Iâm a bit late, but I hope I can help! I am however not very knowledgeable regarding the 19th century post-1810s or so, my focus being the late 18th century.
Firstly, I think we need to move away from any post-modern ideas of what âcleanâ hair is. Frequent hair-washing only came about around the middle of the 20th century when in the course of ever-faster changing fashion, implements and products invented for (womenâs) hairstyles made it possible to style oneâs head daily- just wash out yesterdayâs product, dry and re-start. For comparison, Iâve once leafed through an Edwardian guidebook for ladies which advises washing your hair only once a month.
If your reaction now is to ask yourself how did they do it, fear not- you could adopt a historical(ly inspired) haircare routine and over time, your hair would not grease as easily as it would now, being left unwashed for a couple of days. Your hair would likely not be as soft as now either, but definitively healthy and not icky. As things are, our heads are accustomed to frequent washing and use of additional products, causing them to grease more easily than the hair of, say, an 18th/19th century sailor.
So even without frequent washing, hair can be quite âcleanâ and manageable. A while ago, I found this interesting blog post by someone who did research on 18th century sailorâs hairstyles- it appears the pigtail was not as common among sailors then as it became around the early 19th century.
This however doesnât apply to officers and, apparently not to the marines either, who, if having chosen to wear their own hair instead of a wig, kept it long and in hairstyles popular at the period.
Hereâs an interesting picture of what long hair (as worn by officers) looks like when aboard and not styled:
Mr James Cornwallis, Pallas, March 75 [Bray album] (detail), Gabriel Bray, March 1775, watercolour on paper, in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Gabriel Bray (1750-1823) used his artistic talent to capture scenes of life aboard ship or the sceneries and people he encountered on his voyages as a naval lieutenant.
Coinicidentally, he appears to have been quite fascinated by hair and different hairstyles. There are watercolours like the above of shipmates prominently featuring the long hair of marines and officers, an elaborate fashionable British ladiesâ hairdo, and several of traditional African hairsryles.
A keen observer, Bray also captured scenes of the daily life of the ordinary seamen, and would you look at this:
Details from various watercolours by Gabriel Bray depicting sailors, 1770s, all in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Those sailors appear to have short, or shoulder-length hair at the longest. The post I linked makes some convincing arguments why late 18th century sailors may have kept their hair short, practicability (âŚyou wouldnât want to get your long flowing locks caught in any lines) probably being the most prominent reason against long hair.
I have another, additional hypothesis which is related to something told to me by a pediatrician: contrary to popular myth, head lice love long, clean, well-kempt hair and as everyone who has ever been to kindergarten or primary school knows, theyâre a hassle to get rid of. The method of getting rid of them has not fundamentally changed since the 18th century; while we have specialised shampoos nowadays to kill anything living on the hair off, the procedure of first washing, then combing the hair with a fine-toothed comb remains the same. Shorter hair means less work trying to get rid of lice in case an epedemic spreads through the ship, which given the cramped conditions below deck, certainly wasnât impossible.
Two Marines on the Pallasâs Gangway, Jany 75 [detail], Gabriel Bray, January 1775, in the collection of the National Maritime Museum. It appears the man looking up at his comrade is having his hair combed with what might be a nit comb.
As for haircare, while the â100 brushstrokes a dayâ-rule is a classic example of over-egging the pudding, taking care the hair is brushed regularly is/was a pretty solid haircare routine at any point in time, and could be achieved by sailors on board ship as well.
I am not sure if I could answer your question fully, but I hope to have highlighted a couple of interesting points about sailors and possible haircare methods. :-)
âŚAnd as an added bonus, this is Gabriel in an intriguing self-portrait showing him during his morning shave and sporting what we might term a âman bunâ, proving this particular hairdo was, in fact, not invented by hipsters in the 2010s (there actually is another one in which he chose to depict himself with this particular 'do):
Self-portrait of Lieutenant Gabriel Bray shaving, Gabriel Bray, March 1775, watercolour on paper, in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
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