Long Hair, Short Hair

“Hey, why did you cut your hair short? Sayang hair nimo… But I like your hair now…” That’s what I always heard the next day I cut my hair. One of the reasons why I cut it, is because about what I read in this verse in the Bible.

1 Corinthians 11:2-16

² _ I am so glad, dear friends, that you always keep me in your thoughts and you are following the Christian teaching I passed on to you. ³ _ But there is one thing I want you to know: A man is responsible to Christ, a woman is responsible to her husband, and Christ is responsible to God. ⁴A man dishonors Christ^£ if he covers his head while praying or prophesying. ⁵But a woman dishonors her husband^£ if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head. ⁶Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, she should cut off all her hair. And since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or her head shaved, then she should wear a covering.^{£ 7}A man should not wear anything on his head when worshiping, for man is God’s glory, made in God’s own image, but woman is the glory of man. ⁸For the first man didn’t come from woman, but the first woman came from man. ⁹ _ And man was not made for woman’s benefit, but woman was made for man. ¹⁰ _ So a woman should wear a covering on her head as a sign of authority because the angels are watching.

¹¹But in relationships among the Lord’s people, women are not independent of men, and men are not independent of women. ¹²For although the first woman came from man, all men have been born from women ever since, and everything comes from God.

¹³What do you think about this? Is it right for a woman to pray to God in public without covering her head? ¹⁴ _ Isn’t it obvious that it’s disgraceful for a man to have long hair? ¹⁵And isn’t it obvious that long hair is a woman’s pride and joy? For it has been given to her as a covering. ¹⁶But if anyone wants to argue about this, all I can say is that we have no other custom than this, and all the churches of God feel the same way about it.

This is Paul’s message to the Corinthians. In many cultures long hair on men are acceptable like in the Philippines today and is considered appropriate and masculine. In Corinth, it was thought to be a sign of male prostitution in the pagan temples. And women with short hair were labeled prostitutes. Paul was saying that in the Corinthian culture, Christian women should keep their hair long. If short hair on women was a sign of prostitution, then a Christian woman with short hair would find it difficult to be a believable witness for Jesus Christ. Paul wasn’t saying we should adopt all the practices of our culture but that we should avoid appearances and behavior that detract from our ultimate goal of being witnesses for Jesus Christ. Though it is acceptable in our culture today to have a long hair for man and I have no problem with that for a man to have long hair.

But the main reason why I cut my hair short is because of the Formal Monday we practice in the office. I didn’t say it’s not appropriate to wear formal attires for man with long hair, it’s only because I feel not suitable for me to wear formal and a pony tail hair.