University of Virginia Library

Clean Celibacy

The Roman Catholic
priesthood also serves as a good
example. The fact that priests
have shaven heads creates an
association with celibacy which
gives them an additional source
of power and authority besides
that normally associated with
closely trimmed hair.

Many interesting public
figures have had
emotion-evoking hair styles.
Who can forget how many
times people in a crowd told
Robert Kennedy to get a
haircut? What did they
associate it with? He did have
13 children and was termed a
liberal, that might indicate
something. However, there are
exceptions to the long hair
theme. Paul Newman and the
maverick Yul Brynner are still
sex symbols that remain
unexplained phenomena.

Hair styles will continue to
be a topic for debate. The only
thing that is blatantly obvious
about this subject is that
nothing is really obvious. Of
the possible viewpoints to take
on the topic, the emphasis of
this article has been on some of
the anthropological
perspectives. It should
probably be added that there
are other perspectives to take
– such as hair from a historical
viewpoint or from a
psychoanalytic viewpoint.

However, one tends to
wonder where the nebulous
ends on this subject and where
the clearcut emerges. Yet one
thing seems certain – and as
the present trend seems to be
for hair to become increasingly
more visible – it will not
disappear as a subject of the
past.