Native American men's hairstyles

Caddo->
Mojave->
Salish->
Pueblo->
Crow->



The most common Native American men's hairstyles were flowing hairstyles, long braids, or shaved heads. But there were many different versions of each of these basic hairstyles. Hair held great symbolic importance for men in many Native American tribes, especially in Western tribes like the Sioux and Blackfoot. Men in these tribes only cut their hair to show grief or shame, and often wore the front part of their hair in special styles including pompadours (hair stiffened with grease or clay so that it stands up), forelocks (one long strand of hair hanging down between the eyes), or small braids or topknots arranged in various shapes. In Eastern tribes like the Lenape and Iroquois tribes, most warriors shaved their heads except for a scalplock (a single lock of hair on the crown of their head), tonsure (a fringe of hair around the head), or roach (a stiff crest of hair running down the middle of the head.) The roach hairstyle is often known as a Mohawk or Mohican hairstyle, after two tribes who frequently wore it. Native American men would often wear artificial roaches, too, which were made of brightly colored porcupine or deer hair. Men with shaved heads and men with long braids would both wear artificial roaches sometimes. Most Southwest Indian men originally wore their hair in a chongo style similar to the women's. (Chongo is a Pueblo word; the same hairstyle is also known as Tsiiyéél in Navajo and Hömsoma in Hopi.) Shoulder-length hair with a cloth bandana around it became a more popular style in the Southwest by the 1800's. Other Southwestern men twisted their hair into long hair rolls resembling modern dreadlocks, which they stiffened with clay and painted. On the Northwest Coast and northern California, men sometimes wore topknots on top of their heads. Northwest Coast men also wore mustaches and sometimes beards, while men in most other Native American tribes kept their faces shaved.