair off. So we should say what palm rolling is. I think we mentioned that twice and we didn't really say what it was. So let's say you

decided to use wax or something like that. Let's go with wax because it seems to be the best thing. Okay. Um, you put a little on your, um, on your dread and you roll it in that clockwise position again. It's basically, yeah, it's basically just maintenance and encouragement of those, um, those tangled knots to stay tangled. That's a lot of work, man. It is. Um, so all that was for you. We entered the locking stage with kinky hair with straight hair. Um, you want to keep the, uh, you want to keep applying wax a few times a week, actually, uh, after this, um, after the initial, um, tangling, the initial waxing. Yes. Well, they said to the hair to blow dry it. So the wax actually kind of melts into your hair. Yes. Yeesh. So we'll get to that. Let's figure it. Let's,

let's talk about how to do this. There's, there's something that a lot of people don't understand and that is that if you have mature dreadlocks, let's say it's been six months to two years. Yeah. You've got your actual dreads going. They're all looking sharp. Um, if you don't take care of your hair, you're going to have all sorts of little, um, critters growing in it. Well, sure. AKA mildew. Yes. Is a big problem actually. Yeah. Um, that's why a lot of people wash their hair with like tea tree oil based soap because it'll get in there and kill. It's an antimicrobial. Well, and that's also from improper drying too. Right. So when you wash your hair, right? Um, um, a lot of times, especially when you're washing it, while it's in the budding or locking stages,

it's, they're not mature dreadlocks. Yeah. You want to put a pantyhose on your head. So then you got a panty on your head. Right. Uh, and you want to let basically just let the water go through. Right. You don't want to get your fingers in there. You want to keep your fingers out of there. Right. Let the hair go through, wash it with tea tree oil soap. And then when you get out the drying part, this is very important. You squeeze it out and wring them out, especially if they're mature, you can wring them out more easily. Sure. Um, if they're not mature, possibly you just roll them in your pantyhose and then, um, you blow dry the heck out of them until they're totally dry. Right. The funny thing is there are very few blow dryers on tour.

Yeah, I imagine so. Yeah. So that you're saying they have mildewy heads. He's nodding. Uh, hair care products. That's, this is sort of again, like with all things, if you're a purist, you're not into it at all. And everyone has their own things they use from like hot oil treatments to, uh, gels and saltwater accelerator and stuff like that to like really tighten them up. Right. Linney Kravitz style. Again, if you are washing your hair using a product and you don't want to use the standard, you know, leaves your hair silky and lustrous, because it leaves your hair silky and lustrous by basically, um, she inch in casing that, the hair in like some sort of substance that keeps it from tangling with other stuff. So

that's the opposite of what you want with dreads. A chemical agent probably. That's the European standard of beauty. Yeah. Uh, Josh, if you sleep, um, you should wear like a bandana or one of those cool knit caps or a pillowcase. So you don't like crush your dreadlocks and, and misshape them unless that's what you're going for. Right. And you're talking about, um, dreadlocks that, um, they'll eventually weave together into one big dread. Yeah. If you want, if you want that, go for it. Just don't keep them separate. But if you don't want that, you should probably be aware that your dreads are eventually going to go to that place. So you want to kind of keep them separate, right? Rolled apart. Right. That's part of regular

maintenance. Josh, you have dreadlocks and you don't want them any longer. Do you have to shave your head? Pretty much. No, not true. Pretty much too. No, I've known people that, that got rid of their dreads, uh, through a lot of work and combing. Actually that, remember the, uh, Kristen who wrote in with the son, Sully? Yeah. Long time ago. Of course I remember. She's an artist. She had dreadlocks and she got rid of them because I remember she sent in another picture like eight months later or something and she had like, you know, lustrous European beauty hair. Really? Yeah. And she said that she was able to, you know, like use like lots of conditioner, I think, and comb it out. And I think it takes a long time. Huh. So you don't have to shave your

head. You probably will though. Probably will. I would imagine it probably depends on a couple of things. Like it, how long the distance between your scalp and the, the start of the real dread is. Right. And if it's close to the scalp, you probably are going to have to cut them off and, and shave your head to make it even. Yeah. I think you would want to, like after having dreadlocks for that long, why like untangle them just to have a big mop of hair? Like just go the opposite. That's what I say. Yes. And I, it's funny that this is brought up because I was recently reading about your, uh, Balkan vampires and apparently one light reading. You just laughed at me. Well, I mean, I don't know. I didn't know that you were into that. I, well, I'm not. It was

in Harper's. Okay. It was interesting though. Sure. Anyway, the author was talking about how this one particular type of vampire in Croatia was known to braid the mains of horses so tight that they couldn't be detangled. And if you cut it off, it was so close to the, to the neck, it would kill the horse. Really? That's what I hear. That's awful. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call

them civil assets. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. This is Dr. Joy Horton Bradford, host of the award winning weekly podcast therapy for black girls. Our incredible community of sisters has been building the therapy for black girls podcast for five years running. And over that time, we've published over 250 episodes and gained over 18 million podcast downloads. During this time, we've tackled the stigma surrounding mental health and shared conversations to help us all understand ourselves and others a little better. Hundreds of incredible licensed mental health care professionals and other experts

have joined us to share tips on taking better care of ourselves. We flip through the pages of your favorite romance novels with author Tia Williams, checked in with Grammy award winning artist Michelle Williams, and discussed the hurdles of balancing competitive sports, motherhood, and mental health with Olympic athlete Natasha Hastings five years down in many more years of work to be done. Join us now by checking out the therapy for black girls podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. So Josh, you want to end up with some myths and truths? Yes. Do we cover everything else? Yeah. Yeah. Samson had dreadlocks in the Bible. True or not? I'm going to go with myth. You're

right. Thanks. Samson did have the long hair. I don't know if you noticed it, but all of these were myths. They are actually just ruined it though. Samson did have the long hair apparently where he got all the strength and all that stuff, but they said it was more likely like ornamental braids, not dreadlocks. More likely that we don't know. Josh, ancient Celts and Egyptians had dreadlocks. Myth or not? True. That's a myth. Oh. And this came from artwork. Ancient artwork was misinterpreted basically over the years, and the Egyptians, I think, shaved their head and wore headdresses made out of braided hair. Easily confused. Josh, dreadlocks can stop bullets. This has not been tested. I know Bob Marley was shot like eight times once in an assassination

attempt and survived that. It's possible that his dreads deflected it, but a very tight weave has been shown to deflect bullets. Yeah, just last year. That lady, I think we talked about on the webcast. No, you blogged about it. Oh, did I? She was shot in the weave. Yeah. And it stopped a bullet. Well, in theory, because the way dreads work, it's like a jute rope or a woven rug. Each hair is intertwined, and that's sort of how when we did the bulletproof vest, it's a similar theory, just a really tightly woven fibers. Right. Very strong fibers, but yes, the weave is definitely a huge part of it. You need to get one of those guys with a big beaver tail dread and just hold it out and shoot a gun through it and see what he says.

He'd be like, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? And finally, Josh, dreadlocks can be donated to charity, cut off and donated, just like regular hair. I'm going to say that that's a myth. That is a myth. Locks of love and wigs for kids do not accept dreadlocks. And you can actually get fired for having dreadlocks. Did you know that? Yes, this makes sense to me. There's a lot of discrimination that corporations can still exercise against their employees. Yeah. And one of them is if you don't appear clean, you can be fired. You can be fired if you are too fat in your company's opinion. Really? Yeah. In this particular article, though,

DreamSailor makes a point that if you are a Rastafarian or practicing Rastafarian and they fire you because your dreads, you've got a pretty good lawsuit on your hands. Yeah. But if you're just some kid with dreads and they fire you because of your dreads, you're going to be fired. Go back to selling t-shirts out of your van in the parking lot of the fish show. Yeah. I got nothing else. Nor do I. So if you want to learn more about dreadlocks, seriously, this is one of the most helpful articles I've seen. Steps one through six of how to make dreads. There's another eight or 10 steps in dreadlock hair care. It's really one you should go to if you want to know how to make dreads. If you want to make dreads out

of your hair, go check out how dreadlocks work in the search bar at howstuffworks.com, which means it's time for listener mail. Yes, Josh. I am going to call this from Eddie, who hopes things get better. Hi, my name is Eddie. I'm 15, almost 16 in the 10th grade. The comment you made about how it will only get better if I just hold on and work through high school was something I really needed to hear. Awesome. With friendships that I have no idea what's going on to work that keeps piling on. I was worried I would be stuck like this after school ended. The news about the real world being a lot worse than high school doesn't give me easy thoughts, so I'm glad to get a different viewpoint. Thank you. And I will take this opportunity now,

Josh, to mention the It Gets Better project because we didn't even know about this when we mentioned it. No. If you were listening to us mention that, I don't remember what podcast it was. Transgender. No, it was Jealousy. I think we were talking about high school and kids killing themselves in high school. And we didn't mention that It Gets Better campaign. We just pretended like we made it up ourselves. When we recorded it, It Gets Better campaign had been launched like the day before and we hadn't heard of it yet, honestly, so it's true. We weren't shirking it. So along those lines, we want to give it an official plug. It is a project called It Gets Better project dot com and it is targeted at LGBT youth. Right now, my personal hope is that they

expand that to include anyone who feels like an outsider in any way. Well, specifically anyone who feels like an outsider in high school because if you feel like an outsider as an adult, you're I mean high school outsiders. But it's a really great program founded by Dan Savage in September and users can upload videos of themselves, testimonials as adults talking to kids saying that trust me, It Gets Better hang in there. Yeah. And everybody's been doing it. I know Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both have. Oh, really? Yeah. That's nice. Yeah. What about Carl Roevin and Dick Cheney? They actually did one together. It was so cute and adorable. They're so playful together. So that was from Eddie. And if you want to check out Eddie on YouTube, he's a YouTube channel

called Comic Dud and he draws comics for that channel. And you can go there and see what Eddie has to say. Okay. And Eddie, it does get better. Trust me, buddy. Thank you for that, Eddie. And if you have a photo of an Indian, an Asian Indian with dreadlocks, we want to see it. Send it to StuffPodcast at HowStuffWorks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. The HowStuffWorks.com iPhone app is coming soon. Get access to our content in a new way, articles, videos and more all on the go. Check out the latest podcasts and blog posts and see what we're saying on Facebook and Twitter. Coming soon to iTunes. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you?

Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Langston Kerman. Sometimes I'm on TV. I'm David Borey and I'm probably on TV right now. David and I are going to take a deep dive every week into the most exciting groundbreaking and sometimes problematic black conspiracy theories. We've had amazing past notable guests like Brandon Kyle Goodman, Sam J. Quinta Brunson and so many more new episodes around every Tuesday, many episodes out on Thursdays where we answer you, the listeners conspiracy theories. Listen to my mama told me on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.