Did you know why Indians wore their hair long? Definitely not for beauty! (6 photos)

If you surf the Internet and look at surviving photographs of Indians in the 19th century, you will be convinced that most Indian tribes preferred to wear long hair.





If you think that they did it just for beauty, then you are mistaken.

To begin with, a brief excursion: since ancient times, long hair has been religious among many peoples



Since ancient times, people of different cultures have always imbued their hair with mysticism, symbolism and religiosity.

For example, the Merovingians (a dynasty of long-haired Frankish kings) believed that their long hair contained the strength of their ancestors, and if a king lost his hair, he lost his legal right to the throne.

The Knights Templar grew their hair long in the likeness of Christ. And in Ancient Greece, for a long time, long hair for men was considered simply a symbol of beauty.

But in religious meaning, long hair is often correlated with the legendary Old Testament Samson, who was a strongman, born by the will of God, whose strength was granted by the Lord through his long hair. Thanks to his locks of hair, which Samson vowed never to cut, he had the strength to fight the Philistines and possess unrivaled power. Everything changed when he fell in love with a woman (a Philistine). Her people tasked her with discovering Samson's weakness and helping them defeat the hero.

Samson told the woman his secret that it was his long hair that gave him his strength, and as soon as he fell asleep, she cut off Samson's hair. And when he woke up, he discovered that his strength was gone, and he was quickly defeated by the enemy: his eyes were gouged out and he was made a slave.

In many cultures, having one's hair cut by one's oppressors was also an exemplary punishment or humiliation that signified defeat. Shaving one's hair, even in modern society, often symbolizes a seismic shift within a person, be it spiritual, psychological or physiological.

Health is also often assessed by the condition of the hair, and illness or stress can be detected if the hair suddenly breaks down or falls out.

But why did the Indians wear long hair?





Hair length and hairstyles played a key role in the life of the Indians, informing others about various events and feelings expressed by a person.

Hair reflected the state of fun or mourning, the current stage of life, and also showed whether a person had reached adulthood, whether he could marry, or even what his status in the tribe was.

For Indians, human hair was a sacred gift from Mother Earth (like grass on the ground) that could transmit the energy of spirits, so it was unacceptable to touch another person's hair without their consent. This is not something personal, it was often their way of protecting themselves from the energy of a person they knew nothing about.

Hair styles among men and women in different tribes could vary significantly: from loose to braided, shaved (like the Iroquois) or tied in a knot. These varied styles indicated a person's tribal affiliation and served as markers of periods of peace or war.

The Navajo tribes interpreted long hair as a physical embodiment of spiritual growth, similar to the grass spreading throughout the world like the hair of Mother Earth. Therefore, during long campaigns, the Indians tied part of the hair of their deceased ancestors to their hair, so that they would always be “spiritually” nearby and could give them advice.



And the Iroquois Indians traditionally shaved off most of their hair in their youth and wore headdresses made of bristles or animal hair. The young Indian had to earn the right to grow hair and acquire the wisdom of spirits by performing feats in the hunt or in war in battle.

Different tribes of Indians attached different spiritual meanings to hair, but almost all of them learned from childhood that their hair was a direct link between man, nature and spirits.

Could an Indian shave his hair?



Cutting off hair among Indians symbolizes something extraordinary.

Traditionally in Native American traditions, many tribes often cut their hair during periods of mourning, symbolizing the deep emotional pain caused by the loss of loved ones.

But sometimes cutting hair could also mean cuttingthe removal of a person from his past actions or thoughts, as if renewing himself to find a new life goal or realize his purpose.

However, the Indians also believed that hair was their sixth sense.



The Indians themselves often claim that long hair is their sixth sense. They compare their hair to the way a cat's fur stands on end when they are scared and preparing to attack.

And even the US Army agreed with a similar statement. For example, WakingTimes.com reports a statement from a Veterans Affairs Medical Center employee during the Vietnam War.

This statement claims that the Choctaw and Navajo Native Americans on the battlefield displayed "remarkable, almost supernatural abilities" when it came to intelligence. In some unexpected way, they could notice an approaching enemy at a very distant distance, and identify various little things (like movement in the foliage) that no professional intelligence officer had noticed. However, once these Indian scouts lost their long hair and were cut to the usual standards of American soldiers, they ceased to “feel” the enemy nearby, and their “intuition” did not work.

The report claims that government agencies and scientists even tested this unusual story to compare the effectiveness of Native American scouts with long hair versus those with short hair, and found that the long-haired Indians were superior to those whose hair was cut short.

The theory proposed by scientists was that long hair could act as an extension of the nervous system because, unlike the way a cat's whiskers relay information to the cat when it approaches prey, long hair acted as a sixth sense.

The mammalian body has evolved over millions of years. The survival skills of man and animal sometimes seem almost supernatural. Science is constantly making new discoveries about the amazing abilities of humans. Each part of the body plays a specific role for the survival of a person and the well-being of his body as a whole. Hair is no exception.

But one way or another, there is no real scientific evidence that hair can work as an “antenna” and help a person enhance their senses in the wild, so they are nothing more than a simple assumption.