Hair replacement

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Eleven

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What is the Catholic Church’s teaching on hair replacement procedures? The one where they take good hairs from the back of the head and transplant to the top?

I would like references from Church documents or clergy, please.

Also, in another thread, someone wrote: “JPII had an address to the Italian college of plastic surgeons and was cautiously optimistic that there was a role for purely asthetic procedures.” Does anyone know what address that was?
 
Eleven said:
What is the Catholic Church’s teaching on hair replacement procedures? The one where they take good hairs from the back of the head and transplant to the top?
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The Church does not have a teaching on this topic.

There is nothing immoral in the procedure. Why would the Church have a teaching on it?
 
Eleven said:
What is the Catholic Church’s teaching on hair replacement procedures? ?
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I doubt very much the church has a position. can you think of some issue of faith or morals involved in this procedure that would require some church teaching?
 
I guess the OP’s concern is that this might be a form of vanity. IOW, instead of spending $4,000 on elective surgery just to make yourself look younger, why not donate that money to a deserving charity?

I don’t know how St. Thomas might analyze that. I’ve had two hair-replacement operations over the years – I did so as a favor to my wife, not because it was something I really wanted. 😛
 
Langdell said:
I guess the OP’s concern is that this might be a form of vanity. IOW, instead of spending $4,000 on elective surgery just to make yourself look younger, why not donate that money to a deserving charity?

I don’t know how St. Thomas might analyze that. I’ve had two hair-replacement operations over the years – I did so as a favor to my wife, not because it was something I really wanted. 😛
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That would be an area of prudential discernment. The procedure itself is morally neutral.
 
Thanks!

In addition to “Ask an Apologist,” maybe we should have an “Ask a Thomist” category. 😃
 
This process is a reverse permanent tonsure. The Church has had a lot to say about the tonsure in the past; it was one of the points of difference between the Celtic and Roman Churches.
 
Eleven said:
What is the Catholic Church’s teaching on hair replacement procedures? The one where they take good hairs from the back of the head and transplant to the top?

I would like references from Church documents or clergy, please.

Also, in another thread, someone wrote: “JPII had an address to the Italian college of plastic surgeons and was cautiously optimistic that there was a role for purely asthetic procedures.” Does anyone know what address that was?
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The Church has always cautioned against vanity. However, it was Pius XII (1958) who addressed plastic surgeons as to the morality of plastic surgery when it depends on the individual case – such as children born with deformities. John Paul II (1989) addressed dentists and maxiofacial surgeons who do reconstructive surgery where the defect also harmed the psyche.

From what I understand, the Church cautions against plastic surgery for the purposes of vanity alone. Hair loss for a woman and a man may differ. However, if a man is becoming obsessed with hair loss, and nose jobs, and chin lifts and eye lifts, in order to look younger, becoming a habit for which he is never satisfied, then he’s seriously into vanity. Same for women who search out surgeon after surgeon. However, hair loss for a woman has a different societal context for women and I would think it necessary surgery.

I think the Church’s position is that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and we should not be altering that temple with unnecessary and repeated surgeries. I think hair loss would get a pass, as long as it does not lead to obsessive vanity. The Church cautions against “cult of the body.”

Here’s the only link I could find:

ncregister.com/daily-news/plastic_surgery_not_just_for_the_rich_and_famous/
 
puzzleannie said:
please provide an authentic source for a Church teaching that states this is sinful
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Umm, it’s one of the 7 deadly sins.
1866 Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished, following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great. They are called “capital” because they engender other sins, other vices.138 They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia.
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Pride, vainglory, vanity… whatever you want to call it, it means the same thing.
 
BTW I don’t think hair replacement or any other plastic surgery is necessarily prideful or vanity. You quoted John Paul the 2nd when he mentioned there is a role for purely asthetic procedures. There is indeed a role for purely ascetic procedures. For instance, someone who has been scarred for life by acid or a fire, getting reconstructive surgery is not a sin. Someone rather getting reconstructive surgery because they feel they need to be prettier or need to be more beautiful than someone else, is rightly a different thing.

Getting hair replacement is not necessarily a sin. Getting it for the wrong reasons would very well be one.
 
Mmm, if a person has a health condition that has caused their hair to thin/fall out prematurely would likely be perfectly justified in having the procedure done, same would go for someone who lost their hair because they were burned or their scalp was horribly injured somehow. If, for instance, it’s a case of a married person doing it so they can attract people who aren’t their spouse, then it would be a sin.
 
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