new thread
As I mentioned earlier i'm a member of the Sons of Union Veteran of
the Civil War. We've had a number of ceremonies now and for
each of those ceremonies i've proudly had my hair (grey hair and all) very visible in a pony tail.
Since my long hair is my trademark in the organization it is very visible and will ocntinue to be. I've gotten no complaints so
the ceremonies continue to go smoothly. We just had one on
Memorial Day.
In future ceremonies i'll braid it but I absolutely won't cut it
and I absolutely won't hide it in any fashion.
The hair is long it will remain long and it absolutely won't be
hidden.
I wouldn't hide it at all. Long hair was common among both armies during the Civil War. Army regulations didn't begin to limit hair length until much later. As an example, here's a picture of General Custer in his Civil War uniform.
As an ardent Civil War amature historian (I hate the word "buff")
I'm quite sure that hair was not an issue in the Civil War.
I've seen some reinactors (young ones) with excellant waist
length hair. Although the majority of them seem to be
Confederates for some reason.
I would point out i'm not the only one with long hair in the organization. There are a few others, not alot but there
are some.
I remember watching a civil war movie about the bush whackers in the mid-west who all had long hair. At the time I made a comment (here?) about the bounty of long haired studly actors in it. Unfortunately, like most hollywood productions featuring longhaired men, almost all were wearing wigs. (But they were GOOD wigs!)