WHAT THE WAY YOU DRESS REVEALS

When you were very small, your parents picked out your clothes for you. (Compare 1 Samuel 2:18, 19.) They probably combed your hair in a certain way for you also. But as you grew older they likely allowed you to have more to say about selecting clothing, as well as your hairstyle. The more your own choice came into play, the more the way you dressed reflected what you are like inside, your own personality.

WHAT SHOULD DETERMINE HAIRSTYLES

We cannot very well change the shape of our face or the size of our ears or the length of our neck. But our hair does allow for considerable arranging and control. It can contribute a lot toward an attractive appearance.

Hairdressing has a very ancient history. Down through the centuries, hairstyles have varied from country to country and from one period to another. Sometimes human pride has produced very extreme hairstyles. Back in the first century the apostles Paul and Peter found it necessary to counsel Christian women not to be extravagant or put too much importance on hairstyles. (1 Tim. 2:9; 1 Pet. 3:3) Today, however, many boys, by their very long hair and sideburns, draw most attention.

Did not men in Bible times generally wear their hair longer than is customary in most lands today? Undoubtedly they did. But something else is equally certain. What? That men’s hair was still consistently shorter than that of the women. That is why the apostle Paul could write to the congregation at Corinth, Greece, and say: “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him; but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her?” (1 Cor. 11:14, 15) How does “nature” teach us this?

Paul’s statement does not mean that men cannot grow long hair like a woman’s, for they can, and today quite a number do. Commenting on Paul’s use of the word “nature” here, Bible scholar Albert Barnes said: “The word . . . denotes evidently that sense of propriety which all men have . . . It is such as is demanded by the natural sense of fitness among men. . . . The word . . . refers to a deep internal sense of what is proper and right.”​—Notes on the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, pp. 225, 226; see also Aid to Bible Understanding, p. 1207.

So people then recognized that it was the “natural” thing​—the proper and fitting thing—​for men to cut their hair to a moderate length, shorter than that of women. We, today, ought to recognize what is “natural” also. A man could let his fingernails grow to a length of several inches​—but it is “natural” for him to cut them, since this makes it easier for him to pick things up and do work. A person could go without washing his hands or body for a year at a time​—but the “natural” (as well as considerate and healthful) thing to do is to bathe more frequently. Even animals do this.

So, just because something is possible, that does not make it natural, according to the Bible’s definition. For a man or a boy to wear his hair so that he looks like a girl is still “contrary to nature.” It is typical of an age (and lands) where homosexuality is on the increase. And the Bible shows that homosexuality is also “contrary to nature,” both unfitting and detestable in God’s sight.​—Rom. 1:26, 27.

Does this severely limit us? No, for just as with clothes, so with hairstyles there is a wide variety of ways of arranging one’s hair that are pleasing and attractive without being immodest or unnatural. There can still be refreshing variety without going beyond the bounds of what is right in God’s eyes.