Hairstyles

I was curious as a half breed being native American & growing up around other Indians hair is a very important thing do you guys have any sort of tradition to your hair & why? Braids bring me a feeling of safety while letting my hair flow represents the natural flow of life. I actually took in these beliefs from other tribes even tho I belong to eastern cherokee. We only kept the top of our hair which I integrated into the other traditions from other tribes I grew up around with my braids. We also wore mohawks in times of war & other tribes cut theur hair in times of loss or great shame. Does anyone else have a strong feeling towards their hair style & if so why?

I grew up with a version of Christianity that wasn't that deep when it came to physical appearance except for a general sense of judgment about everything you did being generally and generically ungodly. After that I was attracted to a more "afro-centric" version of messianic Judaism. And being half-Jamaican there's also a bible-inspired set of cultural tradition around hair. Rastafarians of course grow their hair according to the Levitical tradition/vow that Samson was part of. I have dreadlocks inspired by but not constrained by the same rules. The cutting of hair also seems to span across cultures for mostly the same reasons. Interesting question.

The story of Samson is truly an amazing one. That's very interesting considering god gave him his strength through his hair (seemingly) & he still destroyed his enemies along with him when they thought his hair was what truly gave him power after they forcibly cut it he still brought down the walls.

I keep my hair long because it is a direct tie to my personal autonomy.

I work in high tech, and have a very conservative hair cut because personal image is very important to professional success in my sector. Personally, I don't care very much about my image (I'd wear a bathrobe 24/7 if I had things my way), but I get that other people ascribe importance to image and I apply a certain physical look for a specific effect.
Pragmatically, I like having shorter hair anyhow.

I started growing my hair out in college and then donating it because I had a friends little girl 3 at the time (still alive!) that got ill and lost her hair. Last hair cut was December last year and now I am thinking I'm gonna let it ride for a bit longer this time (About shoulder blade length right now).

Your reasons are very noble beyond admirable. A very Jedi thing to do.

Meh, it's just hair it'll regrow until I go bald, but thats my personal belief.

Honestly man, I would love to hear more about the tribes that you grew up around beliefs about hair. It's not something commonly known, if you dont mind sharing more?

My tribe usually kept shaved heads bald or a single scalplock on top and a Mohawk during times of war they even fashioned faux Mohawks and wore then during times of war. When my ancestors grew older & their hair started to turn white they would grow it out as a symbol of wisdom meaning you had been here on mother earth longer than most. Other tribes believed braids to be sacred things almost like a protection that showed we were tied to the earth. Some tribes dont like to have braids during pow wows & rituals with fire dancing because the flowing hair represents openness & freedom I believe. Some white men would capture Indian women and make them take out their braids as a sign of disrespect & breaking down their spirit. There are a lot of different things when it comes to hair & different tribes. I really only learned aboit my tribe but i also learned a little of everyones because I was one of the only cherokee on campus at Haskell Indian nations so my culture wasnt taught as much as everyone else's they mainly teach my tribes culture in Oklahoma but i never grew up on a reservation & I wouldn't want too because Indian politics nowadays are very complicated & a lot of our governments are based upon greed & sharing casino money with as little of us as possible. My grandfather was very against it & he said white men owe us nothing either because it wasnt us it happened to it was our ancestors 400 years ago. As far as he was concerned our ancestors lost a war they could never win in the first place. My great grandfather was the one with the most tradition but he was an alcoholic & he couldn't bare the weight of having a child with cerebral palsy so he abandoned my great grandmother & my grandfather was raised by a white man who married my great grandmother after my great grandfather left our family behind. Really complicated family history with all of it so when I was in middle school i qualified for a program for Indian children in the school to learn our history & I took the opportunity because I had dawes records from my family from the late 1890s & early 1900s that was when the last ones were taken for cherokee blood. So in the process of learning from this college I integrated a lot of other tribes traditions into my own simply because I was around them & not my own tribe. I do however still speak some of my language & raised from wolves in my tribal name given to me in English. In cherokee its pronounced Ooo da hee sta na gay. Nee da ley na da. A nee wa ya. We have our own alphabet also.

Dude that's dope, all of us have a history and Native Americans is seldom heard from the mouth in white main stream culture. So, how does the alphabet translate to English, are there similar sets of vowels or sound? If you are willing to share what you know at anytime man please do. I know I could research more, I took a good class on it in college but to be honest, I would rather have a good conversation.

Much Love, Respect and Peace,
Kobos

I had locks for 7 years. I miss them

Grow them back? It's always worth a try

Gotta get money, honey

Ya know the crazy thing is there is not enough information on the internet about it really either which is really strange but yea I never learned to use my ancestors alphabet extensively but its much shorter than English spelled words like a few letters can form a whole sentence which in English would be way longer because our language originally didn't have words like "but" "and" "by" etc. & the lettering is more complicated to write. I really just learned to speak a little of it. I think there are probably 20 thousand people left who can still speak it & write in our alphabet. Most of us just know a little bit. We have our own government that still operates within the united states & we get free medical care from the federal government of we are tribal members but we don't get money or land that was all given over 120 years ago to very few & we still pay taxes like every other American. Most people think we all get tribal money but that is far from the truth lol. However I grew up outside of all that. I'm the only one in my family for 2 generations who can speak the language somewhat & actually knows quite a bit since my great grandfather who left us. Only reason i do is growing up where i did I grew up with a white mother when my parents seperated she got custody of us because my father was a bit like my great grandfather when it came to alcohol & being violent lol indians are pretty mean when they drink. So we moved to Kansas and I learned about my culture through a program there for indigenous children which was dope. Then I continued to move around my whole life & lost touch with a lot of Indians but i still keep my traditions going somewhat & plan on passing down what I know to my children someday. Its a dying culture so a lot of the time white men will misinterpret it trying to remember my ancestors through random chants that mean nothing & seem kinda racist because of that lol even though their intentions are good they are destroying whats left of a culture. But when they do it correctly through actual chants with real words other Indians enjoy it because the culture is then being shared and passed on no matter what race its passed down through as long as its passed down correctly.

I keep my hair shoulder length, with an undercut. The undercut is on the back of my head, from just behind one ear to the other, and down to the neck.
I've thought about braiding occasionally, I know how to braid my own hair, but mostly I let it hang loose or tie it like a top knot.
I've been watching the dark crystal series on Netflix, and even with the danger of getting snagged on my piercings, I've toyed with the idea of growing my hair long enough to braid AROUND my ears, like some of the Gelflings do
Long hair and braids are included in my ancestral background, being mostly Irish. The 3 strand or "trinity" braid is said to be culturally significant, as many Celts were purported to follow at least one goddess who was part of a Trinity.
I can't speak to other parts of my background, Irish was given priority over everything else.

If you think you'd enjoy it go for it man won't know till ya try it

Kobos wrote: Dude that's dope, all of us have a history and Native Americans is seldom heard from the mouth in white main stream culture. So, how does the alphabet translate to English, are there similar sets of vowels or sound? If you are willing to share what you know at anytime man please do. I know I could research more, I took a good class on it in college but to be honest, I would rather have a good conversation.

Much Love, Respect and Peace,
Kobos

I wish there was a whole lot more Native American culture out there. I feel like the movie Avatar kind of spoke to some of those cultural elements in a really good way and kind of turned the question of savage and superior around and made it about behavior. I also thought it was interesting how they (since we're talking about hair) used hair as a symbol of the people's connection with their environment.

Samson's hair, too, was a symbol of his connection with his God. I think it's beneficial for everyone to have something that symbolizes, for them, that connection; whether its to their God, to nature, or to the Force.

My hair.
I’m mixed as far as back rounds concerned. So truthfully to meet you at that road - I’m there boss. There’s a part of me and my family from Mexico - dirt floors and wood stoves and the other half from some large island where pineapples grow.
Being me -I have this part of my path I’ll share with you ...
My hair.
I’m originally from Texas. Yup y’all and football .
There came a time in my life I began to remove a lot of my own labels for things. I used to call it my “Teja- know “ from the actual word Tejano
- person from Texas. So it was the manners that drove me to bring my Texas out. Turns out people have manners. In my circles , fear or forgetfulness - a simple yes mam’ or door open moved mountains... still does. Now - I said all that to say this ... my hair is long. Mid back and it’s kept there, same for my learners braid. I find more people are open to me and remember more manners at times - I don’t wanna say it’s because of hair or a idea but... my connection exist because of so many things some days - my hair may be a small part of many reasons that can exist!

Very interesting Carlos I'm sure it does. I find men with longer hair to be more trustable than men with conservative hair cuts. It gives them a more laid back trusting vibe & I'm less likely to withhold certain information from them than I would towards someone who a flattop soldier haircut who might come off as uptight & unopen. Many men who have military cuts i distrust they come off as people not who have their glass half full or half empty but as if they're glass is turned upside down where they are not open to embracing new ideas. Of course this is only my personal outlook & vibe i receive which comes from my own personal intuition.