Tagelmust

A Tagelmust is an indigo

Indigo dye

Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color . Historically, indigo was extracted from plants, and this process was important economically because blue dyes were once rare. Nearly all indigo produced today - several thousand tons each year - is synthetic...

 dyed cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...

 garment with the appearance of both a veil

Veil

A veil is an article of clothing, worn almost exclusively by women, that is intended to cover some part of the head or face. One view is that as a religious item, it is intended to show honor to an object or space.-History:...

 and a turban

Turban

The turban is a headdress consisting of a long scarf-like single piece of cloth wound around the head. The word "turban" is a common umbrella term, loosely used in English to refer to several sorts of headwear....

. The cloth may exceed ten meters in length. It is worn mostly by Tuareg

Tuareg

The Tuareg are a Berber nomadic pastoralist people. They are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa...

 men, but is sometimes used by men in other neighbouring ethnic groups, such as the Hausa

Hausa people

The Hausa are a Sahelian people chiefly located in the West African regions of northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger. There are also significant numbers found in regions of Sudan, Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Chad and smaller communities scattered throughout West Africa and on the...

 or Songhai

Songhai

The Songhai are an ethnic group from western Africa akin to the Mandé. The Songhai language group, however, has been connected with the Nilo-Saharan language family, unlike their neighboring counterparts...

. In recent times other colors have come into use, with the indigo veils saved for use on special occasions.

The tagelmust is a very practical garment for the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara , , "The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean...

region, as it both covers the head and prevents the inhalation of wind borne sand.

A Tagelmust is an indigo

Indigo dye

Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color . Historically, indigo was extracted from plants, and this process was important economically because blue dyes were once rare. Nearly all indigo produced today - several thousand tons each year - is synthetic...

 dyed cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...

 garment with the appearance of both a veil

Veil

A veil is an article of clothing, worn almost exclusively by women, that is intended to cover some part of the head or face. One view is that as a religious item, it is intended to show honor to an object or space.-History:...

 and a turban

Turban

The turban is a headdress consisting of a long scarf-like single piece of cloth wound around the head. The word "turban" is a common umbrella term, loosely used in English to refer to several sorts of headwear....

. The cloth may exceed ten meters in length. It is worn mostly by Tuareg

Tuareg

The Tuareg are a Berber nomadic pastoralist people. They are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa...

 men, but is sometimes used by men in other neighbouring ethnic groups, such as the Hausa

Hausa people

The Hausa are a Sahelian people chiefly located in the West African regions of northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger. There are also significant numbers found in regions of Sudan, Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Chad and smaller communities scattered throughout West Africa and on the...

 or Songhai

Songhai

The Songhai are an ethnic group from western Africa akin to the Mandé. The Songhai language group, however, has been connected with the Nilo-Saharan language family, unlike their neighboring counterparts...

. In recent times other colors have come into use, with the indigo veils saved for use on special occasions.

The tagelmust is a very practical garment for the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara , , "The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean...

region, as it both covers the head and prevents the inhalation of wind borne sand. The indigo is also believed by many of the wearers to be healthy and beautiful, with a buildup of indigo in the skin of the wearer being generally considered a good thing. Because the tagelmust is often dyed by pounding in dried indigo instead of the normal process due to a lack of water, the dye often permanently leaches into the skin of the wearer. As such the Tuareg are often referred to as the "blue men of the desert".

Among the Tuareg, men who wear the tagelmust are called Kel Tagelmust, or "People of the Veil". The tagelmust is worn only by adult males, and only taken off in the presence of close family. They believe that doing this wards off evil spirits. Tuareg men often find shame in showing their mouth or nose to strangers or people of a higher standing than themselves, and have been known to hide their features using their hands if a tagelmust is unavailable. The tagelmust has other cultural significance, as the manner in which it is wrapped and folded is often used to show clan and regional origin, and the darkness to which it is dyed showing the wealth of the wearer. Nowadays however many Tuareg are afraid to wear the tagelmust due to civil unrest.