I could’ve sworn that my fourth-grade teacher told us that Native Americans (Indians, then) cannot grow facial hair. She pointed out that all the photos of the chiefs from the 1800s and descriptions from earlier than that show men without a trace of even stubble. Nowadays, you see NAs with mustasches, but this is a result of 150 years of cross-breeding, mostly with Mexicans, she claimed. I would’ve tossed it off, but it DOES seem like those old guys, Sitting Bull, Roman Nose, Gerinimo, and the like didn’t have any beards, at least not in any photo I’ve seen. Is it true? Can “full-blooded” Native American men grow beards?
Yes I can, but not a full beard a goatee looks ok though.
I’m only 1/16 Cherokee and didn’t start shaving until I was 22 and all I could muster was a thin moustache.(I wanted a goatee badly) Now I shave my upper lip about every other day, never my chin or sideburns.
My grandfather was 3/8 Algonquin (no one is really sure WHICH algonquin tribe, maybe more than one, but I digress) and, according to my mother, shaved only once a week. She claims that she’s not sure her grandfather (who was 3/4 Algonquin) EVER shaved. Most of her brothers have mustaches, but it also took them some time to grow one. I have no noticble difference in standard facial hair growth from the average European, but at 3/32, my Algonquin traits are pretty well diluted.
In a related note, not ALL Native American peoples have a lack of facial hair. Eskimos and Inuits can (and often do) grow beards.
At least you Indian types can claim that it’s just not your way to grow beards. What about us 29 year old whiteys that shave about every 3rd day? And that’s getting rid of a spotty mustache etc. that would look bad even if left for a month?
Occaisonally, I literally have dreams that all of a sudden I’ve started to grow a normal beard.
My husband is 1/4 Cherokee and the best he can do is the goatee thing. He’s got these bald patches between where a goatee ends and his sideburns. Looks pretty funny actually.
…it has never been my way to bother much about things which you can’t cure.
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court-Mark Twain
It’s not just facial hair, but chest hair as well. I cannot speak for all Indian variations, but thanks to my Cherokee grandfather I cannot grow a beard (not even a decent goatee) and have only a small patch of chest hair. He has no chest hair and cannot grow a beard or mustache. At least for me, other body regions have normal hair growth. As an aside, balding is not nearly as prevalent with Indians.
Where in the evolutionary model does a no facial hair, no chest hair, non-balding human fit?
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
Close to the Asiatics, perhaps? I hope the Chinese and Japanese don’t jump on me for this, but this whole thread seems to give credence to the idea that the Native Americans arrived from Russia via Alaska, rather than coming from Europe via the Atlantic.
Every 3rd day?! Every day for me, friends.
I lived with a guy who was half Navajo and half Pueblo Indian. Didn’t have any other kind of blood in him but Native American as far back as he knew. He had almost no facial hair (tiny bit of mustache), and practically no arm hair, but lots of leg hair.
Whatever, it is in my genetic make-up, that allows me to shave only weekly, I’m eternally grateful for.
Lucky me, lucky Indians. 
Peace,
mangeorge
Work like you don’t need the money…
Love like you’ve never been hurt…
Dance like nobody’s watching! …Unknown
I can go a day without shaving, but that’s because my beard is rather light in color. BTW, I had a Mexican-American friend in college who had very thin facial hair. He only had to shave once a week or so. As far as he knew, he had no Native American blood in him. If it makes any difference, his family has been American for several generations; they weren’t immigrants.
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
[[I can go a day without shaving, but that’s because my beard is rather light in color. BTW, I had a Mexican-American friend in college who had very thin facial hair. He only had to shave once a week or so. As far as he knew, he had no Native American blood in him. If it makes any difference, his family has been American for several generations; they weren’t immigrants.]]
I would say there are practically no “Mexican Americans” that don’t have indigenous American blood. Are you saying that he’s purely Spanish?
Well im only half Filipino (Half White too) and i can scarcely grow a moustache, and i have just the barest trace of hair on my chin. I only shave my upper lip and chin area. I have no hair anywhere else on my face. I still looked like i had the beginning-of-puberty-stubble look when i was 18 (i started shaving just last year!). Any attempts to grow a beard would be pitiful. I’ve gone a week so far without shaving and no ones noticed (the stubbles about 1/8 inch long). Thank goodness for my genes!
Guys, remember that genetics is not the sole determining factor in facial hair. You have to take testosterone, estrogen, age of the person, uh, and, uh, other stuff into account.
I don’t know who first said “everyone’s a critic,” but I think it’s a really stupid saying.
Another thing: What do hasidic jews who are Native American say when they’re accused of shaving because they have no beard?
I don’t know who first said “everyone’s a critic,” but I think it’s a really stupid saying.
Pete:
They say, “Shave? How!”
Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@schicktech.com
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
The great war chief of the Kiowas,Sitting Bear (179?-1871), was renowned for his flowing mustache. You remember him,he’s the fellow who,while being hauled by wagon to prison in Texas, ducked beneath the blanket and GNAWED his wrists 'till he could slip the manacles off!Then ,singing his death song, leapt at his escort. It was quite a battle, a 70 +year old man, armed with an old knive,still in the leg irons, against 7 troops of the 4th cavalry. They shot him down of course, but not before they accidently shot the twp teamsters driving the wagon. And ,of course the Lt. leading the escort receivd a citation.
Incidently the old timers generally plucked what few whiskers they did have with tweezers.
The great war chief of the Kiowas,Sitting Bear (179?-1871), was renowned for his flowing mustache. You remember him,he’s the fellow who,while being hauled by wagon to prison in Texas, ducked beneath the blanket and GNAWED his wrists 'till he could slip the manacles off!Then ,singing his death song, leapt at his escort. It was quite a battle, a 70 +year old man, armed with an old knive,still in the leg irons, against 7 troops of the 4th cavalry. They shot him down of course, but not before they accidently shot the twp teamsters driving the wagon. And ,of course the Lt. leading the escort receivd a citation.
Incidently the old timers generally plucked what few whiskers they did have with tweezers.
I am full blood native american and I cannot grow a mustache or beard, maybe few scraggly chin hairs.