I get a lot of curious looks and stares wherever I go around KL city.

Aunties and uncles will stare at me with their jaws dropped, kids will shoot me disgusting stares and the random people will just steal glances. One of the obvious and hence irritating reactions that I get is from the kindergarten/preschool kids just below my office. They will all be lining-up waiting for their parents to pick them up the same I usually walk out for lunch. Those brats will always announce loudly in Mandarin “look at his hair,” and look at me with horrified and surprised faces. Some will even pinch their noses and the rest of the kids will make frightened/horrified noises. Well, maybe I should educate them one day about my hair and tell them that I’m not a monster.

Well, although the kindergarten kids don’t ask me any questions, I will (out of the kindness of my heart) list down several questions (and answers) that I get from the general public. Most of them are fellow gym-goers and shopkeepers.

Q. Is your hair real?
A. Yes, my hair is 100% original right from my head. Other dreadlockers who have butt-long hair might have put extensions in theirs, but then again, they still have REAL hair growing from their head into their dreadlocks. So, this is not some wig or something sewn onto my head.

Q. Can you wash your hair?
A. Yes, of course. Why? Because my hair is 100% real and it has no chemicals holding it up (glue, etc).

Q. Do you have to take apart your dreadlocks when you wash it?
A. No, not at all. Imagine taking apart all 50 of my dreadlocks and putting it back after it dries. How crazy is that?

Q. How do you wash your hair?
A. I use natural hemp-seed oil soap (bought from a flea market in Melbourne), a pail with cold water and a scoop. First I rinse my hair to get it all wet, get the soap all bubbly and then rub it into the roots of my dreadlocks. I then grab around 10 - 15 dreads and rub them clockwise against my scalp to loosen any dead skin, dust and other nonsense on my head. After soaping up my whole head, I rinse it thoroughly again by splashing water all over my head using the scoop. Drying up is easy, it just takes a couple of hours to dry out all the dreads.

Q. How much did it cost to get them done?
A. I paid 600,000RP in Kuta, Bali to do it. Which is roughly around RM230. Sounds expensive? For a 5-hour non-stop task which involves both hands, it is a bargain!

Q. How did you do it?
A. Hmm, this will take quite a while to explain. I figured that I will make another post just for this answer.

Q. How long have you had your dreadlocks?
A. Hmm, since it’s already May 2008, I have kept my dreads for nearly a year. Just 3 more weeks and it will be a year.

So there you go, the most frequently asked question about my dreadlocks by the general KL public. Well, some of you might think its dirty or smelly or whatever and are afraid to ask in case it offends me. But just for your information, my scalp feels just as itchy as yours does. Well, my friends say that it smells like ‘ikan masin’ or ’sweaty’ when they stick their nose into my dreads as the soap I use does not contain any artificial perfume or fragrances. But besides that, I wash them every 2 ~ 3 days (but I shower daily) or whenever I sweat a lot.