Fundies and Short Hair

[tkr322]

This blog is truly a winner and I didn't see it on the main list. I've been trying to email someone a bunch of blog links I follow (including this one) but can't yet since I don't have PM abilities yet.

Anyway, this particular post was hilarious to me because of the comments. Women fighting about what is godly and what the Bible says on short/long hair, blah blah blah. The other posts are equally as ridiculous/awesome but thought I'd share this one in particular. www. largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/11/short-hair-and-femininity-what-does.html

[emmiedahl]

Wow, some of those comments are super bitchy. I have been wearin my hair short (not as short as hers, about chin length) because it is thin and I don't want to look like Zsuzsu unkempt with long, straggly hair.

[snarkbillie]

My hair never would grow "long". I know it sounds impossible but it's true. I left it without cutting it from birth to 12 and it got to my shoulders and stopped. It would not grow any longer and to be totally honest it looked stringy and horrible at that length. I got a taste of rebellion at 13 though and shaved my head. It eventually grew back into a pixie style which I loved dearly. My parents did some heavy tomato staking that year, LOL.

[Austin]

Good grief. I think I need two aspirin after reading the comments. It's all a big ole tempest in a little tiny teacup. The silliness of it all on both sides, including the blog-writer, is mind-boggling to me, and one of a million reasons why I am glad to no longer be an evangelical. Somebody please shoot me if I ever subject myself to that crap again. :roll:

[Brainsample]

When we lived in Texas, I couldn't get a wide-toothed comb through my hair (or one of those hair picks from the 70s) :banana-dreads: :banana-dreads: :banana-dreads: because the water was full of lime, even with a water softener. I wore it chin length.

In the worker builder generation or whatever it's called, just pre-boomer, it was seen as improper for a married woman to continue to wear her hair long. My godmother got saved in her late 30s and went to a relative's Jesus Only United Pentecostal Church (the only born again she knew after a miracle occurred in the family). She was going to join there, and they told her that she would have to grow her hair long if she wanted to join. I think they baptized her there (full dunk as she'd only been sprinkled before as an infant) which they were willing to do, but they talked to her about her hair.

[clibbyjo]

My hair never would grow "long". I know it sounds impossible but it's true. I left it without cutting it from birth to 12 and it got to my shoulders and stopped. It would not grow any longer and to be totally honest it looked stringy and horrible at that length. I got a taste of rebellion at 13 though and shaved my head. It eventually grew back into a pixie style which I loved dearly. My parents did some heavy tomato staking that year, LOL.

My hair and my kids hair both stop growing mid-back. My son hasn't had a haircut in 4 years and his hair is just mid back length and never gotten any longer at all. My daughter had hers lower back for 8 years,but it never grew past a certain point either.My goes to bra strap at its longest.

[Brainsample]

My hair and my kids hair both stop growing mid-back. My son hasn't had a haircut in 4 years and his hair is just mid back length and never gotten any longer at all. My daughter had hers lower back for 8 years,but it never grew past a certain point either.My goes to bra strap at its longest.

Mine has never managed to get that long.

[buttercup]

Wow, I was really struck by this blogger (one of the ones that commented). Her last post is old, but it makes me very sad for her: (this is my first time trying to break a link, so please lmk if I did it wrong!)

mom24boys.blogspot.com/2011/05/un-moms-day.html

[Jezebel]

If God wanted me to have long hair, he should have given me hair just like Kate Middleton's. Since he didn't, and lank, stringy, long hair is hardly a "glory" to me, I cut it. End of story.

[Austin]

Wow, I was really struck by this blogger (one of the ones that commented). Her last post is old, but it makes me very sad for her: (this is my first time trying to break a link, so please lmk if I did it wrong!)

mom24boys.blogspot.com/2011/05/un-moms-day.html

You did great with the link.

I read her post, so let me get this straight. Her husband doesn't honor her on Mother's Day because she's not his mother. Okay, I get that. She doesn't honor her mother on Mother's Day because her mother is dead. Okay, I get that. But she is sad because no one in her home honors her. Why on earth aren't her children celebrating her on that day? They just ignore her on that day because there's no teacher to tell them to make a card or something?

I'm baffled.

[buttercup]

You did great with the link.

I read her post, so let me get this straight. Her husband doesn't honor her on Mother's Day because she's not his mother. Okay, I get that. She doesn't honor her mother on Mother's Day because her mother is dead. Okay, I get that. But she is sad because no one in her home honors her. Why on earth aren't her children celebrating her on that day? They just ignore her on that day because there's no teacher to tell them to make a card or something?

I'm baffled.

I know! Me too. Baffled and sad for her. She can't communicate something like this to her husband? I mean, she has all of three blog posts, so I don't want to read too much into it, but my father always took us shopping for Mother's day gifts for my mom and my mom did the same with him on Father's day. It seems like there's a huge lack of communication there - which makes me feel even more sad for her. If she can't communicate this to her husband, there's probably a lot going on under the surface that she doesn't talk about. Blegh. Maybe it's just finals and rain, but that one post painted a rather bleak image.

[TMS]

My hair never would grow "long". I know it sounds impossible but it's true. I left it without cutting it from birth to 12 and it got to my shoulders and stopped. It would not grow any longer and to be totally honest it looked stringy and horrible at that length. I got a taste of rebellion at 13 though and shaved my head. It eventually grew back into a pixie style which I loved dearly. My parents did some heavy tomato staking that year, LOL.

Oooooh were your parents of the "raising godly tomatoes" camp??

BTW, my MIL says the same thing about her hair. That she tried to grow it long until she was 15 or 16, never cut it, but it would never grew past her shoulders.

[margiebargie]

My hair won't grow long either. It gets stringy and nasty looking past the shoulders then stops growing altogether. My kid's in the same boat and she wants to be Rapunzel when she grows up. Sorry kiddo - ain't gonna happen.

[darareaksmey]

My hair would grow, but why would I want it to? How is harboring a couple of extra pounds of dead cells atop your head "honoring God"?

[bananacat]

I can't help but see a little hint of subtle racism in this long hair obsession, since a lot of black women can't grow their hair long. And there is a long history in the U.S. where African American women's hair has been a big issue. Even if fundies aren't intentionally excluding them, they're still unwilling to really think about what they're saying. I feel bad for the African children that are adopted by fundies because this is just one more way that they will never truly fit in. They're adopted as charity cases and expected to be grateful servants to thank their adoptive parents for rescuing them. And somehow I doubt that these adopted girls will have many fundie boys trying to court them, except maybe adopted boys from other parents.

[pixydust]

The "long hair-short hair" thing is so freaking stupid! I look really bad with long hair, my hair is thin and frizzy (odd combo, I know!), I used to wear it long as a teen and in my 20's, but it has gotten worse with time. Now it's a pixie cut, I try to keep it pretty short so it looks thicker and is easier to manage. I don't think that any god would really care!

[clibbyjo]

The "long hair-short hair" thing is so freaking stupid! I look really bad with long hair, my hair is thin and frizzy (odd combo, I know!), I used to wear it long as a teen and in my 20's, but it has gotten worse with time. Now it's a pixie cut, I try to keep it pretty short so it looks thicker and is easier to manage. I don't think that any god would really care!

Mine is currently ear length and I want a pixie but need the front longer. My hair is so thin I cannot find a style other than a short bob I can wear.I have thin frizzy hair too. :clap:

[MamaJunebug]

A friend of African descent and I had a long talk about hair one time. Hers is short and always looks absolutely divine (she's a gorgeous woman, anyway but would not miss her weekly beauty appointment) and she enlightened me as to the rules of hair for black couples: He is NOT to run his fingers through it! She takes a lot of time and energy to get it Just So and that does not include him messing with it! :)

She is one of the most resolutely Christian women I know. Lives her faith and trusts only in Jesus. And yes, please note again: her hair is short!

Requiring long, unstyled hair is just another way of making women easily detectable as being outside the norm and members of the patriarchy. So much for modesty, yet again.

[1004srs]

I prefer my hair short and sparkly. My hair just doesn't look good long. I also like to play with shades of red, blonde, and brown for fun.

However, I lead a pretty conservative life overall.

My hair has nothing to do with my lifestyle.

[emeraldskull]

Ugh, this "long hair" stuff is such garbage. And I never thought about it before now, but it IS kinda racist too. I mean, if you are going to spout something off as being biblical, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to apply worldwide, there's a surefire sign it's been pulled out of somebody's butt.

I'm of the type who could completely "look right", I actually enjoy wearing dresses (though I usually only wear them for church/special occasions), I have wanted long hair since I was 12, and now it just touches the top of my rear - perfect!, and I'm really good at knowing what's the right thing to say at the right time. (and I didn't even grow up fundie, though I did grow up Christian)

BUT... I'd rather have my long hair and defraud them with my jeans and t-shirts. :-D Frighten them with my declarations "I don't believe a woman should "submit" to her husband, I believe it's mutual".

But anyways, the whole "women must have long hair", like all the rest of fundamentalist rules, really are only applicable to white, middle class people in the western world.

[lilwriter85]

Some of those comments on the blog were pretty bitchy. I know a few women who used to have very long hair years ago, but they eventually cut it shorter, because they were dealing with headaches. Long hair can cause headaches for some women. Some women also don't feel comfortable with long hair for different reasons. I think the blogger here wrote a good post about short hair.

[donks]

Pretty much the only thing I agree with the fundies on is growing long hair. I grow mine out as long as possible. Right now, it's halfway down my back. I don't really style it, either. No dryer, no roller, no perm or color. I like mine long and natural.

Once every 2 years or so I cut it all off when a local salon has a donation event. I am basically a hair farmer.

Maybe the fundies should try it.

[pixydust]

Mine is currently ear length and I want a pixie but need the front longer. My hair is so thin I cannot find a style other than a short bob I can wear.I have thin frizzy hair too. :clap:

My hair is like this woman: http://www.quintessentialhousewifeDOTcom/2011/05/how-to-cut-pixie-hairstyle.html , her blog is actually where I got the instructions on cutting it myself! I've had it from 1 inch long, all over (kind of a spikey pixie) to this, more of an Emma Watson pixie.

[Brainsample]

Pretty much the only thing I agree with the fundies on is growing long hair. I grow mine out as long as possible. Right now, it's halfway down my back. I don't really style it, either. No dryer, no roller, no perm or color. I like mine long and natural.

Once every 2 years or so I cut it all off when a local salon has a donation event. I am basically a hair farmer.

Maybe the fundies should try it.

Doug Phillips might consider that "medical adultery."

[donks]

Seriously? Wtf?