Spiritual Effects Of Cutting Hair

Introduction

Spiritual Effects Of Cutting Hair In The Bible

Most of us, particularly in the Western World, would have heard of Samson and Delilah from the Holy Bible. It is declared in the bible that Samson possessed great strength and courage. He was a Nazirite and as such was not allowed to cut his hair, otherwise his Nazirite vow was broken and his strength would be lost. When he is betrayed by his lovely wife Delilah (sarcasm) he loses his strength and is captured by the Philistines.

So it would seem that, according to the bible at least, there are some significant spiritual effects of cutting hair. It’s unclear though whether Samson’s effect is because he cut his hair specifically, or whether it’s because his vow was broken and thus God was disappointed with him.

Sikkhism And Cutting Hair

Sikhism also includes beliefs relating to long hair, although not as dramatic as Samson’s, the practise of Kesh is a time honoured ritual involving men growing their hair naturally as long as it will grow without cutting it. The hair is then combed with a Kanga, then tied in a knot and covered with a turban. It is done in order to honour of God and His perfect creation^[1].

Why Do Shaolin Monks Cut Their Hair?

For the Shaolin (Buddhist) monks, hair symbolises eroticism, sexuality and virility. This would also be shown in the Samson story in some ways – since strength, masculinity, sexuality and virility are depicted by Samson.

Shaolin Monks, by contrast perhaps to Samson, shun these aspects of physical life and concentrate purely on the spiritual way. As such, they cut their hair and shave themselves bald to show their commitment to the Holy Life (Brahmacariya).

There may also be an association with the old Chinese punishment whereby sinners were required to shave their beard and hair. This practice seems to be rooted in the notion that shaving the hair and beard was a sign of insulting the sinners soul. Perhaps, since many religions consider humans as sinners, the Shaolin Monks perform this ritual on themselves to remind them to do their best to remain pure.

What Does It Mean To Cut Your Hair Spiritually?

Having briefly looked at some of the different spiritual practices surrounding cutting (or not) or one’s hair, let’s look at what it actually means spiritually to cut one’s hair.

Much of this will depend on the culture in which you were brought up. For most of us reading this there will be little spiritual meaning of cutting hair, unless you decide to ascribe some form of meaning to it for yourself.

Many people cut their hair to signify a new beginning. After a painful breakup, or leaving an old job. Many people feel that cutting their hair is the first step to the ‘new me’. Of course, if you’re not subscribing to the theory of strength coming from hair (which we’ll investigate a bit) then this can be very therapeutic indeed.

There’s some spin off physical benefits to cutting your hair like this too – if you have split ends for example, then cutting your hair can help reduce this and make your hair look and feel much healthier. Healthier looking hair will make you feel better too.

Shorter hair means more time during the day for other pursuits – such as meditation, which of course can have spiritual benefits.

Cutting hair can also release emotions that some people believe are stored in hair. We’ll look at that in the next section though.

Many people believe that cutting one’s hair can help release the Crown Chakra – and it’s this Chakra which is responsible for your overall spiritual progress whilst in this body. This Chakra, many believe, is the gateway between the spiritual realm of your soul, and the physical realm of your body. Shorter hair can, people believe, reduce the obstructions between the spirit and body realms.

So, cutting your hair can increase your spiritual well-being by helping you to release the past – even if it’s just symbolic, the effect is the same. It can create a boundary between yesterday and today, where today you move forward from the events of yesterday and before. And releasing your past and forgiving those that have done wrong by you during that time can be one of the most powerful spiritual things you can do.

But all this depends on your spiritual beliefs regarding whether you should in fact cut your hair. As we mentioned earlier in this post, there are some belief systems whereby cutting your hair would be an affront to God – Samson the Nazirite for example, lost all his strength and was captured by his enemies when his wife cut his hair. Some Sikhs also believe that keeping long hair shows respect to God.

There are also many belief systems around the world that believe hair acts as an antenna into the universe, sending and receiving signals from the Universe. Cutting your hair can therefore reduce the reception and broadcast of these signals, perhaps limiting your spiritual abilities. This might be some part of the reason why Samson lost his strength.

Can Emotions Be Stored In Hair?

Many belief systems around the world seem to believe that cutting hair is a form of cleansing ritual which indicates that they also believe that emotions can be stored in hair. It is true that your hair connects to your nervous system, albeit not directly. But your hair is certainly controllable by your nervous system to some extent – think about how you might walk into a room and the hairs on your arms suddenly stand on end. People believe, as a result, that hair can be an antenna into the universe, collecting and storing emotions from those around you as well as allowing you to store your emotions as it grows.

The keratin protein in hair contains crystalline structures^[2] – and many people believe that these crystal can also act as energy amplifiers and antennas, in similar ways to crystals and gemstones that are formed within the earth.

Which Chakra Is Related To Hair?

Most people believe that the Crown Chakra is the chakra most related to hair because this is the chakra which is mostly covered by hair, on average. Many people believe that long hair can inhibit the amount of information you can receive and send through the crown chakra since it obscures the area. If this is the case, and is allegedly believed in some Chinese belief systems, then the fringe (or bangs) could also be responsible for inhibiting your third eye, since they would cover that too.

Given that we’ve discovered crystalline structures in the keratin that makes up hair – and crystalline structures do have their own form of energy emission and absorption, it does seem plausible that having hair in the way of these chakras could impede their ability to sense electromagnetic signals that surround us.

This might be a good thing – it depends what you’re wanting to accomplish, since sometimes we just need a break from everything and so covering your crown chakra and/or third eye with something that closes us off temporarily might be a restful benefit.

What Does It Mean If You Dream Someone Cutting Your Hair?

We’ll investigate this particular dream more thoroughly in a separate article since we have multiple different dream investigation posts. But, as a quick summary, we’ll look into what it means if someone cuts your hair in a dream here.

Of course, it’s difficult to give an exact answer in a post on the internet anyway because so much is dependent on the context going on within your life presently, who it was in the dream that cut your hair, how you felt about that in the dream, what the situation is in the dream and what occurred after the hair was cut of course.

If you felt positive about the experience of having your hair cut in a dream then it’s likely that this is indeed a positive sign. It could be that you’re about to move on from some trauma or drama in your life and possibly the person doing the haircut in your dream will also be the one to help you in your waking life.

But if you felt threatened or scared about the experience, or felt that the dreamed haircut was against your will, then this could be someone trying to take your strength and stamina. Someone may be trying to reduce the influence you have over a situation in which you need to remain strong. The person cutting your hair may well be trying to undermine you at work, or in big decisions you need to make. Caution would be wise before giving them too much information about situations so they can’t rob you of your power in your waking life!

Summary

Different cultures and different belief systems have different opinions on the spiritual effects of cutting hair. Some say that you will lose strength and importance, others say you dishonour God in doing so – which also leads to losing strength and courage. Other cultures suggest you should cut your hair in order to release hurt and anguish from the past and move forward and thereby in fact gain strength. Yet more suggest that cutting your hair is essential for uncovering the crown chakra and picking up signals from the universe.

In other words, there doesn’t seem to be a strong consensus for any particular spiritual meaning for cutting hair and it’s really actually going to come down to what you believe as an individual as is often the case of course.

Our view is that if you believe long hair gives you strength and courage then it probably does. If you believe cutting your hair releases you from the past and enables you to move forward then it probably does. Belief and feelings are powerful things in their own right and should not be underestimated. You are the creator of your own reality within the Universe and as such, what you believe has a strong bearing on what actually happens. Some people might call this manifestation or the law of attraction of course.

References

1: Wikipedia, Kesh (Sikhism). Fetched from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesh_(Sikhism) on 18th December 2021.

2: Bunick, C. G., & Milstone, L. M. (2017). The X-Ray Crystal Structure of the Keratin 1-Keratin 10 Helix 2B Heterodimer Reveals Molecular Surface Properties and Biochemical Insights into Human Skin Disease. The Journal of investigative dermatology, 137(1), 142–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2016.08.018

Featured Image by Tumisu from Pixabay