When Evadney Wootton struggled to find a hairdresser who could work with her afro curly hair, she saw an opportunity to start a business.
Ms Wootton said the styles she specialised in still came with stigma but were misunderstood.
But if maintained correctly, the hair remained clean and required head massages as part of the care routine.
Opportunity from disappointment
Jamaican-born Evadney Wootton migrated to Australia from England in the early 1980s, and when she went to the local hairdresser, she was met with confusion.
"They would look at me and say, 'I don't know.'"
Rather than be deterred, Ms Wootton quit her job in dentistry, studied afro and curly hairstyles abroad and returned to Australia to start a hairdressing business.
"I called the Hairdressers Registration Board of Western Australia and explained that I would be doing braiding, dreadlocking and hair extensions. At the time, hair extensions were not even heard of", Ms Wootton said.
"The response I got was basically, 'That's not hairdressing. We don't care what you do.'"
Ms Wootton rented a small room in Perth, Western Australia and started receiving clients.
Almost a decade later, the hair artist received a letter from authorities stating she needed local qualifications to work as a hairdresser in Australia.
She closed her business and sought work as an apprentice while she trained to become a qualified hairdresser.
"I started walking the streets and knocking on hairdresser's doors," Ms Wootton said.
"A hairdresser hired me, and I did my apprenticeship.
"I got an apprentice of the year award."
Her hair education in Australia did not include dreadlocks, braiding or hair extensions, the style of hairdressing she continued to provide once she qualified.
Styling celebrity heads
Today, Ms Wootton is a sought-after hairdresser whose hairstyles have graced the midfield of the MCG and other stadiums on the head of former client and West Coast champion Nic Naitanui.
"If he was playing over east, he would come to me before he goes or prep his hair, and I'd do it when he gets back," Ms Wootton said.
"Sometimes I would see him on TV and call him up and say, 'Time for some attention'. He thought it was funny."
Ms Wootton, who describes herself as a hair artist, has also previously braided superstar Marcia Hines' hair, who she met at a young age.
"We became friends, and whenever she came to Perth, I would take care of her hair," Ms Wootton said.
Ms Wootton now lives in Tasmania and sends her former clients to the hairdressers she mentored in curly hairstyles.
Caring for dreadlocks
There is still stigma attached to wearing hair in dreadlocks, but the style requires a high level of maintenance and the occasional head massage, she says.
"Some of the questions I get asked are not, 'How do you wash it?', but 'Do you wash it?'" Ms Wootton said.
"Once done, dreadlocks become wash and wear hairstyles."
Ms Wootton said it was also important to moisturise the hair and do regular head massages to stimulate blood flow.
Ms Wootton said this would encourage hair growth.
She also recommends a visit to the loctician, a hairdresser who specialises in dreadlocks, for maintenance and upkeep every three months to separate the hair at the roots and dreadlock new growth.
Her top tip? Don't go to bed with wet dreadlocks unless you want musty smelling hair.
The hairstyle can take eight hours to create, and once done and takes even longer to remove.
"If you're already thinking about how to take it out before you've had it done, it's not the style for you," Ms Wootton said.
