Dreadlocks, Personal Style & the Surreal Side of Funerals

Michelle reluctantly lets Henrique Couto ask the questions he somehow never asked during a decade of friendship: why did she choose dreadlocks, how were they started and what has changed over eleven years? She talks about touring, backcombing, drying, separating locks and learning through trial and error. Just as important, she explains why a seemingly simple hair conversation can feel culturally loaded and why a stranger’s shrugging “to each his own” is not nearly as neutral as it sounds.That opens a wider discussion about choosing to look conspicuous. Henrique remembers growing his hair long as a bullied twelve-year-old, while Michelle describes the praise, criticism and unsolicited questions attached to her hair, tattoos, patches and body hair. The hosts compare outfits, silhouettes, public staring and compliments that sound suspiciously like insults. Their stories are personal recollections, not dreadlock, scalp, hygiene or hair-care instructions; home remedies and biological claims are included only as things said in the 2020 conversation.Then the show pivots from appearance to two experiences that felt unreal to Henrique. At New York’s Ground Zero, tourists once asked to pose with him in the middle of a solemn visit. At a friend’s military funeral, a long procession, heavy snow, ceremonial gunfire and a trumpet made grief feel staged like a movie. Michelle adds a story about a milkshake thrown during a funeral procession, and the friends debate why anyone attends weddings or funerals in the first place.The closing stretch compares a joyless Catholic wedding with a moving, performance-filled Catholic funeral before wandering into Halloween scheduling, regional religious life and arguments about pronouncing orange, Florida, Nevada, Colorado and Quebec. The hosts’ religious, ethnic, national and regional jokes reflect their improvised conversation and are not presented as factual descriptions of any group. Contains profanity, cultural-appropriation discussion, bullying, death and funeral material, racial and religious stereotypes, body-hair talk and repeated inserted social-casino advertisements.LinksEmail the hosts: [email protected]