Roach (headdress)

Porcupine hair roaches are a traditional male headdress of a number of Native American tribes in what is now New England, the Great Lakes and Missouri River regions, including the Potawatomi who lived where Chicago now stands.

Some roaches from the southern plains are made with black turkey beards.

The term roach also applies to the traditional Mohawk hairstyle worn by some warriors of some southern plains tribes such as the Pawnee, Kiowa, and some Algonquian tribes, such as the Mohegan and Lenape.

This is where their hair is shorn like a horse’s mane which was considered stylish in the 19th century.

Typically, central and southern plains style their roaches with the front hairs standing straight up with only a gradual outward flare and are usually smaller in size.