I don’t think nuns cut their hair because it is holier to have short hair. They cut it for two reasons. One, because it is easier. Short hair you don’t need to style, dries quickly and doesn’t bunch up under your bandeau like you’re hiding horns. Two, it’s part of “killing yourself.” A lot of historical religious life entailed removing anything that was beautiful either from the body or the environment, so they cut their hair, wore plain clothes, lived in plain surroundings. You’ll notice that when a convent went bad these were among the first things to go. Someone once gave us a coloured tea towel and somehow it actually made it into the convent kitchen. I remember staring at it because I hadn’t seen anything so pretty in a long time, even hung it up specially. Pretty things were that rare, that a tea towel could be exciting.