new thread
One of the reasons I've been growing my hair out is so that when I get together with friends and our boats that I can put on my "pirate" outfit and say "yaarr" a lot.
It has been hard though to find out how sailors actually tied up their hair. Historical novels, biographies and paintings from the time show no details. Fortunately while reading my well thumbed copy of The Ashley Book of Knots, I came across knots #3576 and 3577 which I had seen before but never really "noticed".
"Queues were worn in the Navy by enlisted men well into the nineteenth century. They were made in two ways - either laid up into a rattail similar to #3566 or else platted as ordinary Four-Strand Square Sinnet #2999. A cask of eelskins, well pickled in brine, was kept handy. The queue was tightly worked to a point, and the eelskin, having been carefully rolled wrong side out into the form of a doughnut, was rolled back over the queue and seized. On dress occasions it was finished off with ribbon and bow. Every three or four months it had to be replenished, which was made necessary by the normal growth of the hair."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/knottyers/message/5089
I'm now practicing that sinnet with some small rope I keep handy in that purpose. If I can master it then I'll try it as a braid (but not in my beard).
Finding pickled eelskins rolled into a doughnut might be a bit difficult and using a condom would be just weird (to me). I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on what could be substituted?