COMMON QUESTIONS

Why do we have to have long hair?

How do we answer this question, "if you keep long hair, being God-given, why cut your nails which are also God-given?"


If one wants to be accepted and recognized as a Sikh, keeping uncut hair is a requirement for that. When Guru Gobind Singh gave Amrit to the Sikhs, he also required them to wear the 5-symbol uniform. The Sikhs were living a very good life at that time in villages and cities. They were not living in forests. The Guru was living at Anandpur Sahib and was accepted as a true king. It is wrong to assume that Sikhs had to grow long hair because they could not cut it while living in jungles.

someone has told you the wrong reason for keeping your hair uncut. Sikhs keep long hair, not because they are a gift of God, but because of the order of the Guru. The instructions of the Guru to retain natural hair (not to cut it at all) are misinterpreted by some persons to mean that we are to keep hair uncut, it being a gift of nature, Waheguru, to human beings. This misunderstanding prevails among many Sikhs.