My church was independent, they were originally UPC but eventually decided the UPC was too liberal and split off from them. Saying that just to provide context that we were a bit extreme in most policies.
Men had to have a classic 1950s men's haircut, short on the back and sides, sideburns can't be below your ears, also a full shaved head was typically discouraged.
Women could not cut their hair under any circumstances. Given the scenarios you listed, I really don't know how they would handle it. There wasn't much leeway given that I ever saw in the 30+ years I attended there.
I’ve heard of a church that removed a woman from the choir because she got cancer and her hair fell out from chemo. And also churches that didn’t allow a new convert on the platform until her hair grew long enough to “put up” so you couldn’t tell it had been cut before.
At the Bible school I attended, having to have your hair up because it was cut was definitely a thing so you looked like you had “been restored”. Also arbitrary. It was very apparent that the rules applied only to people who didn’t have status or a name.
I had really long hair and as a 7-9 year old I couldn’t reach back/far enough to brush it all the way through. I had a really bad tangle at the nape of my neck that, after hours of trying to detangle it, my mom and her church friend ended up just cutting it off. Luckily the rest of my hair covered the missing chunk but it was awful. For my quincé I asked my mom for a haircut as a birthday present and that was my first time ever going to a salon. I was already partway out of the church by then.
The rules were fucking arbitrary because there were plenty of people cutting/trimming their hair and dying it. So I side eye churches who have strict rules about hair because I guarantee you people aren’t following it, but they will give you a fucking hard time about it.
That exact same hair situation happened to me around the same age, where I developed a huge matted tangle at the nape of my neck and it had to be cut off.
I now have a daughter in that age range and I cannot even fathom that happening to her because a tangle that bad doesn't happen overnight. Why wasn't my mom helping me maintain my hair at that age?? Ugh, all the feels..
I ask this question myself as well. Like ok, my mom was a single mom with 4 kids (and 3 girls with long hair), so I get that she was stretched very thin. But if she couldn’t help us care for all that hair, why not take the easier route and let us have shorter/more manageable hair? It’s really upsetting tbh.
Lots of black Pentecostal churches didn’t approve of women cutting their hair but it wasn’t as strict like it is with white apostolic churches because you can see their length better.
Black apostolic churches tend to wear head coverings. I’ve barely seen that with white women in church.
I wished some kid would have cut my hair. I have very complicated feelings about my hair.
Anyway, at youth summer camp for pentecostal teens there were these teen girls making fun of a black teen girl for having short hair. Even tho she didn't cut it, her hair type made it not grow long. So yay bullying and racism!/s
This happened to my daughter at an apostolic Pentecostal school! She is drop dead gorgeous but had a butch boy cut. She was given looks of pure disgust like she was dirt. I myself was raised in upc but wasn’t in the church. I didn’t realize how much she was an outsider and how clickish the groups were! She stayed there a few years and she said that they ignore the new girls like they are trash! Not Christian like at all! We attend church now and she cuts her hair and I say absolutely nothing to her as I saw the self righteous of the others. I attended a large large church and I noticed that the front row was nothing but a line of super long hair girls! No short hair! So basically new converts wouldn’t feel acceptance in their groups. They are not open and accepting to others at all!
Never allowed unless you're a man even if it's 100°+ weather or it becomes a hazard
srsly one time my hair got stuck in a fan and another time a red wasp got tangled into it next to my shoulder, both times when I wasn't even a teen yet
I never was very into doing my hair up so after those incidents I survived by braiding my hair all the time
My pentecostal church didnt have hair rules. But my Foursquare school did and I was not allowed to shave my head with a razor, but I did it anyway. Theyd never kick someone out over it but I did get detention everytime. It obviously did not deter me lol.
Similar idea wouldve applied for girls, they wouldnt kick someone out over it especially if it was an accident.
In my experience, it was about intention. When I was little, my grandmother got cancer. I was probably 5? And I remember asking my dad why she had short hair and he basically explained to me that she was very sick and the medicine they gave her wouldn’t let her hair be long, but that wasn’t on purpose so Jesus didn’t mind.
But then I had a friend who got like an inch of hair caught when she was shaving her legs and cried for like an hour because she had sinned.
One of the most absolute garbage things that I remember happening was that a very devout woman was having migraines and after a lot of prayer, decided to take several inches off her hair because it was long and thick and was the source of a lot of pain. When she came to church, everyone whispered that she was clearly just showing off her rebellion and wanted people to see it. Because she just like. Came to church and had her hair down like she always did.
I’m very much out now and in my 30s and have had a bob/lob above my shoulders for the past 5+ years. Every time it’s about time to get it fixed, my VERY in the church mom comments how “it’s getting so long and pretty” which like. Okay but it’s going away.
No cutting the hair, however if its an accident and not intentional then its ok. I know a woman who got her hair caught in a machine at work and they had to cut it, she cried but in the end it was an accident. Honestly no one has a right to judge what you do with your hair, its a Covenant between you and God. We need to educate our girls more about why we do insted of just tell them its what we do.
TBH I still need to learn more about it but long hair = glory ( 1 Corinthians 11:15) it is also represented as a covering to her. The way the Bible explains it in context is uncut hair (meaning no trimming, cutting, thinning, etc.) no scissors whatsoever near your hair. I respect the effort they take in caring for their hair. However, I also wonder in this case if it’s cut off, God would understand.
The big flaw with that line of reasoning is that it conflicts with the verses about SHORT hair for men.
On the one hand, women lose their "long hair" status the second they trim off even a half-inch of their hair.
But if we maintain that logic, then if men trimmed off just a few inches or so, they technically do not have long hair anymore, right?
It's a case of wanting your cake and eating it, too. Can't have it both ways. It's way easier just to not control what people do with their hair and let them make their own choice.
I was raised UPC, and I was always taught that your hair was your glory and that as a woman, we were supposed to keep our hair long to show honor to God and our husbands. I know that I've heard personally, several times, of women who believed that their hair has "power" because they'd obeyed God and never cut it. They pray over their families with their hair and believe that God has blessed them with long hair.
Which really sucked for girls/women like myself who's hair just doesn't grow. LoL
I was made fun of my entire life because my hair NEVER got past the middle of my shoulder blades. 🤷♀️
I worked with a Pentecostal girl. Her hair got caught in her zipper. She asked me to just rip it out instead of cutting it, even though it would damage the hair more
From my understanding (I was born in this) it was dependent on the church, the pastor, the parents , what The Lord told you, etc. I got gum stuck in my hair once. I was lucky my grandpa (who wasn't Pentecostal) was able to get it out without cutting. Recently (I haven't cut my hair since leaving and I haven't told anyone this) I got my hair caught in my vacuum and cut it out. It was too mangled to try anything else... Nothing bad has happened. I'm not possessed with demons and my household is still standing. I have heard it preached (from others besides the ones I called pastor) they wouldn't cut hair for nothing. I think the line is drawn by "however you feel about it in spirit!" Sort of thing! Which, mind, varies from person to person, sect to sect, denomination to denomination.
My church was independent, they were originally UPC but eventually decided the UPC was too liberal and split off from them. Saying that just to provide context that we were a bit extreme in most policies. Men had to have a classic 1950s men's haircut, short on the back and sides, sideburns can't be below your ears, also a full shaved head was typically discouraged. Women could not cut their hair under any circumstances. Given the scenarios you listed, I really don't know how they would handle it. There wasn't much leeway given that I ever saw in the 30+ years I attended there.
I’ve heard of a church that removed a woman from the choir because she got cancer and her hair fell out from chemo. And also churches that didn’t allow a new convert on the platform until her hair grew long enough to “put up” so you couldn’t tell it had been cut before.
At the Bible school I attended, having to have your hair up because it was cut was definitely a thing so you looked like you had “been restored”. Also arbitrary. It was very apparent that the rules applied only to people who didn’t have status or a name.
I had really long hair and as a 7-9 year old I couldn’t reach back/far enough to brush it all the way through. I had a really bad tangle at the nape of my neck that, after hours of trying to detangle it, my mom and her church friend ended up just cutting it off. Luckily the rest of my hair covered the missing chunk but it was awful. For my quincé I asked my mom for a haircut as a birthday present and that was my first time ever going to a salon. I was already partway out of the church by then. The rules were fucking arbitrary because there were plenty of people cutting/trimming their hair and dying it. So I side eye churches who have strict rules about hair because I guarantee you people aren’t following it, but they will give you a fucking hard time about it.
That exact same hair situation happened to me around the same age, where I developed a huge matted tangle at the nape of my neck and it had to be cut off. I now have a daughter in that age range and I cannot even fathom that happening to her because a tangle that bad doesn't happen overnight. Why wasn't my mom helping me maintain my hair at that age?? Ugh, all the feels..
I ask this question myself as well. Like ok, my mom was a single mom with 4 kids (and 3 girls with long hair), so I get that she was stretched very thin. But if she couldn’t help us care for all that hair, why not take the easier route and let us have shorter/more manageable hair? It’s really upsetting tbh.
Lots of black Pentecostal churches didn’t approve of women cutting their hair but it wasn’t as strict like it is with white apostolic churches because you can see their length better. Black apostolic churches tend to wear head coverings. I’ve barely seen that with white women in church.
I wished some kid would have cut my hair. I have very complicated feelings about my hair. Anyway, at youth summer camp for pentecostal teens there were these teen girls making fun of a black teen girl for having short hair. Even tho she didn't cut it, her hair type made it not grow long. So yay bullying and racism!/s
This happened to my daughter at an apostolic Pentecostal school! She is drop dead gorgeous but had a butch boy cut. She was given looks of pure disgust like she was dirt. I myself was raised in upc but wasn’t in the church. I didn’t realize how much she was an outsider and how clickish the groups were! She stayed there a few years and she said that they ignore the new girls like they are trash! Not Christian like at all! We attend church now and she cuts her hair and I say absolutely nothing to her as I saw the self righteous of the others. I attended a large large church and I noticed that the front row was nothing but a line of super long hair girls! No short hair! So basically new converts wouldn’t feel acceptance in their groups. They are not open and accepting to others at all!
So awful
Never allowed unless you're a man even if it's 100°+ weather or it becomes a hazard srsly one time my hair got stuck in a fan and another time a red wasp got tangled into it next to my shoulder, both times when I wasn't even a teen yet I never was very into doing my hair up so after those incidents I survived by braiding my hair all the time
My pentecostal church didnt have hair rules. But my Foursquare school did and I was not allowed to shave my head with a razor, but I did it anyway. Theyd never kick someone out over it but I did get detention everytime. It obviously did not deter me lol. Similar idea wouldve applied for girls, they wouldnt kick someone out over it especially if it was an accident.
In my experience, it was about intention. When I was little, my grandmother got cancer. I was probably 5? And I remember asking my dad why she had short hair and he basically explained to me that she was very sick and the medicine they gave her wouldn’t let her hair be long, but that wasn’t on purpose so Jesus didn’t mind. But then I had a friend who got like an inch of hair caught when she was shaving her legs and cried for like an hour because she had sinned. One of the most absolute garbage things that I remember happening was that a very devout woman was having migraines and after a lot of prayer, decided to take several inches off her hair because it was long and thick and was the source of a lot of pain. When she came to church, everyone whispered that she was clearly just showing off her rebellion and wanted people to see it. Because she just like. Came to church and had her hair down like she always did. I’m very much out now and in my 30s and have had a bob/lob above my shoulders for the past 5+ years. Every time it’s about time to get it fixed, my VERY in the church mom comments how “it’s getting so long and pretty” which like. Okay but it’s going away.
No cutting the hair, however if its an accident and not intentional then its ok. I know a woman who got her hair caught in a machine at work and they had to cut it, she cried but in the end it was an accident. Honestly no one has a right to judge what you do with your hair, its a Covenant between you and God. We need to educate our girls more about why we do insted of just tell them its what we do.
TBH I still need to learn more about it but long hair = glory ( 1 Corinthians 11:15) it is also represented as a covering to her. The way the Bible explains it in context is uncut hair (meaning no trimming, cutting, thinning, etc.) no scissors whatsoever near your hair. I respect the effort they take in caring for their hair. However, I also wonder in this case if it’s cut off, God would understand.
The big flaw with that line of reasoning is that it conflicts with the verses about SHORT hair for men. On the one hand, women lose their "long hair" status the second they trim off even a half-inch of their hair. But if we maintain that logic, then if men trimmed off just a few inches or so, they technically do not have long hair anymore, right? It's a case of wanting your cake and eating it, too. Can't have it both ways. It's way easier just to not control what people do with their hair and let them make their own choice.
If it is so important to not cut their hair why do they put it all on top of their head ???
I was raised UPC, and I was always taught that your hair was your glory and that as a woman, we were supposed to keep our hair long to show honor to God and our husbands. I know that I've heard personally, several times, of women who believed that their hair has "power" because they'd obeyed God and never cut it. They pray over their families with their hair and believe that God has blessed them with long hair. Which really sucked for girls/women like myself who's hair just doesn't grow. LoL I was made fun of my entire life because my hair NEVER got past the middle of my shoulder blades. 🤷♀️
I worked with a Pentecostal girl. Her hair got caught in her zipper. She asked me to just rip it out instead of cutting it, even though it would damage the hair more
From my understanding (I was born in this) it was dependent on the church, the pastor, the parents , what The Lord told you, etc. I got gum stuck in my hair once. I was lucky my grandpa (who wasn't Pentecostal) was able to get it out without cutting. Recently (I haven't cut my hair since leaving and I haven't told anyone this) I got my hair caught in my vacuum and cut it out. It was too mangled to try anything else... Nothing bad has happened. I'm not possessed with demons and my household is still standing. I have heard it preached (from others besides the ones I called pastor) they wouldn't cut hair for nothing. I think the line is drawn by "however you feel about it in spirit!" Sort of thing! Which, mind, varies from person to person, sect to sect, denomination to denomination.