day 2: showing the folks

I went to the local coffee shop this morning for the public debut of the dreadlocks. The reactions were as to be expected: some enthusiastic and curious and some less so...

The real event however was a trip to my parents' place to celebrate my older sister's birthday. My parents have known about my plan for dreads since I sprung the idea on them on Thanksgiving: (not the least obnoxious holiday conversation I've had.) My mom fought it for awhile sending me various clever little texts and emails in attempt to "show me the light" about how gross and ugly they would be. One day she called and told me she had dyed her hair half blonde and half black. I played along for a few minutes affirming her and such until he finally admitted she hadn't really dyed her hair but "wouldn't that have looked rediculous? Wouldn't you have wanted to stop me?"
you see where she was going?
of course.
As the weeks went on she quieted down and accepted that, A: it was never going to graduate from just talk, or B: I would do it without a second thought to whether it looked "gross and ugly" to her or not.
so she resigned gracefully.
My dad must certainly dislike the idea of dreads. He doesn't even like when I straighten my hair. But he makes it his primary goal to make me feel free to do with my hair, body, or life as I choose. He's quite successful at it too. I could do any number of crazy things to my appearance and Dad would keep his opinion respectfully to himself.

I was expecting a bit of a show when I went to my parents' place tonight: even hoping for it perhaps but my parents responded beautifully. Mom looked at them, shrugged and said that it looked a little like when my hair was straightened. Dad barely commented at all.

Tomorrow's adventure will be attempting to deal with grody, post-run dreads. I will wash them and I will probably hate re-twisting them for who knows how long.
we shall see