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Summary of Question:	Pressure From Sikh Community Vs Society
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Tuesday, 7/29/2003 11:53 AM MDT

Hi there,

I was reading some articles on the forum about cutting hair vs keeping your long hair. The response from the moderator was, "dont give in to the pressures that society puts on you. Be strong and keep your long hair". Well being raised a Sikh and finally deciding to cut my hair at age 18 my sophmore year in college, I can say that there was way more pressure put on me by the Sikh community then there was from society. I wanted to cut my hair, but the reason I hadnt is because there is so much pressure put on you by the Sikh community. You hear a sikhs refer to other people as "non-sikhs" or someone with "cut hair" etc. more often than any other community I think. I dont know many other religions that refer to people in that way.

When I finally decided to cut my hair, it took tons of courage and was a major life decision for me. I would like to know what you think about this, since I think it takes way more courage to cut you hair when you grow up a sikh than to keep it. My friends at college hardly cared that I had cut my hair. There was really no pressure from them either way.

So in fact is the idea "dont give in to the pressures that society puts on you. Be strong and keep your long hair" correct, or should you rather do what you feel is right for your own path and not give in to the pressures that the sikh community puts on you, and instead follow whatever path is right for you.

Thanks,

Siri Amar Dev Khalsa

(REPLY) Sat Nam. Interesting perspective you have. Actually, society does put pressure in a most subtle way, by the fact that you obviously wanted to "fit in" and not look "different." I do believe everyone should do what his or her own highest consciousness dictates, so, if you wanted to disassociate yourself from your identity as a Sikh, that was your choice. In my opinion, you have lost more than your hair, but that is your privilege. Obviously you didn't and don't value the reasons that have been stated many, many times for keeping hair. Unfortunately at the age of 18, one of the strongest motivations, especially for a male is to rebel against parents' values. This is because at 18 a young man is striving to assert his identity as a man, and not be just somebody's child. Anyway, someday you may decide to let your hair grow again. Let's see what the future holds! (That would really take courage!!) blessings, SP