The always neat mental_floss blog has an article on everything you'd want to know about the Oregon Trail [wiki]:
1. Awesome hairstyles were par for the course. The photos (well, daguerreotypes) in many exhibits showed dudes with out-of-control hairstyles. See the image at right for some examples (see also: “Father of Oregon” Dr. John McLoughlin and the same as an image macro). (Pictured above right: Sam Barlow and Joel Palmer — later, Palmer’s neck beard got vastly more protuberant.)