The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 52
Hair
Hair.
The blacks allow their hair to grow very long, and then tie it in large knots on the top of the head, or otherwise fix it up with long grass or feathers. One object in adopting this mode is that during a fight a black is often enabled to receive his opponent's blow on this knot, and so protect his skull; though I believe it to be a matter of impossibility to fracture a black man's skull with a waddy.
A strip of the skin of a native dog or other animal is sometimes worn around the head as a fillet, and serves to keep the hair out of their eyes. The tail of a native dog is often used for this purpose. It has much the appearance of a fur cap on the man's head. They seldom cut their hair, except, I believe, when mourning for some departed friend. Their beard and whiskers are often singed by a fire-stick, which is made to serve the purpose of a razor. They occasionally rub their body with clay or beeswax, which tears out the hair by the roots. This custom has, I imagine, greatly fallen into disuse on account of the pain it causes. I have seen blacks without a particle of hair, but whether this denudation was caused by the above operation or by disease I cannot say. They are very fond of rubbing opossum fat on their heads, and then comb their hair out by means of a sharp-pointed bone formed like a skewer.