Long hair ornaments of this sort were used by a number of Plains military societies (Arikara Cut Hairs, Crow, Gros-Ventre, Hidatsa Little Dogs, Mandan) and some other Transmontane tribes for hair decoration. The presence of such an ornament meant that its owner was a valiant warrior who had defeated the enemy by cutting his throat. Such an ornament was worn not as a tribute to fashion, but as a badge of distinction, which had yet to be earned in a deadly battle with a worthy opponent.
The ornament consists of three main parts: (i) a wooden tapered pin decorated with small feathers; (ii) a bow-tie and (iii) a long drop. Bow-tie portion is made of a buffalo parflesh (rawhide) slipped through a copper or brass tube and beaded with glass beads and dentallia. On the drop portion, dentalia, braintan hide, real sines and ermine tails may be used. A little braid is slipped down through the brass tube, and then the tube should be slided all the way up the braid and the pin sticked down in the top.
Reproduction Upper Missouri or Transmontane (Northern Plains & Plateau) style hairbows handcrafted by a prominent American artist and quillworker John Kursch (Earth Lodge) in and further improved by me (I made a new beading and feather ornament on the pins, and replaced an original hairpipe drop with a three-rows dentalium one). Not for sale (unless I would be absolutely compelled by your irresistible offer).
It is forbidden to copy and / or otherwise use content from the «Hair Bow» without a direct active and indexed hyperlink to the original in the form: "Source: Maza Sapa's Gallery of Plains Indian Warrior Art — https://4colors.gallery/hairbow.html".