FASHION : White Dudes in Dreadlocks Sport a Caribbean Classic

Comedian Whoopi Goldberg made it her trademark. Musicians Tracy Chapman, Ziggy Marley and his father, the late Bob Marley, have also worn the style that is the symbol of the Rastafarian faith. Jean-Michel Basquiat, the late Brooklyn-born art superstar of Haitian heritage, was similarly well-known for the long, twisted, uncombed hairstyle called dreadlocks.

But white people with comparatively skinny hair? Wearing dreadlocks?

The style that gained popularity as a signature of black reggae singers would seem to be a physical impossibility for those whose hair has about as much texture as corn silk.

But not for the body jugglers who make up Southern California’s surfboard-skateboard-snowboard-skimboard culture--a culture that is predominantly white, young, male and relentlessly experimental.

Just as they have developed astounding new ways to defy gravity and twist their bodies through gnarly contortions, these guys have found a way to twist, coat, mat and otherwise transmogrify relatively fine hair into the style that’s a Caribbean classic.

White dudes in dreads began surfacing in the early ‘80s, say those who first adapted the look. These pioneers typically came from the ranks of radical surfers and skateboarders.

For instance, Gator Mark Anthony, the famed Carlsbad, Calif.-based skateboarder who is ranked among the top five vertical skaters in the world, recalls wearing dreadlocks in 1982 and ‘83, along with a few other white teen-agers.

But Anthony, now 23, says he dropped the style as it became more widespread and acceptable in the mid-1980s. The skater, who models for Vision Street Wear and skates for the Vision team, now favors clean-cut short hair. But he notes that dreadlocks continue to increase in popularity among young white men and are catching on even outside the skate-surf-snow-skimboard culture.

“Reggae became really fashionable about 1984,” he says. “And with the onslaught of so many white reggae bands or bands with Jamaican influence, they (dreadlocks on whites) are more popular now.

“Dreadlocks have become more acceptable just as spike hairdos and rockabilly hairdos and extravagantly long bangs did. Dreadlocks are just a way of taking things a step further.”

But how does a Caucasian go about creating the look?

Richie Loughridge, a 25-year-old skimboarder (skimboarding is a cross between skateboarding and surfing in which “you throw your board in the sand, you run and jump on it into the waves”), initially used Jell-O to shape his dreadlocks.

About four years ago, Loughridge says, he played a punk as an extra in a film whose name he can no longer remember. For the role, he spiked his hair with Jell-O (in its liquid form): “I left the spikes in and a couple of them turned into dreads. I just kept letting them go. Eventually, my whole head of hair turned into dreads. I used to have a girlfriend braid them up, but I don’t do that any more. Now my dreadlocks are natural.”

There is a simpler way, though.

“You could just not comb your hair, put a hat on and do it that way. There are lots of ways of doing it,” he advises, noting that several white skateboarders on Team Alva wear dreadlocks.

“Between you and me, I think most of the girls really love them (dreads). Sometimes they offend older people. My boss digs ‘em.”

Washing the style is no problem, adds Loughridge, a Long Beach resident who installs cable television systems and attends Long Beach City College part time.

“When you first get them, you don’t wash them,” he says. “After a while, you can wash them. I wash mine all the time. I go in the ocean every day. They’re saltwater fresh. But some people don’t wash them. I’ve got a friend who doesn’t. We call him Stinky.”

But Loughridge does admit to having one dreadlocks dilemma: dealing with all the people who ask him how he managed to create the hairstyle.

“Every time you go out you constantly hear, ‘How’d you get your dreadlocks?’ It’s almost to the point of a hassle. In the mall one time, some big Samoan guy came up and said, ‘Cool dreads. I wonder what they look like on fire.’ I don’t know if he was serious or what.”