Philosophical Musings on Hair

We hit the low 90's in temperature this week. Today was cool and rainy, but those warm days earlier in the week reminded me that the hair can't last much longer. It's been almost three months since the perm, so the 'fro has settled down a bit, but this mop is crazy when I'm outside in the wind. I'm running outside almost daily, training for a long-distance event in June. Long hair just doesn't work for a runner.

To set the stage for my following remarks, remember that I am a committed Latter-day Saint (Mormon). I go to church weekly, attend the temple, and serve in a leadership calling. Most of all, I love my Savior Jesus Christ.

Now, I find it obvious that personal grooming is a cultural issue, not a doctrinal or salvational issue. Current cultural perceptions about what constitutes clean grooming grow first out of the backlash to transcendentalism and all of its liberal connections. Short hair on men as a more standard practice (at least in the last few hundred years) began in the late 19th century (before that short hair was often connected to your status as a slave or servant). It probably peaked in the first half of the 20th century. Then you had the cultural revolution in the recent past, and tattoes, pearcings, promiscuity, drug use, etc. are often connected to a more rough personal grooming, and especially long hair and facial hair. Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, didn't have facial hair, but had relatively long hair by the standards of today's church leaders. Following Joseph Smith, all the presidents of the LDS Church had facial hair of various styles until David O. McKay cleaned it up a bit. Today's unwritten standard, not just in the LDS Church, but in other faiths and the business culture as well, is a clean cut image. Anytime a Church leader has asked a member to cut their hair, it was probably because of how easy it is to associate it with immoral behavior or at least non-conformity, whether or not the member actually was engaging in such behavior. Twenty years ago, it was common for Stake Presidents and Bishops to ask members to cut their hair – now it is much less common. And the only places I am aware of it being written down are in the missionaries' rulebook and BYU's honor code (which has also relaxed a little over the last couple of decades.) Will it be culturally acceptable once again, and perhaps even commonplace, for men in the Church to have long hair and beards? It is conceivable.

However, I have observed some sad tendencies toward judgment in other people through this exercise in hairstyling silliness. Most people are indifferent, and see it for what it is (just a fun little whim.) But some surprising comments have reached my ears, some directly and some through the rumor mill. It seems that looking like I do raises concerns in the minds of some small-minded people about the welfare of my immortal soul.

So, I'll probably cut it short again in the next few days, but it will be due to my own personal preferences and practicality, not due to submission to other people's unwarranted concern. But I will always live with the memory of the poison of judgmentalism, and maybe I'll be less likely to jump to conclusions about others based on superficial evidence.