I know a super-curly mostly-Celt whose hair can't be more than 1" long or it mats like hell. She used to wear a short mop of flat, broad "dreds" that she couldn't care for like actual dreds because that's not how it works, but she rocked 'em, adding beads and ribbons that coordinated with her Celtic-blue eyes and patiently soaking and cleaning them so she wouldn't stink. TBH her mats were gorgeous. But I couldn't get her to stop calling them dreds. Thanks for spreading the good word.
Yeah, Celtic traditional mats for curly hair are called gleebs, I’ve heard. It sounds like your friend was care of her hair and it was more hygenic than, say, Polish plaits. Here’s hoping she learns eventually why calling the style “dreads” was problematic, and that other white people learn that, while there are traditional matting options open to us (though some you’d never want to do- again, Polish plaits), dreadlocks specifically are not among them.
