Hair

I'm surprised no one mentioned this... Grow it into dreadlocks!

Why don't you just become a Rastafarian and let your hair get all knotted and dreadlocky. Imagine that, surviving it out in the wilderness with awesome dreadlocks, AWWW YEAH!!! There are actual surivival uses for dreadlocks as well. They are an instant pillow.

I have long hair for a guy, and if the SHTF I will definitely let my hair become dreadlocks. Chee hee.

-SES

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah

Dreads can get pretty itchy though,and may make you stand out in a crowd,which in a SHTF situ,may not be a wise move.

Use your chopped off dreads to insulate your jacket/sleeping bag/shoes instead.
Thats what I would do I rekon.

Clean it very well. Sterilize if possible. Hair makes an excellent coagulation bandage. Hair under a microscope is really scaly looking so it makes an excellent matrix for platelets to aggregate(make a scab). Stick 3" or 4" clumps of it to duct tape, or masking tape.

Most adhesive tapes are sterile, or close if you haven't touched the sticky side to anything. This isn't necessarily by design, but because of production method. The product just doesn't come into contact with anything while being made so it's really really clean. Use the hair in place of the gauze strip that is normally on a bandaid.

You would only want to use this in a true emergency though. Where you couldn't stop cutaneous bleeding, and had no access to regular medical help. It wouldn't work for visceral(internal) bleeding.

reply to post by Binder
This is the best reason I've heard for not chopping it all off. Wearing it keeps a ready supply of emergency gauze on hand - or head as the case may be . Thanks!

One very good use for hair is using it to keep your head warm and stopping you from getting hypothermia so easily. maybe after you cut it off you could knit it into a hat

Another idea that popped into my head is that you could wear it long, and go ahead tromping throught the bush, and getting all sorts of junk stuck in it. Then chop it off. Repeat a few times, and after a while you would have a really good gillie suit!