Blending in
The queue displayed here has a characteristic that many queues seem to have: they are a mix of hair and other stuff, such as tassels, other hair, or decorations.
Why was this done? This was a question that De Groot also likely pondered when he was in China. One of the reasons was that adding other hair or tassels to a queue would add to the beauty of the hair, and thus could be seen as a form of prestige; a well-maintained hairstyle was a sign of wealth. Moreover, the idea persisted that the longer and thicker the queue, the higher the social rank.
However, queues were not always real. Some men had to extend their hair or resort to wearing fake queues. Fake queues were definitely in circulation: those who came freshly out of jail, for instance, often resorted to wearing a fake queue to mislead their fellow citizens, for they were not allowed to grow a queue in jail.
De Groot’s interest was, however, mainly in religious customs, and much of what he described thus dealt with such practices:
From the moment life has passed away, the sons and the other male mourners of the highest degree may not have their heads or faces shaved, but it is not necessary for them to abstain from the regular unbraiding of the cue by the barber for the purpose of combing dandruff, dust and insects out of it. As a consequence, the black hairs grow up like bristles around the long hairs of the crown which form the cue, giving to a man in mourning a rather unsightly, sometimes a repulsive appearance, which is not improved by the stray black hairs which show themselves on his cheeks and chin. This neglecting of the hair and face extends until the hundredth day. Many people, however, get shaved immediately after the burial, and then abstain from the use of the razor for one hundred days.
The tassel was likely for decorative purposes. Other colors, such as red, can also be found woven into the hair of queues. Materials differ, and the length of the tassels is also very different for many queues.