I had wondered about all this and now we know they caused it to be removed as a health measure or even fashion.
It certainly was not common knowledge which is curious.
Shaving back in the day was carried out by barbers and surely it was difficult until quality steels became readily available. The Romans used pumice stone to grind it back. It all sounds painful.
singeing sounds way more reliable as the Indians did.
Do you mean, why do some old pictures look like this?
Look very closely here. There is indeed no facial hair to speak of…but also no eyebrows!
This was a very popular tradition throughout much of what is now the United States and parts of Canada. People would have all hair on their face (or even body) plucked or singed to get that refined look. Hairy faces were considered ugly, barbaric and beastly — imagine the culture shock when a bunch of hairy people showed up!
There are some natives that physically have problems growing out facial hair. Sometimes it’s genetic, sometimes it has to do with diet and lifestyle. There’s plenty of natives today that let their faces grow out a bit and wear them quite well — many ‘full-blooded’ if you suspect European ancestry has anything to do with it! You’ll also find many vintage photos of Indians with facial hair; most in western North America and along the coast. When the Spanish came across the Southern Paiute, they found that some men sported beards as thick as some of their own.
Roland Maldonaldo, Chairman of the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians
Lester Skeesuk, a Narragansett-Mohegan member of the “Brothertown Indians” — an early Christian Native American community
Chief Satangya or Sitting Bear, Kiowa
A Kumeyaay man from San Diego, c. early 1800s
Jose Pedro Losero, a Soboba Luiseño man from Riverside County, California.
Chief of an unnamed Mission Indian band from John Stoddard’s journals
Ano-Tlosh, a Tlingit chief
Dennis Esquivel, Ojibwe-Odawa painter, sculptor and furniture maker
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