Dear Rolf,

I am planning to travel to Southeast Asia. I am concerned that my physical appearance may hinder me in customs, or bring more than usual attention to me elsewhere, because I am a young woman with very long dreadlocks. Would it be wise to cover up my hair in a scarf? And what kind of clothing would you recommended to look modest and unremarkable?

--Melissa, Australia

Dear Melissa,

Southeast Asia has been a popular destination for young indie travelers since the days of the Hippie Trail, so you certainly wouldn’t be the first person on the travel circuit to show up wearing deadlocks.

That said, however, I recommend adopting a different hairstyle before you head to Southeast Asia. This is because local hosts will tend to see your dreads instead of seeing you—thus compromising your social possibilities as you travel from place to place. In countries like Australia or the United States, cutting your dreads to appease the first-impression whims of strangers might sound kind of lame, but on the road, as you continually travel to new places and meet local people, you are somewhat beholden to the first impression you project.

In many popular Southeast Asian stop-offs (such as Koh Phangan, Thailand or Vang Vieng, Laos) local hosts will be used to seeing dreadlocks and it won’t be a problem. But just as bus tourists in Paris should challenge themselves to stray from the Louvre and the Champs Elysees, you’re going to want to wander off the comfortable haunts of the backpacker trail. And in off-the-beaten-path parts of Southeast Asia—where bathing is an obsessive virtue, to a far greater extent than in the West—local hosts will see your dreadlocks as a sign of dirtiness, and hence they will be less likely to invite you into their conversations and homes.

Granted, your dreads might be perfectly clean, but first impressions are first impressions. While writing Vagabonding I lived in a residential hotel in southern Thailand, and I saw the subtle discomfort with which Thais regarded Western backpackers who seemed less than clean (dreads included). So, unless you want to risk limiting local interactions to the Westernized Southeast Asians of the backpacker trail, you might consider losing the dreads. This is something you can do without resorting to a shaved head (see here and here for ideas on combing out dreads).

Will your dreads hinder you at customs checks? Sometimes they will, since customs officers in Southeast Asia (as well as other parts of the world) often see dreads as a shorthand indicator of drug use. But as long as you aren’t carrying drugs, this fact will at worst just slow you down.

As for looking modest and unremarkable should you keep your dreads, I would just buy a headscarf as soon as you get to Indonesia or Malaysia. These are both Muslim-majority countries, so there should be plenty of fashionable head coverings to choose from. Not only will these headscarves honor conservative local customs, but they usually look pretty cool, too. Then, as you travel to other parts of Southeast Asia, you can wrap your hair in the scarf whenever you think the dreads might be an issue. In general, dressing in local fashions is an easy way to appease local cultural norms (you will never fully blend in, of course, but the gesture is usually appreciated).

Most good guidebooks will have country-specific cultural pointers on modest dress and general appearance, and it’s a good idea read these chapters, even if you don’t plan on following them word for word.

So, in short: Dreadlocks won’t likely be a huge problem as you travel in Southeast Asia, but you might consider cutting them (or covering them) to expand your social possibilities on the road.

Columnist Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.

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