A Wangaratta nurse wants to change the stigma associated with having dreadlocks after growing her own and learning how to professionally install them.
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Registered nurse working in sub-acute rehabilitation at the Wangaratta hospital Mez Sheldon said she'd always wanted dreadlocks, but worried what others would think.
"I've wanted them for quite some time, but I felt because of the nursing profession it wouldn't be a very professional look," she said.
But last September she decided to take the plunge.
"I thought 'bugger it, I'll do it'," she said.
"I did it and love it and don't regret it at all."
But Ms Sheldon did say the changed hairstyle did provoke a lot of assumptions.
"We're all tattooed, we're all vegan," she said.
"It's all so not true.
"Particularly in the COVID-19 period we're in, there's such a stigma attached to them.
"That they're unkept or dirty or what have you."
Ms Sheldon liked her dreadlocks so much she did a course teaching her to maintain and install dreadlocks in January.
She's now one of the rare qualified dread lock artists, or locticians, in the North East and has been busy providing services to her clients.
"There's very limited locticians around, which makes it very hard for people," she said.
"With COVID-19 it's been quite hard for people to travel to have their maintenance done [in Melbourne]."
Previous state lockdowns, including the current one, have prevented North East Victorians from travelling too far from home.
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Bobinawarrah resident Karen Tymms is also a nurse.
She previously had dreadlocks for 10 years, but decided to get them again when she saw Ms Sheldon's service.
She said it was "amazing" having a loctician closer to home.
"One day 10 years ago, I was in Wodonga, there was no one else doing dreadlocks," she said.
"So just having someone you can talk to is kind of nice.
"Just to have someone I know I can call...or just to have someone like Mez who can help with up-dos is nice."
Ms Tymms too said she'd faced "totally misinformed" stigma.
"Mostly it's just curiosity," she said.
"There's definite assumptions: 'oh, you're a hippy.'
"Even if you're not a vegan, you're a vegetarian."
Ms Sheldon said if people wanted to get dreadlocks they shouldn't hold back.
"We all make our decisions in how we want our hair, and dreadlocks is just another one," she said.
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