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Greenhorn
posted
Im not sure if this is the correct page to ask this, but here goes:

I recently read, I think, in one of George Ruxton's books that the Mountain Men had long, shoulder length hair and were clean shaven. He even mentioned that they would shave everyday. In most paintings and art work depicting mountain men, they have short hair and long beards. Which is correct?


"...having Providence for their founder and Nature for shepherd, gardener, and historian."
 
Posts: 44 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 01 May 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Both


"But I swear, a woman's breast is the hardest rock that the Almighty ever made on this earth, and I can find no sign on it." Bear Claw Chris Lapp
 
Posts: 516 | Location: Ft Parker/Ft Manuel Lisa | Registered: 15 April 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Dick
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I think both, too. Likely also is that men didn't shave out in the field or when too wrapped up in other things, but shaved when they got close to Rendezvous or a settlement, or when they had their "spring bath".

Dick


"Est Deus in Nobis"
 
Posts: 2902 | Location: Helena, Montana | Registered: 10 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
Picture of Willis Creek
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I would add that their domestic situation would have an impact on the beard no beard situation. I would think that those trappers closely aligned with a specific tribe would probably shave. The lady of the lodge would make that determination.


"touch not the cat without a glove"
"Much of the social history of the western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. . ." Thomas Sowell
 
Posts: 143 | Location: South of the Arkansas, on the slopes of St. Charles Peak, Colorado territory | Registered: 25 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
Picture of Swanny
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While modern artists frequently depict free-trappers as bearded, artists who actually observed those men in the field rarely did so. Most likely the majority, just as the majority of their counterparts in the settlements, were more or less clean shaven.

Up north, in the Canadian trade, I've found only a handful of men writing of their beards, one who complained (yep, complained) that his beard was as long as the quill with which he was writing. Most of those historical references were of men finally getting a chance to shave.

I'm sure some free-trappers were bearded, but the best available evidence seems to show that they were a small minority.


“A good dog is so much a nobler beast than an indifferent man that one sometimes gladly exchanges the society of one for that of the other.” (William Francis Butler)
 
Posts: 28 | Location: Two Rivers, Alaska | Registered: 23 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Pilgrim
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This topic is a bone that has been gnawed on frequently and for a long time. It does bring up a pitfall that should be avoided. That is over generalization. Statements like "Mountain Men were clean shaven (or wore beards, or had long hair) is kind of like saying "Taxidermists have sideburns". Some do - some don't. Everyone makes individual choices. I'm sure the trappers were influenced by current fashions, but on the other hand, they were individuals who did whatever the hell they wanted to. Just be careful about taking a standard and trying to make it universal. Vive le différence!


"Any day you wake up on the right side of the dirt is a good day"
 
Posts: 428 | Location: Northwestern California | Registered: 05 May 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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Agreed. Couldn't have said it better myself Pilgrim.
 
Posts: 117 | Location: Texas Panhandle, North of the Canadian | Registered: 10 July 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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As an aside, clean faces would have been, in general, more accepting to the Indians and allowed them to fit in better, maybe.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3558 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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In this lodge the lady of the house says no beard...... Big Grin


The best thing about owning a dog is that someone is happy when you get home.
 
Posts: 959 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 09 December 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I have had my beard so long that my 23 year old daughter has never seen me without one. She wouldn't know who I was.

BC


"Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad."
Thomas Paine
 
Posts: 649 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 27 June 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of GreyWolf
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Using the original field sketches and not the later "doctored" paintings by A. J. Miller as a guide for the RMFT 1830's era the count is about 50% no beards and 50% bearded (the latter include Jim Bridger and others who had Indian wives so that alone was not necessarily a reason to shave.
On Jed Smith's first (or may be second?) trip to California, only Smith and his clerk took shaving gear from the stores carried - the implication being that most of his men wore beards.
As always it's time and place specific that needs to be considered rather than a generalized statement.


aka Chuck Burrows
 
Posts: 616 | Location: Southern Rockies | Registered: 03 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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It's a personal thing. Just like today. Some have beards, and some don't. I sort of split the difference, and have a goatee.


Flinter
 
Posts: 42 | Location: Colorado | Registered: 11 August 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
<mtnmike>
posted
Here's something to think about. Big Grin

 
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Booshway
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Beard is a great place to put the deer attractant!!!!! I grow one in the winter, just to help keep my face warm,,then summer shave it off.
 
Posts: 1839 | Registered: 11 February 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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My wife likes the way I look with a beard. I've had it long, short, shorn but with a handlebar mustache, Miami Vice cut, trimmed, Tom Selleck cut and everything in between. Regardless, I always have some sort of facial hair growth.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3558 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I have a beard because I just don't like to shave. Shaving cream and razor blades are an expense I just don't need, what with the cost of powder, lead and whisky.
 
Posts: 507 | Registered: 14 August 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Idaho Mountainneer
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I like the pic MikeSmiler
 
Posts: 330 | Location: Twin Falls ID | Registered: 29 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Dick
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I think it depends on where and when you're talking about. I know less about the "Mountain Man Era" in the Rocky Mountains than I do about the lake-country fur trade of Canada and the border and the northern states. I haven't read much about facial hair, but one thing I do know is that the voyageurs (especially the hired laborers ("engagees") didn't have TIME to shave unless they were socked in by storms or fog. They stopped shortly before arriving at Grand Portage or Fort William to "redd up", bathing, digging out their snazzy clothes, and probably shaving. So "in public" they were probably shaved. Maybe not, on the "voyage."


"Est Deus in Nobis"
 
Posts: 2902 | Location: Helena, Montana | Registered: 10 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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First, lets talk about "clean shaven". That's a relative term. For example, we know that soldiers in the British army in the 18th century, in camp or garrison, shaved about twice a week, so about three day's growth was thought to be acceptable, when today we don't think of that as "clean" let alone "shaved".

Personal appearance norms differ depending on the setting, even today. Ever seen the sign that says "no shirt = no service."? Big Grin So I think that you'd find in cold weather, when running traps, or simply hunting for a long period of time, why not have a beard? However, if one has to actually travel to a town, or worse, maybe appear in court to testify about this or that... they probably were very well groomed indeed. You will note that none of the founding fathers were ever painted with facial hair... now they were mostly either city dwellers or landed gentry... but Washington did have a frontier background.

Christopher Gist, a very close friend of Washington, once was refused admittance to Washington's quarters as Gist was dressed Indian fashion at the time, having just come back from a scout, and he had to scrounge some breeches before he could report to the General...even though it was wartime and the information Gist had was important. Eeker

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Being able to grow a full beard is a chancy thing in my Family.I'm one of the guys that can,and I've had face hair of one sort or another pretty constant ever since I could grow it.Last year I shaved off the full beard I'd had since before my wife had known me.I didn't warn her,and as a result,I wasn't sure she would let me sleep inside.She made me grow the mustache back,at least.I guess I have kinda a baby face,and she didn't like me looking that much younger than her.I've been thinking about growing the full bush back.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2013 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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