And this is why, while it would be nice if it were ‘just hair’, white people really cannot wear these braids or dreads and it not be offensive.
It’s offensive.
These hairstyles, the way white women wear them, are meant to convey an entire attitude, which like OP says pushes the idea that the hairstyles ‘stand for’ a sort of trashy, hypersexualized persona.
In reality it’s just what black people do to keep their hair neat and healthy. There’s NO inter-cultural assumption black people make about other black people who have braids/dreads based on their hair alone. The idea that braids/dreads stand for a bad bitch, a ‘free spirit’, a seductress, all of that is created by white people projecting stereotypes on us.