For most tribes east of the Appalachians, the scalplock was THE premier men's hairstyle. It was accomplished by shaving and/or plucking hair.
Shaving razors are on various trade lists.
Capt. Pierre Pouchot mentions "razors for the head" as part of the goods for the Indian trade. Sir William Johnson's papers mention them in most lists.
And mentions of "Indian razors" abound. An "Indian razor" was a coil spring that was compressed to get a hold of the hair so it could be plucked out.
James Adair writes of the Choctaw ca. 1735-1744:
"Romancing travelers, and their credulous copyist, report them to be imbarbes, and as persons impuberes, and they appear so to strangers. But both sexes pluck all the hair off their bodies, with a kind of tweezers, made formerly of clam-shells, now of middle-sized wire, in the shape of a gun-worm; which, being twisted around a small sticks, and the eds fastened therein, after being properly tempered, keeps: holding this Indian razor between their fore-finger and thumb, they deplume themselves..."
Even white males that were captured and adopted into a tribe were given the same hairstyle.
"The day after my arrival at the aforesaid town, a number of Indians collected about me, and one of them began to pull the hair out of my head. He had some ashes on a piece of bark, in which he frequently dipped his fingers in order to take the firmer hold, and so he went on, as if he had been plucking a turkey, until he had all the hair clean out of my head, except a small spot about three or four inches square on my crown; this they cut off with a pair of scissors, excepting three locks, which they dressed up in their own mode." James Smith, 1755
This is VERY common and the reason most folks playing an "adopted" Indian don't really look the part.
Mario
Topic: curious about hair, actually the style thereof (Read 212 times)