Holy Hairstyles

I was talking with someone just the other day who had been raised in a pretty extreme holiness church.  What I mean is that particular church, or stream of the Christian church, tends to focus a great deal on the different rules you must follow to be holy.  If you do not do these certain things (or if you do other things) then you are not Christian.  One of the rules that ought to be followed is in regards to hair length for men (and women).  What is the rule?  Why would a Christian church teach that men cannot have long hair?  What is the scriptural mandate for this?

I have worn my hair both long and short.  It is currently on the longer side, so I thought these would be interesting questions to explore, especially since the current sermon series is on holiness.

What is the rule?

The rule is that men cannot have long hair.  “Long” is a subjective term.  Is it covering the ears?  Is it to the nape of the neck?  Is it to the shoulders?  The follow up rule is that women ought to have long hair, and while that does not seem to cause as much trouble, there are those extreme holiness churches that, God bless them, strive to be entirely consistent on this.  Under this rule men cannot have long hair.  It is a “disgrace,” or “unnatural” and a man cannot have long hair and be a Christian.  Admittedly, there are more “liberal” churches that may not question your salvation on account of your hair length, but they would still certainly not consider it proper or the thing that a Christian man ought to do.

Why would a Christian church teach that men cannot have long hair?

I have to admit, at first I thought it was just a subjective decision based on North American cultural norms.  And, in fact, for many it may only run that deep.  However, there is scripture people refer to.

What is the scriptural mandate for short hair on men?

As it turns out, the main verses, and really only verses that are directly applied to men’s hair being short that I’ve seen is 1 Corinthians 11:14-15, “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.”

So there it is.  The reason this did not immediately come to mind for me in regards to men’s hairstyles is not because I am unfamiliar with 1 Corinthians, but rather because this section of the letter is not primarily dealing with how long a man’s hair should be.  This is a sentence that is a part of an argument, it is meant to point towards something else.  Furthermore, the section of scripture that this comes from, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is puzzling at best and indecipherable at worst.  In fact, some scholars have even wondered if Paul wrote it.  I believe Paul did write it, I just cite that to support the point that it is a tough section of scripture to figure out.  In it, Paul is correcting an error that involved women and head coverings, but what exactly is meant by the head coverings is unclear.  Is he talking about veils or a type of scarf that is pulled over the head?  Or is he talking about the hair being the covering itself?  What exactly is meant by “head” when it says man is the head of woman and Jesus the head of man?  Before you jump to conclusions on that, try to set aside what you may have heard on “headship” and just read the passage and ask, “What exactly is Paul getting at?”  Is head purely authority or is it source?  The difficulties in this passage abound.  For example, verse 10 states, “For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.”  The terms “symbol of” are not in the original Greek, so that perhaps the King James version, “For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels,” reveals something.  If she has power on her head, then is it her power?  What does that sentence even mean?  Because of the angels?  Furthermore, what exactly is going on in the background of the letter?  What exactly is Paul correcting?  The church in Corinth was where different cultures and classes collided, which is being addressed in this letter, so what is going on culturally with women that the whole head covering issue comes up, and what does it mean?  Again, I am not going to wrestle with that specific interpretation, but rather point out that the comment on males’ hair length is one point within one argument within one letter to address several situations in the Corinthian churches.  Furthermore, it is not immediately clear what the one point is that Paul is making, which means some churches today are using a sub point of an argument that is unclear at best, first addressed to a culture 2,000 years ago on the other side of the world in order to make a blanket statement on hair length for men and it’s connection to faith.  Paul’s main point was not about a man’s hair length.

There are times in scripture where long hair on a man is a sign of devotion to the Lord.  If a man took a Nazarite vow (Numbers 6), one major part of that vow was to not cut your hair.  This was a sign of being set apart for the Lord.  Samson was a Nazarite, as was Samuel and most likely John the Baptist.  In fact, the Nazarite vow demonstrated holiness – or being set apart for God – through the longer hair, whereas in 1 Corinthians the long hair on a man only degrades, embarrasses, or brings shame upon the person.  It does not say that it displeases God, nor that it is sinful or that it leads to the fires of hell.  Finally, one more counter example is found in 2 Samuel 14 which tells us Absalom only cut his hair once a year (and it was exceptionally heavy hair too) yet was praised for his good looks.  This shows us that there is not one standard within scripture in regards to males, hair length, and being a person of faith.  This is not to say that how you wear your hair or what clothes you wear are outside of the Lordship of Christ.  When we give ourselves to Jesus in faith we are to give our whole selves, including what we eat, how we eat, what we wear, how we interact with others, and so on.  In other words, I do not think I am free to do whatever I want in regards to appearance.  Rather, I think what Paul is getting at is not to set a standard for “hair length,” but rather how our appearance affects and influences those with whom we are in fellowship and how it may impact our own growth in faith in Christ.  These sorts of considerations get to deeper issues though.  They get to issues of the heart.

What scripture would make you cut your hair?

Interestingly enough, the section of scripture that would lead me to keep my hair shorter is found just prior to this obscure mention of men’s hair in 11:14.  A considerably more clear argument is found in 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1 where Paul states that everything may be lawful, but sometimes you refrain from doing things not because they are wrong, but because it negatively affects the faith journey of your brother or sister.  His example is the eating of meat in that had been sacrificed to idols.  He encourages people within the church to consider each other and some folks would associate the meat eating with the wrong thing and it would hurt their faith.

I am not a fan of wearing a tie.  I would do the jeans and t-shirt thing every Sunday if it were up to me.  As I understand things, it would not be a matter of my insulting God, it would just be personal preference.  However, there are many who see it differently, and if I were to wear jeans and a t-shirt to worship they very simply would not be able to get beyond that and get into worship.  I have a responsibility as a Pastor to lead worship.  It would be wrong for me to wear a t-shirt and jeans to lead worship in this setting because of the offense I would be causing to my Christian brothers and sisters that would prevent them from worshiping.  So, I have no problem wearing a tie on Sundays.  The hair does not seem to be as big of a deal.  But it could be.  And if I became convinced that it was, I’d cut it myself.

This is not to say that I am captive to the person who is perpetually offended.  I probably ought not to enable that person.  However, there are situations that are similar to a missionary type mindset where an almost cross cultural mindset needs to be employed so that we can connect better in Christ.  It is more difficult to navigate these waters, I am afraid.  In fact, so difficult we probably need to constantly check our own hearts and depend upon the Holy Spirit for guidance.  If we have rules we don’t need that sort of help.  Perhaps that is part of the point.

If you liked this post, you may enjoy my Livin Leviticus Loca series (part 1, part 2, part 3) or the posts on Halloween (part 1, part 2, part 3).