day 6. Wash that mop

today i washed my dreads for the first time, which is something I'm excited about but feel compelled not to share. "Hurray! I washed my hair!" That just makes all the dread-nay-sayers continue to believe that dreads are gross.
They're not gross. They are clean. It's not like I only shower once a week. That would be gross. It is a precarious thing trying to shower without getting the mess ontop of my head wet, but I've been doing that for a week now.
But hurray! Today I crossed some invisible and unnamed sort of dread-lock bench-mark and I washed my hair for the first time. Celebrate with me everyone!
Yesterday I went to the natural food store in Wooster where a wonderfully helpful lady pointed me straight to the soap she used for her dreads once upon a time. Her hair was long and beautifully curly now: no trace of knots left. She told me stories about bike trips and told me how her dreads came about. Hers were legitimately "neglect dreads." She was my new hero that day, although I did find myself feeling like a less legitimate "dread-head" next to this woman who just literally let her hair do what it wanted.
Mine were not neglected. As i said, 6 hours and 6 hands. That's sort of the opposite of neglect.
But that's the trend I want to set. Now that I know I can do it without 6 hours of work poofing into a matted ball of loose hair, I am going to be the cleanest dread-head I can be.

If only all this beeswax didn't feel so gross to touch, maybe people would stop touching my hair and saying "eww."

That's the next benchmark: when I don't need beeswax anymore.

Sunday I get to show off my dreads to my Mennonite Church community for the first time. Lovely people: They feel like family, but sometimes family has an authority to speak with a bite. I won't be one bit surprised if one or two folks sing the same tune as my mother: "why would you do that to your hair!"

I can't wait.