Why these hair styles among Belters in the Expanse series?

Question

Many of the Belters in the Expanse TV series wear mohawks and beards.

Naomi has a mohawk.

Miller has kind of mohawk, more like a lot of hair that flops over one side.

I've seen many minor characters with mohawks.

Amos sometimes trims his beard close, and sometimes wears it longer.

So do many others.

Belters tend to have personal vac-suits. Many in the UN navy and Martian navy have government-issued spacesuits.

Wouldn't beards and mohawks get in the way of space helmets?

You'd think they would be as clean shaven as Prax Meng and with hair as short as his.

Why do many people who travel in space have beards and mohawks? Especially the Belters. Is there something about hair and beards in Belter culture?

I've only seen the TV series, which hasn't answered this, so if you have answers from the books, that would help.

Answer 1

The mohawks, beards and the overall fancy and unusual look (from an Earther point of view) of the Belters are just part of their culture.

Consider that:

• Earthers and Martians ships are mostly military, so you have stricter dress codes; Belters, on the contrary, are not just astronauts or "space travelers", they actually live in space, being it a ship or an asteroid base, these are their homes, not the places where they are stationed; they don't need to adhere to an imposed code of conduct (including dress code) that you would expect form a military hierarchy.
• Their society is based on ideals like freedom, anarchy and rebellion; these are very much the founding values of their nation, and under these circumstances, you can expect people to openly express their distinctiveness and diversity with looks that purposely goes away from the "plain" clean and shaven.
• This particular look is also a sign of their nationalistic pride, dressing and looking differently from people from the Inner Planets could also be considered a physical manifestation of a political stance that wants to draw the line between "us" and "them".
• Their culture has many other peculiar traits if compared with Earthers and Martians: their language, the Belter Creole, was born from a melting-pot of cultures and traditions, and they also possess a complex system of gestures that serve as a non-verbal way to communicate; their physiology changed to adapt to low gravity environments, in these respects they are a different kind of human; to a culture that possess all these peculiar traits, it would be very strange not to possess also an own preference in matter of style and fashion, and to stick to those coming from other planets.
• From a practical point of view, wearing a spacesuit or an helmet does not inherently prevent you to have long hair or a beard; as an example, Bobbie Draper, a Martian Marine and quite much the opposite of a Belter as personality and attitude, has long hair that she ties in a chignon when she must wear a spacesuit or powersuit.
• Even real life astronauts, while this is not usually the norm, have had long hair or beard/mustaches while in space: Paul Scully-Power was the first bearded astronaut, Chris Hadfield wore mustaches, Gerald Carr and William Pogue were full-bearded whilst on Skylab 4; and there are many examples of female astronauts with long hair: Marsha Irvins, Jessica Meir, Christina Koch.