Need an justification to grow long hair or a beard? Try this

Swallow

Native
May 27, 2011
1,552
4
London
As I read the documents, I learned why. It seems that during the Vietnam War special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts, for tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities. Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively documented as experts in tracking and survival.

With the usual enticements, the well proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some of these Indian trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.

Serious causalities and failures of performance led the government to contract expensive testing of these recruits, and this is what was found.

When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer 'sense' the enemy, they could no longer access a 'sixth sense', their 'intuition' no longer was reliable, they couldn't 'read' subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.

So the testing institute recruited more Indian trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the same scores on all the tests. They would let one man in the pair keep his hair long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the tests.

Time after time the man with long hair kept making high scores. Time after time, the man with the short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high scores.

http://www.sott.net/article/234783-The-Truth-About-Hair-and-Why-Indians-Would-Keep-Their-Hair-Long
 

dewi

Full Member
May 26, 2015
2,647
13
Cheshire
There is a logical explanation when you think about it... the guys who kept their hair felt like themselves, were more relaxed and able to focus. The ones who went through the military haircut (which is a brutal experience... not like the corner barber shop) they would not feel like themselves... and if their belief was that their hair made them one with nature, that belief could have led them to self-doubt once their hair was chopped off.

Little bit like the placebo effect, but with hair.

Arguably the legend of Samson was probably much the same... a man's belief in his own self image, so much so that when that image is altered, he doubts himself. Doubt yourself, doubt your ability.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
Mine's nearly down to my waist again :) ….and Son1's is even longer.
Though I don't know what sixth sense it endows :dunno:

Maybe the ones with their hair cut felt they'd left their intrinsic 'Indian-ness' behind and somehow embraced the armed services? :dunno:

M
 

dewi

Full Member
May 26, 2015
2,647
13
Cheshire
I had hair down to my waist in my late teens early twenties... but it was really rather heavy when I took a shower... I went to the barber shop when I was coming up to my mid twenties, and when my son (who was about 2 at the time) saw me, he cried for the rest of the day.

I kind of miss having long hair, but its that inbetween bit going from short to long that I hate.... and whether short or long, I couldn't track to save my own life!!
 

sunndog

Full Member
May 23, 2014
3,561
479
derbyshire
cut the hair.....take the power (fact, as proven by tom jones, i mean samson)



Keep it long.......keep the POWER!!!
 

didicoy

Full Member
Mar 7, 2013
541
12
fens
I Have always had long hair., my beard must be 9 inch long now too. My sons hair his down to just below his jeans belt loops.
Years ago I shaved my head, I was forever bumping my head on things. Like cat whiskers, hair gives me some protection and warning.

Native Indians were very useful in the Vietnam conflict for their native language. Radio messages could not be easily interpreted or translated by the enemy.
 

wicca

Native
Oct 19, 2008
1,065
34
South Coast
No scientific research/testing into the subject would have been necessary had a group of Skinheads trying to read a London Underground map been observed..;)
 
Nov 29, 2004
7,808
26
Scotland
No scientific research/testing into the subject would have been necessary had a group of Skinheads trying to read a London Underground map been observed..;)

:lmao:

I cut down to 1 mm in the summer but let it grow long in the winter. I hadn't noticed a change in my ability to sense danger but my sense of when Mrs. Sandbender is cooking something nice does seem heightened during the winter months.
 
Last edited:

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
18
Scotland
Sense & long hair? Most definitely, my girlfriends all had a sense of envy when I had my long curly locks down to my beam end. :D:)
Like said above though when I got it cut I did start to bang my head more. I think its more down to a cultural feeling of self though, a feeling of loosing you mojo.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 
Last edited:

demographic

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 15, 2005
4,762
785
-------------
So they were brilliant trackers when they were talking about it on the reservation but considerably less good when they had to perform in an area they didn't know so well but it was the lack of hair that caused it...

Did you lot know that the word "Gullible" is being removed from the dictionary?
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
18
Scotland
So they were brilliant trackers when they were talking about it on the reservation but considerably less good when they had to perform in an area they didn't know so well but it was the lack of hair that caused it...

Did you lot know that the word "Gullible" is being removed from the dictionary?

A bit like said "Lone Watie" in The Outlaw Josey Wales. :D

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

mrcharly

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 25, 2011
3,257
45
North Yorkshire, UK
There is a logical explanation when you think about it... the guys who kept their hair felt like themselves, were more relaxed and able to focus. The ones who went through the military haircut (which is a brutal experience... not like the corner barber shop) they would not feel like themselves... and if their belief was that their hair made them one with nature, that belief could have led them to self-doubt once their hair was chopped off.

Little bit like the placebo effect, but with hair.

Arguably the legend of Samson was probably much the same... a man's belief in his own self image, so much so that when that image is altered, he doubts himself. Doubt yourself, doubt your ability.
Makes absolute sense to me.
 

GGTBod

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 28, 2014
3,209
26
1
We the mighty in tune with the Earth stand here as hairy as nature intended us to be :viking:
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
55
Rossendale, Lancashire
I thought in nature hair didn't get particularly long as it would get caught on things and be pulled out through tough living, hence its need to grow constantly to replace the hair caught on twigs, , passing bears etc.

also wondering how huge a sample group it was, sounds pretty anecdotal to me.

i'm just jealous, when I went through my metal head phase I let it grow for two or three years and it just got thicker and thicker rather than longer and longer until it looked like I was wearing a fur crash helmet.

atb

tom
 

mick91

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
May 13, 2015
2,064
8
Sunderland
No scientific research/testing into the subject would have been necessary had a group of Skinheads trying to read a London Underground map been observed..;)

Hey what's that ment to mean I'm a skinhead and proud of it! Although I'll admit the underground does baffle me, I instinctively just listen to ska and Oi music and retreat to somewhere quieter
 
Ineteresting.

But..... I'm not sure who Sally was and why we've not read this before.

Please don't think that all native americans had long hair in the 1970's. Many - and I was one one who had it cut short. People didn;'t like indians with long hair. It was discouraged . Most USA indians were no longer hunting by then - forced onto reservations and that sort of thing.

Up here there are very, very few older hunters with longer hair. Almost all have short hair and those that still follow the old ways are excellent trackers & hunters. We used to have a couple of white hunters work up here in the 70's and I remember one had little hair. He too was a good hunter and could track and follow all the signs of game. We liked him and found it funny that you could loose your hair without cutting it.
 

Swallow

Native
May 27, 2011
1,552
4
London
So they were brilliant trackers when they were talking about it on the reservation but considerably less good when they had to perform in an area they didn't know so well but it was the lack of hair that caused it...

Did you lot know that the word "Gullible" is being removed from the dictionary?

So, join the army, have a hair cut, go to Vietnam, consume large amounts of Caribbean herb and 'loose' you power?

The article isn't too well backed up and wasn't posted here as hard science but if you guys reached those conclusions you weren't tracking what it said (and didn't say) in the article that well.

The unfortunate thing if you have long curly hair is that if male pattern baldness arrives you have choice.

Learn to speak Klingon or cut it.

I never got the hang of Klingon.....
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE