Asian with dreads is an ancient hairstyle. It’s hard to tell who had them first, because early humans, lacking combs or styling products, probably roamed the planet with matted hair. Multiple sources credit the Vedic scriptures of Asian origin with documenting the first evidence of twisted locks of hair was very early.

Dreadlocks have been used by people coming from different cultural backgrounds with different reasons. Sometimes it is due to their religious and spiritual convictions like it is sacred among Hindu saints and monks and at other time social and political environments used by the Mau Mau rebels.

To avert the derogatory use of the term a new term has come up to replace the term “dreadlock” and it is often referred to as “African Locks”, the aim is to remove the feature of dreading from the terminology.

History of Asian Dreadlocks

One of the universal few things that survived the onslaught of time, the origin of dreadlock was rooted in the ancient Vedic Hindu culture. In the Asian mythologies, it is described that Lord Shiva took the force off the holy river gangues coming to the earth on his dreads and thus was the saviour for the earth destruction.

Going down the history lane, the earliest evidence of dreadlock was found in 2500BC and has been the favourite hair of the Asian men. Hinduism had its influence on Buddhism, Jainism and even the Greek and Roman cultures of the past.

In the Roman Celtic culture, dreadlock was referred to as hair knotted like snakes. The royal families of Asians not only adopted the dreadlock but also used dreadlocked wigs as archaeological discoveries have revealed.

Dreadlocks are considered sacred by the Indian religious preachers since it has its origin with the holy Lord Shiva. In China, too noblemen and ascetics used dreadlocks combined with long fingernails denouncing all earthly attachments. In some other Asian and African countries, the dreadlock refers to the fear of the Almighty.