Did Nathan Bedford Forrest wear a wig or dye his hair?
score:1
Question:
Did Nathan Bedford Forrest wear a wig or dye his hair?
Short Answer:
No wig, but more evidence than one might think suggests Forrest did dye his hair, probably with some sort of natural product, tree bark or herb product.
- Forrest was the right age to need the use of such a product.
- Hair dye products were commercially available before and during the Civil War.
- Evidence suggests dye was used by Civil War soldiers when sitting for photographs in the same theatre of the war where Forrest saw action.
- The photograph you reference suggests dye was present.
Detailed Answer:
He didn't use synthetic hair dyes. The first synthetic dyes were created in the UK in 1863 by English chemist William Henry Perkin. Commercial products for these dyes were not available until 1907 when Eugene Schueller the founder of L'Oreal first introduced a synthetic hair dye product. So If Forrest was dying his hair he was using a natural mixture of plants and nuts which have been used to color hair dating back to Egyptian and Roman days.
Suggestive evidence that Forrest dyed his hair:
Forrest was born July 13, 1821 so he was 40 years old when the Civil War began. Modern men begin to turn grey as early as the age of 30. So if Forrest was vain enough to care, he could have had the motivation.
Natural non synthetic hair dye was commercially available during the Civil War.
New York c.1850 Hair Dye - Cristadoro
Dr. D. Jayne's Liquid Hair Dye
Dr. David Jayne and Sons were selling this preparation from around 1857 until the mid-1860s.
- During the Civil War there is research suggesting men sitting for photographs often for the first time, used hair dye. The evidence pertains to soldiers in Kentucky the same theatre as General Forrest fought, only on the Union side rather than Forrest's Confederate side.
Civil War Soldiers Used Hair Dye to Make Themselves Look Better in Pictures, Archaeologists Discover
- Men's beards typically grey first not their scalp hair as the picture in question clearly shows. This possibly suggests dye was used.
Why Do Beards Turn Grey First?
Greying is the result of a depletion of melanin in your hair follicles. As you age, the follicles produce less melanin, which causes either grey, silver, or white hair. Beard hair grows faster than hair on your head. This is why most people notice the depletion of melanin (or greying) in their beards first and then on their heads.
also
British Journal of Dermatology Greying of the human hair: a worldwide survey, revisiting the ‘50’ rule of thumb
Upvote:5
I've seen no clear evidence either way, but the following anecdote from Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography by Jack Hurst may be of interest.
At a dinner during the war, to a society woman who inquired why his hair had turned gray while his beard remained dark, he replied that it was possibly because he tended to work his brains more than his jaws.
More post
- 📝 What was the military background of the Irish company at the Siege of Jadotville?
- 📝 Why weren't aircraft carriers utilized during D-day?
- 📝 Submarine record from WW2
- 📝 What do we know about the character of William Adelin, son of Henry I?
- 📝 What was the custom/consensus regarding irregular combatants 19th century?
- 📝 How were the Burmese able to sack Ayutthaya when it was one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities in Asia at the time?
- 📝 What is the origin of these assertions about The Palaces of Qin shih Huang?
- 📝 What is the difference between a culture and a civilization?
- 📝 Why are only Homo Sapiens left?
- 📝 Why did former Yugoslav republics dispute the legal successor of Yugoslavia?
- 📝 How many stones high are the pyramids of Giza?
- 📝 Which was the last major war in which horse mounted cavalry actually participated in active fighting?
- 📝 Was Karst (Kras) first region that was man-made reforested?
- 📝 Why wasn't Federal Republic of Central America a stable country?
- 📝 How far would the average Silk Road caravan travel during the early reign of Justinian?
- 📝 Has the side with better equipment and worse logistics ever won?
- 📝 What was Texas called after gaining its independence and why was it called that?
- 📝 Has there ever been litigation over a salvaged shipwreck between a European country and a former ex-colony?
- 📝 Why were greatswords used in the Middle Ages given their downsides?
- 📝 How was the vast Khazar fortress of Sarkel destroyed?
- 📝 Why were nomadic tribes (like the Mongols) from the Eurasian steppes a much reduced threat from the 15th century onwards?
- 📝 To what degree is Simone Weil correct in arguing that the third Reich under Hitler was merely a revival of imperial Rome?
- 📝 Identify the country, service and historical context of this bright red dress uniform, and ideally the nature of the medals. Relationship to Taiwan?
- 📝 What is the basis for the claims that the word "Israel" means "Exiled for their sins"?
- 📝 Can anyone tell me anything about this sword?
- 📝 Longest lasting government
- 📝 When did Germans stop supporting Adolf Hitler?
- 📝 Was it viable to continue the battle of France in the French colonies in 1940?
- 📝 Autobiographical books about the Atlantic war for WWII from the allied perspective
- 📝 Were there moves to make anti-miscegenation laws apply to Jews in the USA?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did Nathan Bedford Forrest wear a wig or dye his hair?
- 📝 Did Continental Army officers wear wigs or keep their hair white like their British Army counterparts?
- 📝 What did Nathan Forrest do on September 19 1863?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 Did Chinese emperors wear a rectangular hat with suspended gems?
- 📝 When and why did having long hair become associated with women, and short hair with men?
- 📝 Did Heisenberg undermine the German atomic bomb by deliberately hiding his expertise from the Nazis?
- 📝 Did Henry VIII have his bedroom bricked up every night?
- 📝 Where did the “vikings wear helmets with horn” stereotype come from and why?
- 📝 Which war games did Napoleon practice with his generals?
- 📝 Did classical Romans wear any sort of swimwear?
- 📝 How did William the Conqueror consolidate his military victory?
- 📝 in what form did William the Conqueror write the date of his own coronation?
- 📝 What did Vikings wear in cold wet conditions at sea?
- 📝 What did Zhang Zuolin say after his train blew up?
- 📝 Why did Henry III of England give his sons English names, other than naming them after his favourite saints?
- 📝 What did Richelieu mean by his "six lines" quote?
- 📝 Did President Kennedy really cut 100,000 government jobs during his presidency?
- 📝 How did Hitler behave towards all those whom he knew in his childhood and youth after he rose to power?
- 📝 Did King George III turn his back on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson?
- 📝 In what language did Caractacus deliver his speech to the emperor Claudius?
- 📝 Did the Roman legions wear this type of boots?
- 📝 Did Roman women wear underwear? How did it look?
- 📝 How did Hitler imagine his succession? (for the case nazis would win the war)
- 📝 Why did Peter the Great change his daughters' title to Tsesarevna?
- 📝 Did the syphilis epidemic start the 16th and 17th century wig craze?
- 📝 From whom did Gandhi learn his protest technique of non-violence?
- 📝 Why did people in 18th century wear wigs?
- 📝 Why did Taft write a one cent check on his first day as Chief Justice?
- 📝 What did men wear at night in the Middle Ages in Europe?