Authentic hairstyles

[-Zach-]

Could anybody help me out with authentic hairstyles would they have had short hair styles.Would they have had short hair or would the length of hair vary.I have short hair as of right now and not sure whether I should grow it back out.Also styles of hair would help.





Zachariah Wiles

[john.vansickle]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

Zach,
There are so many variables that would come into play here. Ethnic background, regional influences, age, personal preference, length of service, the ability to maintain their hair, etc... My suggestion would be to determine what type of solder you're intending to portray (ie: Ohio soldier in western theater in 1863) and then look at photos. Just as you would critically examine period photos of soldiers to study uniforms and equipment, apply that approach to grooming standards.

John Van Sickle

[David Fox]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

Whole units of volunteers had their heads shaved; "filed" as they called it. Like today's Goths and punks, some had shaven designs, eagles and the like, on their otherwise bare pates. Military cut denoted unit pride and, eventually in camp, kept head lice at bay. Regulations often imposed uniformly short hair. And, as comrade Van Sickle stated, otherwise anything else was often practiced. Do study photos, especially if you can find them of the unit and the time of war you intend to portray. Many years ago I wrote a tongue in cheek article for "Camp Chase Gazette" on Civil War soldiers' hair styles entiltled "Of Hair and Heroes" with footnotes, if you can find it.

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

Look at lots of photos and you will find shaggy (but not "hippy" long) parted on the side with lots of hair grease.

[Matthew Semple]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

The link below may contain some helpful information. I knew this subject was discussed before on the forums and the search function helped a bit with digging it up.

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?22613-Hairstyle&highlight=hair+styles

[-Zach-]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

Thanks to all because most images I have looked at has had long a longer style hair cut but I have shaved head at about a 1 inch guard and wasnt sure if I should grow it back out because it was not authentic or not but this really helped thanks to all.

[-Zach-]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

http://clarewbrown.files.wordpress.c...e-uniform1.jpg his hair seems to be quite short

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

This guy does the short hair, too: http://www.minecreek.org/sack-coats/...rimean-war.jpg

[lojafan]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

Here is a link to a story out of the book "The Blue and the Grey" about a soldier giving a "buzz" cut with scissors.

http://www.angelfire.com/va3/valleywar/haircut.html

[Cumpston1862]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

I came across this entry last night in a book I was reading. The book is called Brother Against Brother: The Lost Civil War Diary of Lt. Edmund Halsey. He was in the 15th New Jersey Infantry. Lt. Halsey is detailing they are getting ready to start marching (for what would be the Battle of Chancellorsville).On page 124 it has the following entry for April 20, 1863.

"In the afternoon, all the haircutters were at work cropping the men close to the skull".

[guad42]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

In past threads we have discussed soldier cuts in the past. I have often felt that Waitt's history of the 19th Massachusetts describes this fairly well:

The hair cutting mania seemed, at one time, literally to have taken hold of the men, and the shorter they had cut it, the better, as some believed. They called it the "fighting cut". Jere Cronan, of Company G, outdid everybody else by having his head shaved of every spear of hair, so that it looked like a newborn baby's.

Probably one of the best online guides for period hair are the photos on loc.gov that are in the Liljenquist Civil War Photo collection and the Dagguerotypes collection as well. The Dags though will mainly show pre-war Civilians and the Civil War portraits will show a variety - given that many were likely taken before the subject spent much time in the field.

-Sam Dolan

[YankeeTiger]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

I imagine viewing images of the battlefield dead are another way to see how hair was 'worn' on campaign...granted it would be a little, say, mussed up from the trauma of death

[Elaine Kessinger]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

The Harewood Hospital during the war took photos of it's patients, many bare-chested, to document wounds. These are excellent for seeing hair and facial hair as it was worn in the field. You can even see tan lines from headwear being continuously worn. The following gallery includes a few. If you happen onto a copy of the "Columbia Rifles Research Compendium, 2nd edition" you will find even more.

http://www.robertandersongallery.com/photo/burns-archive/

[Pumpkinslinger]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

That's some lucky fellas right there.

[guad42]

Re: Authentic hairstyles

As mentioned the photos of Prisoners of War offer an opportunity to get a sense of a soldier's appearance in general (at least at the terminus of their field service) and hair specifically. Here is an illustration done by the artist Edwin Forbes which is allegedly of CS troops as prisoners near Woodstock, VA. I know, illustrations don't cut the mustard compared to photos, but it does appear to have been sketched on scene and at the bottom some attempt to note or identify the subjects (?).



-Sam Dolan