Russell created many renderings of Indian heads in full-face and profile in a variety of mediums including drawings, watercolors, and relief sculptures. His profile watercolor of what seems to be a Blackfoot man is typical of this type of work. The man wears a multicolored trade blanket over his shoulders, and a brass hoop earring adorns his ear. What is most distinctive, however, is the combed and braided hairstyle he wears. Every traveler who commented on Blackfoot dress in the nineteenth century noted that the men spent an inordinate amount of time preparing and dressing their hair. The hair of the man in Russell’s watercolor is elaborately dressed; the long dark hair on the top of the head is slicked down and combed back, and rows of small braids descend from the back of the man’s head. A few of these braids at the center of the back of the head are joined into a queue by a wrapping of bright red cloth. Another gathering of hair occurs at the man’s temples, and this hair is formed into a single long braid that falls down to the chest, wrapped at the bottom in what appears to be rawhide, which was typical. The exposed skin in the parts of the man’s hair is colored with vermilion, which besides being decorative would also protect the skin from sun exposure. Russell often showed these vermilion parts on his warriors, but some anthropological scholars have indicated the practice was more common with the women than the men. Nonetheless, Russell was an astute observer of Indian culture, and there is no reason to assume he did not see men doing the same thing.