Shake Your Dreads

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About

Shake Your Dreads, also known as Shake Yo Dreads, refers to a catchphrase about the Nonchalant Dreadhead archetype shaking his dreadlocks to impress women by appearing cool and laidback. The term largely comes from the Sexyy Red song "Shake Yo Dreads," which went viral as a TikTok sound after its late 2023 release. TikToker @breazy2funny posted a video skit called, "POV: Life of a nonchalant dreadhead," in May 2024, which featured him saying, "Ladies, I'm trying to do my work today," to a group of women encouraging him to shake his dreads. The video's audio became its own TikTok sound used memetically, most notably in May 2025.

Origin

On September 23rd, 2023, Sexyy Red released the song "Shake Yo Dreads" on streaming platforms.^[2] On September 26th, Sexyy Red released the music video for "Shake Yo Dreads" on YouTube,^[1] receiving over 8.2 million views in two years (shown below).

Around the same time, on September 24th, Sexyy Red posted a TikTok^[3] video using her song's TikTok sound,^[4] receiving over 1.7 million likes in two years.

Spread

"Shake Yo Dreads" quickly received viral use in 2023. For instance, on September 23rd, 2023, TikToker^[5] @jaytovxn_ posted a video with the song, showing his freshly cut dreads falling off his head to reveal his new haircut, gaining over 1.8 million likes in two years (shown below).

@jaytovxn_ Man i dont miss em #fyp #jaytovxn #shakeyodreads ♬ Shake Yo Dreads – Sexyy Red

On November 2nd, TikToker^[6] @kinglouis713 shared a video of himself shaking his extremely long dreads to the song, receiving over 736,700 likes in two years (shown below).

@kinglouis713 @Sexyy Red #kinglouis713 #fyp ♬ Shake Yo Dreads – Sexyy Red

The song's use continued in 2025, evident in a video shared by TikToker^[7] @animallover.zx123 on January 28th, 2025, showing a guinea pig with dreads, gaining over 67,600 likes in four months (shown below).

@animallover.zx123 shake it off# shake your dreads #shake it #dreadlocks #dreads #foryoupage #fyp #fyp #fyp #fyp #fyp #fyp ♬ Shake Yo Dreads – Sexyy Red

"Ladies, I’m Trying To Do My Work Today"

On May 28th, 2024, TikToker^[8] @breazy2funny posted a POV video skit about the "Life of a nonchalant dreadhead." The skit involved him calming down a group of women who were trying to get him to shake his dreads. He says, "Ladies, I'm trying to do my work today. Leave me alone type shift." The TikTok received over 717,900 likes in a year (shown below).

@breazy2funny
Me: ladies calm down. Ladies: but youre Nochalant. Me: well atleast i tried 🙄😉

♬ original sound – Breazy

The video's TikTok sound^[9] gained viral usage later on, most notably in 2025. For instance, on March 26th, TikToker^[10] @ratprincess149 posted a video of her "girly little figures" telling Luffy from One Piece to shake his dreads, receiving over 326,200 likes in two months (shown below).