And why do women and not men typically have long hair?
In Rome, from what I recall, men had short hair because short hair for men was seen as civilized (as opposed to “barbarian” hair). Women had long hair because it was a differentiation marker between sexes, and because long hair in women was seen as beautiful and a major factor for physical attractiveness. Roman culture encouraged hair grooming and elaborate hairstyles in ladies, but haircare was a subject of mockery for men.
If hygiene was the main reason for women covering their hair, men would have done it all the same.
My husband is Korean. In his traditionally Confucian culture, both men and women wore (very) long hair, as they considered their hair, as the rest of their body, as a gift from their parents it would have been disrespectful to cut. Hair was worn in a bun, low on the neck for women, on the top of the head for men.
Both sexes wore head covers. Headbands and tall hats for men, in order to fit the bun underneath. Ladies wore a coat on their heads outside the house. Or complex (and cumbersome) hats, with a “bun-flap”. Some of the wealthier ones wore elaborate braided wigs.
If you were poor and hard-working, then there weren’t many solutions except headbands and making tight buns wrapped in a piece of cloth.
In this case, wearing one’s hair long was a sign of filial devotion, but covering it was more for practical reasons.
It has nothing to do with hygiene but because of complex cultural norms.
I’m not saying differently. I’m just trying to point out that how long one wears one’s hair is a cultural norm, and that that (cultural) hair length implies a particular hair care which, in the case of long hair, often includes covering it, whether it’s male of female.
From my perspective though, attempting to rewrite history to frame veiling as mere culture/hygiene, is anti-veiling rhetoric, because it achieves the purpose of discouraging people from religious veiling when we obviously don’t live in such cultural/hygienic circumstances.
On my part, it’s definitely not anti-veiling rhetoric. On the contrary, I think there is something beautiful in seeing religious veiling as subverting (converting, maybe, in the strong sense of the word – turning away from the world and towards God) a practice which originated in practical needs and often was a social status marker. I see in it a kind of re-ordering from pride to humility, from seduciveness to virtue.
In short, I’m not sure the veil has religious origins; but it very much acquired (and I don’t see why it would have lost) a religious purpose.
That’s the same for most liturgical vestments, btw. They began their history as profane, day-to-day clothing for everyday purposes, and evolved along with the Christian faith to acquire a completely other signification, one which turns people toward God. It’s a kind of “making holy” of the everyday.
