Traditional Hair Styles

[Joel]

Exactly.

[davedove]

I guess I could bring up, on the bear grease, that the people living with and around each other get used to the smell of each other.

When everyone smells the same, no one smells bad. You do get used to smells you're around all the time.

[string]

I guess I could bring up, on the bear grease, that the people living with and around each other get used to the smell of each other. That's sounds funny to say, LOL! Anyway, I don't know that the smell of bear grease is an issue after the whole tribe starts using it.
You know, you probably get used to the culture you grow up in and the people you are always around, but you would notice all the stuff about other cultures.
I've lost my sense of smell, so i just have to take peoples' words for it.

After a while you don't notice it, then you go away and come back and if you are really in deep you enjoy the familiarity of it. In reenacting here in the east there are two way complements, if a native says you smell like an Indian, thank him, if a white does so, smear the red paint that you're trying to wash off your hands all over his nice white shirt. Nothing like the smell of bear grease, red ocher and woodsmoke in the morning

[AtagahiKC]

We use animal and plant fats in our hair today. We just cover the scents with perfumes. That's all that conditioners are - fats and miscellaneous chemicals.

As for the smell of bear fat in the hair, there were worse problems back then. Most Indians complained about the body odor of non-Indians as they didn't bathe as often as Indians.

At least in my tribe, we went to the water daily for purification purposes and to keep clean, even in winter. From what I understand of most other nations, Indians had better hygiene than the non-Indian immigrants.

By comparison, the French had to invent perfume to cover their B.O. I recall one story of a king who had to be drunk into a stupor before they could get him into a bath at least once a year.

Beau Brummell is credited with bringing better hygiene to the English in the late 18th and early 19th Century. He believed in bathing weekly, along with dressing well. His influence in the English Court revolutionized the aristocracy's sense of male fashion and personal hygiene.

Before him, everyone just smelled bad. Now you know why meetings with non-Indians were mostly held outside. :-)

[djweso]

I know I'm kinda late to the discussion but I thought I would add my .02

I have long hair, past shoulder length and have for about 14 years. I grew it out for a change , because of my Cherokee heritage, and because I was in a heavy metal band. Then I found out the girls liked it and didn't mind (its partly how I met my wife).

I got the dark, thick, slightly curly hair from my Cherokee side which also happens to be my Scotch-Irish side. If you don't think scotch mixing with the Native Americans is common you should check out the Scottish Tartan Museum, they have a nice display on the mixing of culture.

I just wear mine back with with a black elastic hair tie but would be open to some cool new ideas, like the cuff, Moosedog linked to. The only major hair cuts I've had in those 14 years was to donate 22 inches and then 13 inches to Locks of Love (once with my wife and once with my daughter).

[Nick the DSM]

man, evryone asks if im ever going to donate to the locks of love thingy! my is no!!


native americans wore fats in their hair? never knew that.

[Bugbear]

Hey all, I'm going to bump this down. I have stopped posting for the last couple of days while I figure out how to better edit my posts. I've been having log off issues for a while, and it has been making posting a difficult task. I think I will have to start using a seperat editer on my computer, then cutting and pasting my posts. As it is now, I have to log back in almost every time I post unless I keep saving it then going back and editing the post. This is probably because the phone lines out here in the patch of desert where I live are made from paper clips linked together. LOL! I have been reading and enjoying your posts though, and thank you.

Hey Joel, Davedove, and String, I'll just edit this post to respond. Thank you for your input. I've been told by many people coming back from staying over seas for a long time that it stinks or smells weird when they get back. Like I said, I lost the sense of smell when I went blind, so I can't say much.
Thank you AtagahiKC, for your input. I've kind of brought up the yucca shampoo and so on because I know there are a lot of myths and so on that aren't true or nice. Also, I just looked at the way you spell your handle, "AtagahiKC, and in an earlier post I asked if you were Dine', but I guess maybe not. Sorry, I have to use a speach screen reader, and it doesn't always say things in an understandable way if they are written with out spaces, and I have now adjusted the settings to do that.
String, love ya, you're great.
Also, stuff you eat can do this. I grow citrus, and for the next three months I will be living partly off grapefruit and oranges. You start smelling like oranges after a while. Not a bad thing, but you also start turning, and I'm not joking, orange like on the palms of your hands after a while and soles of your feet. LOL!

Thank you very much, djweso, for the links and that locks of Love link. I know a couple that donate their hair... It seems like they were donating all their hair like to having a crew cut afterward, but I'm not sure. It's a very good thing to do, and I think you are the first guy I've come across that has done that. I'm growing my hair in a non-haircut way right now, but in the future, if I do need to have short hair, I will donate..., then probably start combing my hair with the beard clippers. LOL? Thanks again for all of your input.

** I did find out that I do know one man who donates his ponytails to Locks of Love, so I'll throw it in there.

[Bugbear]

... native americans wore fats in their hair? never knew that.

It looks like some of the "Native Amaricans" did put bear grease, perhaps other greases, in their hair. AtagahiKC, pointed out that we do a modified version of this with our modern hair care products. You might look up the making of soap. As I said, my father, who is not "Native American," talks about when they would grease their hair back in the fifties with lard or something like that. I don't think we've established that the Scots greased their hair in this way.
If I get up the nerv, I might try this if I get a chance. I don't know anyone with bear grease right now, but people have a way of showing up when I need them, unless it has to do with computer help, LOL! I could sub the bear grease I think. Perhaps I'll look into this. The powdering of wigs reminds me of putting diatomatious earth in the fur on the back of my cats' necks to keep the bugs off. I wonder what this wig powder was....
BTW
I'm putting "Native American" in quotes because I am awear that some tribes don't want to be lumped in with other tribes. I try to refer to the spicific tribe if that is known.
Also, as AtagahiKC, points out, our views on the bathing practices of people in the past might not hold true to what we have learned through "Popular History." I guess it's ok to talk about how it may have been icky by our standards, but I hope we keep this in the historical context. We will most likely be looked back apon as being gross and icky in some ways by the people of the future.

Peace and Bear Grease.

[AtagahiKC]

Ted, sorry that I didn't answer your question earlier. I am a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. My family come from Big Cabin and Pumpkin Holler outside Tahlequah.

In case anyone wonders about the Native American controversy, Native American is a legal term that lumps American Indians, Native Alaskans (which are comprised of Aleuts, Eskimos and American Indian tribes) and Native Hawaiians together for the purposes of the US government.

There was a movement in the 70's to use Native American in place of American Indian, but among Indians, we usually use our tribal name first, then American Indian or Indian. Some people still prefer Native American, although they seem to be in the minority.

I recall speaking with a French businessman when I was clerking at the DOI during law school. He said that most Europeans don't understand Native American to mean American Indians - to them, it means any person born in the United States.

Confused? No wonder. That's why it is easier to just refer to Indians by their tribal name.

And even then, it isn't safe. Most official tribal names were derogatory names given to the tribes by their enemies. When non-Indians came along, they learned the names from the other tribes and used them.

For example, the original name we used for our nation was Aniyunwiya. Over time aniyunwiya has morphed into a term meaning all American Indians, so it no longer is used. We now use Tsalagi.

Cherokee was a name given to us by the Muscogee (Creeks), which meant "the people who live in caves" because our lands were the Smoky Mountains. Our language doesn't even have the "ch", "r" or "k" sounds (technically, one of the three dialects of our language reportedly had some of the sounds, but it isn't the official one used today). Thus, the closest we can come to Cherokee in our language is Tsalagi.

What does this have to do with long hair? Nothing, but hasn't your hair grown longer reading all of this?

[Bugbear]

Thank you AtagahiKC. You have cleared up some potential terminology problems, and I'm greatful for this. This is all so very interesting that it is well worth moving off of trad scottish hair styles. We all are wearing or interested in kilts and how our hair and culture fits into them.