OPINION: Never too late to braid it like Beckham

There are stories behind both, and not enough space to recount them here, but I have had the dreads for more than a decade now. I tried to grow them initially as a challenge, but I have kept them because they are actually quite a useful tool for opening those convivial conversations that, in the current debate about the future of youth work, have been so disparaged.

Without the dreads (and the earrings), I would be just another middle-aged man. With them, it is a great conversation opener. Even when I speak at conferences, there is always someone who asks if I mind them asking me a question. I am waiting for a serious inquisition on something I have said but, instead, I get "so how did you get your hair like that?" And it is a great accessory when I am working in schools with the so-called "disaffected". The girls are always curious, especially when they discover that I never wash it. Their reaction is invariably some mixture of horror and amazement, but either way it builds a bridge. And the lads, although reticent about raising the question, usually find some chance to ask me similar questions.