The Story

Okay, so here's the story behind the locks....

About 6 months ago, back in Belleville, we were with the kids at a park. There was a darling little guy playing on the playground, and he had the most beautiful dredlocks. Papa and I looked at each other and smiled, later confirming that we both thought the dreds on the little guy at the park were just way too cool... and we tossed around the idea of doing dreds on our little guy, L. At the time, his hair was way too short to do anything of the sort, but as the months went on and we kept putting off haircuts, and his hair kept getting longer...and longer...and longer... we decided, hey, let's really look into this idea! One of Papa's coworkers has cool long dreds himself, and Papa asked him where he had them done. We were referred to Ron at The Brick House salon, and I stopped by one day to inquire if he'd be able/willing to do L's hair once it was long enough. He looked at his hair and said, "Sure, no problem... just come back when it's about twice as long." That was back in September. So, last week, after an old gentleman at church complimented on my 'three beautiful daughters" and some other people at Walmart referred to him as a "she", Papa decided that enough was enough! So, we confirmed with Ron that his hair was indeed long enough, and we made the appointment for this Wednesday, 10am.
Wednesday rolled along, and Mama, L, M, and C headed to the barber shop, with DVD player and movies in hand! It was quite a long day, to say the least!! His hair is sooo fine and sleek that Ron needed to do the dreds in very small sections so that they will 'lock up' or 'catch' more quickly over time. L was absolutely AMAZING! For those of you who have ever doubted our son's ability to sit still and be patient for long periods of time, how's this for proof: We didn't leave the barber shop until 6:00pm. That's right. We were there from 10am until 6pm. We did take a lunch break inbetween for about an hour, in which Mama also got some ice cream to help encourage L's patience. And for the very last hour, the movie player even ran out of battery power, so we got out good ol' pen and paper to draw pictures! Mama had to pull out all the tricks in the book for that last hour, and we had the receptionist in there, helping to entertain and pacify our little guy for the last several locks! At last, though, the last lock was done, and we headed home to unveil his new 'do to Papa...and all the rest of you here on the blog!
For those of you unfamiliar with dredlocks, you must know that this is an 'evolving' sort of hairdo. Over time, this look will drastically change and become what it is supposed to look like as the hair 'locks up' or 'catches'. It will definitely be an education in itself for us, too. But all we can say is, it is most definitely a very fitting 'do for our 'Crazy Man'. I truly don't think the pictures do it justice at all! We will be posting pictures over time so you can watch as the evolution of this 'do takes place!