Continuity mistake: When Susannah and Alfred talk at Samuel's grave the way Susannah's hair is blown back, forward, or not moving at all changes from shot to shot. (00:48:30)
Continuity mistake: The headstone on Samuel's "heart grave" had writing in the cross bar ("We will not see him, but we shall join him"), as well as his name below followed by "born" and "died" dates. The next three times the grave marker was shown (from a distance), only "Samuel Ludlow" could be seen etched on it. (00:49:47 - 00:54:54)
Continuity mistake: When Susannah finds Tristan crying at Samuel's grave she takes him into her arms and consoles him. This is seen from different angles, with Tristan's hair behind his ear or not, and in one strange brief shot with a straight, expressionless face, very different from all others where he is sobbing hard and his face is twisted with grief. (00:53:25)
Continuity mistake: Tristan finds a calf with its legs caught in barbed wire. In the next shot, when Tristan gets down on his knees to free it, its head is also totally entangled. (01:00:15)
Continuity mistake: When the barkeeper refuses to serve One Stab beer he flaunts his club and puts it on the counter, with the handle towards him. When Tristan picks it up to hit him the club is turned by 180 degrees. (01:04:05)
Continuity mistake: When Tristin, his father, the Indian, and another man are in a bar trying to get four drinks after they were going to hunt the big grizzly bear, the bartender will not give them four drinks because of the Indian. Watch as Anthony Hopkins tries to stop Brad Pitt and as they keep looking back at the bartender and the other people. If you watch the beer with no foam, it is a little less than full and then it becomes full again. The foam also changes a little. (01:06:08)
Visible crew/equipment: In a scene that occurs after the confrontation in the bar, Tristan is riding his horse. At one point, he rides off very quickly, and the horse's hoof kicks up a flourescent orange traffic cone. It can be seen at the bottom of the screen, but only in the VHS version. (01:08:00)
Continuity mistake: Tristan is seen sailing on the ocean. In all panorama shots the boat is a two-master, but when you see him behind the steering wheel there is one mast only. (01:09:20)
Audio problem: When Tristan returns the second time he is driving horses along, shouting loudly, but without moving his mouth. (01:19:35)
Continuity mistake: When Tristen arrives home after being gone for many years - he sits with his father, Col. William. The Colonel has a chalk board around his neck and he writes, "Am Happy." Tristen replies, "Me too." The next scene shows the "Am Happy" chalk board again, but the printing is different from when the Colonel wrote on it in the previous scene. (01:22:00)
Continuity mistake: After Tristan's second return he comes to Susannah's house. They make eye contact while he is still standing behind the wall. The camera cuts to Susannah and then back to him, and he is standing in the garden, with no time in between to walk further down to the gate and enter. (01:24:55)
Continuity mistake: Susannah's hair problems during her first encounter with Tristan after his many years of absence have been stressed already. But Tristan's hair has an even stronger mind of its own, as there is a wide strand combed back covering his parting, which looks as if it has been fixed elaborately, but which nevertheless comes and goes during the scene. (01:25:50)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan returns to see Suzanne at her new home with Alfred, her hair is down. But in every shot her hair is either pulled behind her ear, then both sides in her face, then one side pulled back, and so on. (01:25:55)
Continuity mistake: At the fair when Isabelle goes to give Suzanna the baby, she actually hands it to her in one shot, but in the next (a split second) Suzanne shows no sign as if the baby ever left Isabelle's hand. (01:38:24)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan attacks the policeman who has shot his wife he gets hit on his cheek with a rubber truncheon. However, in the next shot the blood is running from his temple. (01:39:15)
Continuity mistake: Susannah visits Tristan in prison. Whenever the camera is on her her face is touching the bars and Tristan's is a bit away, and vice versa. (01:43:40)
Continuity mistake: When Susannah visits Tristan in the prison, she turns her head away as he says "Go home to Alfred", but in the next shot she is looking at Tristan again. (01:45:35)
Continuity mistake: In the liquor storage Tristan cuts the other guy on the cheek, and he starts bleeding immediately. This scene is intercut with a scene where Susannah cuts off a lock of her hair. When we return to the storage, the guy takes his hand to the cheek, but now there is much less blood than it was only a couple of seconds earlier, and it has not been wiped off. (01:50:35)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan pushes one of his bootlegger opponents into a pitchfork the spikes are coming out of his chest. The way they were wrestling chest to chest Tristan should have been seriously injured too. (01:51:00)
Revealing mistake: When Tristan kill the guy in the liquor storage and the hay fork goes through his chest, you can see that parts of the hay fork's tines closest to his body are not covered with blood. (01:51:05)
Answer: Cutting locks of hair is often done in memory of the deceased. Knowing of her impending death, she cut two locks so as not to have them tainted by blood, but dropped one on the floor. I imagine it was the one for Alfred, but it is just my opinion.
I have goosebumps with this interpretation. I always thought that it was related someone with "scalping." She kills herself. She is her own victim. I don't know.