Traveling internationally with locks....

I have been meaning to write this post for a while. I thought it would be interesting to share my experiences related to traveling internationally with locks. A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel to a number of different countries and got varied reactions to my hair in the different countries that I visited. Thought I would share.....

So, I think the place where I caused the most stir was probably India. It was actually a little surprising to me because I have the coffeetable book Dreads, by Francesco Mastalia and Alfonse Pagano, with a forward by Alice Walker which shows locks in all their forms, worns by all different people around the world and I had remembered that there are a kind of holy men in India who have locks. Anyway, the reaction actually started before I even left the airport! I was traveling with a couple white grad school classmates, doing some research and we were standing in the customs line, waiting to get our passports stamped. I went through the line first and the customs guy just smiled and stamped my passport. When my friend, who was behind me in line stepped up to him, I noticed that he asked her a bunch of questions. When she was through, I asked me what he said. She told me that he was asking her about my hair, if it was real, if it was mine etc! This actually happened more than once. Another time, I was walking across the street to the internet cafe with another classmate, a guy this time, and when I went to cross I turned around and my classmate had not crossed at the same time. He was actually still standing on the other side ofd the street talking to this guy who had stopped him. When he got across, I asked him what the guy asked him. He said that the guy was asking him about my hair! A complete stranger on the street. Mind you, strangers weren't coming up and asking us things on a regular basis when we were there so this was notable. I am used to people coming up to me and asking me about my hair but that is the first and the only time that people have stopped my traveling companions to ask them about me, especially since there was no language barrier. I don't know if there is a cultural component to that or what but it has stuck with me. There was another time on the trip where we traveled to this very rural village and while we were in this building the word got out in the village that we were there. All this kids had gathered around outside to see us and if one of us would stick out head out the door or look out the window they would scream and laugh but I think that was as much if not more because they had never seen white people as me........

I was in Turkey for one day and got to do a fair amount of sightseeing on our 12 hour layover. Luckily, a classmate and I had a friend there in Istanbul who had just finished a semester of exchange at our school a few weeks before so he offered to give us the whirlwind tour! We hit all the big spots --- Aya Sofia, The Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, The Grand Bazaar...... We were in Topkapi Palace looking at, I think, jewels and other artifacts from the Sultan's collection and I noticed this girl, who worked at the museum, came up and started talking to our friend in Turkish. She sounded sort of excited and I asked my friend what she was asking...... He siad she was asking about my hair, was it real, she thought it was very cool and asked if she could touch it. I told him it was okay (I try to keep a good attitiude about these things, I appreciate that people want to learn about locks. I think it is better than having them walk around with incorrect perceptions and stereotypes in their heads....) and she was so excited that she pulled out the only English she knew to try to communicate with me. Mind you it was a line from a Sprite commercial but I thought it was cute!

In Latin/South America, I haven't gotten much reaction that I could tell to my hair. Nothing notable in Argentina, Chile, Brazil or Peru. I think especially in Brazil and Peru they have exposure to locks. Not much happened in Mexico except one weird reaction when I was entering a club in Puera Vallarta with a bunch of friends -- it actually sort of spooked me out. I was coming in the club, showing my ID, paying my money and we got to this bouncer/security guy at the door. He didn't say anything or make any expression whatsoever, his face was very stoic, he just reached out and grabbed my hair, like right by my neck, below my ear. And he was just holding it. I looked him in the face, and he was looking at me but his reaction had not really changed and he hadn't said a work. So what could I do, I looked him back in the eye, grabbed my hair, pulled it out of his hand and went on my merry way. Nothing else happened after that but I just thought it was weird......

I also lived in South Africa for two months, Johannesburg, and don't remember any reaction to my hair whatsoever. That was actually to be expected. This is a majority black country and I did see a fair amount, although not a whole lot, of people with locks. Also, since Johannesburg is really like the "New York of Africa" folks have a fair amount of exposure to other cultures. I mean, I must say, when I got there, aside from the driving on the other side of the road, I felt like it was almost in the US. They had billboards with movies that were showing and albums that had just come out in the US (Vanilla Sky and Michael Jackson's Invinsible, to be specific) and Oprah was on TV everyday!

Okay, I tried to add pictures to this post but I seem to be having technical difficulties. Come on, Blogger!!!