Hairstyles

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Elderly Chinese woman with elaborate hair style. John Thomson

Traditional hairstyle of a Japanese bride.

Fulani hairstyle known as Djubadeh

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Lipombo

Fulani

Dada yangu kapendeza leo baada ya kurudi salon!

The Mangbetu stood out to European explorers because of their elongated heads. Traditionally, babies' heads were wrapped tightly with cloth in order to give them this distinctive appearance. The practice, called Lipombo, began dying out in the 1950s with the arrival of more Europeans and westernization. Because of this distinctive look, it is easy to recognize Mangbetu figures in African art.

Like a MINORITY of tribes, they were supposedly cannibals

David Lewis asserts that a "wave of flesh-eating that spread from inveterate cannibals like Bakusa to Batetela, the Mangbetu, and much of the Zande" resulted from ongoing political disorder caused by Swahili raids in the 1880s.

Haute Coiffure from Ancient China

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Traditional Korean Hairstyles

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Fulani, again

Hopi maiden with · squashblossom whorls

I don't really like this one, too weird, opinion?

Fulani and other Chadian use "chebe powder" to grow hair quickly

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Kurdish nomad.

I like it

Magyar

This style is popular among most turkic peoples.

Han Dynasty hairstyle

Persians traditionally braided their hair as well. In Middle Persian, čahārgīs refers to a woman whose hair could have 40 braids.

even today?

Tang Dynasties

Persians also adopted near-eastern styles (why did these have to die out? curled beards are too cool)

Qing Dynasty

Yes, the Central Asian Turkics, that is.

The Gokturks however, favored a free-flowing hairstyle, their Khagan was recorded by the Byzantines to have hair which was never cut.

Yeah they're pretty cool.

Osun Osogbo Festival

Turks in Western China (probably Karluks and Uyghurs), depicted in Sogdian art.

I'm going to post a bunch of Tarim Basin and related art of Turkic people, now.

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Turks in Sogdian art are always depicted beardless, distinguishing them from the heavily bearded natives. There's exceptions, like long-white-bearded uyghurs.

Here's some other turkic styles from that era.

It seems all steppe peoples favored braids. The seljuks eventually adopted persian style, however.

Tibetans have cool braided styles.

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These styles in Tibet, are called "108 braids". 108 sacred qualities constitute an enlightened mind in Buddhism, and the braiding process is supposed to involve chanting these.

This is a common style for the rural people still today. Traditionally, hair is never cut for women, and rarely for non-monastic men. However, men wear simpler braids.

Example of similar hair for men.

Sango hairstyle of Democratic Republic of Congo

Decorated with beads and cowries, the Sango hairstyle of the Democratic Republic of Congo dates back to the early 19th Century. Exclusively meant for adult men, this unique hairstyle has been documented to be the proof of transition from puberty to adulthood. The Sango hairstyle often brought out the bravery in men during festivals and warfare.

Mongol hairstyles are generally similar to Turkic ones, for the common women.

Mongol men have the coolest hair, though.

Whoa

Akan hairstyle of Ghana

The porcupine-looking hairstyle of the Akan-speaking women of the then-Gold Coast is notably one of the hairstyles still alive among Ghanaian women. The hairdo, generally made of one’s natural hair, was not just an ethnic symbol by the Gold Coasters of the early 19th century but also the easiest form of identifying the women from the girls in the pre- and post-colonial Ashanti Kingdom.

Wolof women, West Africa

Supposedly mongol-like hairstyles were brought to Eastern Europe by the Pannonian Avars and perhaps Huns.

There are turkic peoples in the area who do have some similarities, but it's unclear if they originate from the newcomers or not.

Tsimihety woman from the northern part of Madagascar

Interesting, thank you for your thorough research.

To this day, people in Romania and Hungary have traditional braids for men (see: hussars hairstyles also). They might be from steppe influence, or just be a unique, areal feature.

I just want to touch that hair, looks pretty nice.

No problem.

One thing that always made me wonder, is why Scythian art has no braided men. Everyone has long, flowing hair.

Are braids a turkic influence, then? But then, Western Iranic peoples like Persians were noted for their unique braided styles, and they didn't get this from settled Mesopotamians. Since siberian scythian mummies do have braids, I think its safe to say that braids were an areal feature of all eurasian nomads, and the main mystery is why scythian men were not seen with them, in art.

Going back to the East, there's quite a bit of Indian hairstyles in any Buddhist art.

Long hair in India was always the norm.

These hairstyles have been made by the Nigerian photograph J.D. Okhai Ojeikere, multiple artists have made homage to him, Medina Dugger for example with the project "Chroma".

François beaurain then made animated gifs using Medina's photos, the project is called "Chromatin".

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Ascetics in India wear dread locks often, sometimes reaching ridiculous lengths.

How are they so rigid? Do they put something in the hair or is it natural?

Lets look at some ancient hairstyles of Central Asia. The Huna people were Indo-Iranian tribes with perhaps minor Turkic influence, who invaded Afghanistan and India, a serious problem for the Indo-Greeks and Indians.

They did cranial deformation and had some crazy styles.

The Kushans were replaced by them.

It's natural I think

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Ochre dreadlocks of the Hamar Tribe in Ethiopia

>They did cranial deformation
Like the Mangbetu, but I don't understand why these culture do that, what's the point?

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_cranial_deformation#Motivations_and_theories

Buddha had hair before he achieved nirvana. After that he shaved his head . Because buddha's father asked him not to be like that, because that was shameful to their family status , because in india all the lower class people and beggars used to shave the head . But Buddha didn't listen to what his father said and kept the head shaved. And he is like any other human being , no such differences as those stories say .

Side story

Once the Buddha was going somewhere by foot at stopped his journey when it 's dark and went inside a small public cottage nearby to spend the night. There was this person in this cottage who also was on his way to see Buddha. His name was "pukkusathi" as much as I remember, so Buddha asked about him, and he said he was going to see the Buddha, so this implies the Buddha was same as any other monk in appearance.

Conclusion

He might had curly hair before he achieved nirvana , I think its best to not to talk about Buddha s appearances because , only thing Buddha asked from humans was to follow the path to nirvana.

So the hair is like that on statues because , There are statues of other monks as well , so people have to identify who is Buddha to worship those statues, so the artists who made those had to make it that way to make it different from other statues.

buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/18291/why-this-hair-style-on-statues-of-the-buddha

Yeah, people from Africa to Asia to (native) America did it. An interesting fact: the
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siraces
An ancient Sarmatian peoples, didn't practice deformation, but did elect the man with "longest head" as leader. So the wikipedia's claim that it was not only an in-group indicator, but emulated already long heads, might be right.

That said, doesn't explain why long heads are desired.

Regarding Africa: it was recorded there since 400BC:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrocephali

But besides them, majority of cases were from the Eurasian steppe: Huns, various Iranics; and since Native Americans come from Siberia, maybe they got it there.

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I think you made an error...

Tuareg

I don't remember the tribe but I think it's from East Africa...

bigger version

Igbo, Nigeria, West Africa Photo: Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal.

from northern Dan village of Biankuma, Ivory Coast, West Africa

Bedik men hairstyle

Tsemay girl with her braided hairstyle

The hairstyle is from Rwanda and is called "amasunzu"

Fante women

Manchu hairstyle

Natives of Ugogo, east central Africa

Incorrect, it's the black samurai hairstyle.

Seminole lady
with board hair

Why?

Caddo man with roached hair

Sketch of a woman wearing a chongo

>amasunzu
lol, I can see why!

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