The Sikh Symbols - Hair and Health

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The Sikh Symbols

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Hair and Health

Hair and Health

"Human hair is a great factory of vital energy. Hair is living tissue and a functioning vital entity. It is alive in its entire length and it is only dead when it falls off in the course of a natural shedding process. The life cycle of the hair presents an interesting study. From birth till death of a person, several generations of hair follow one another in turn. The human hair absorbs solar energy. As no life can exist without solar rays, no human life is possible without hair. Humans alone possess the longest hair on their heads and faces in the whole animal world. Man's whole body is covered with hair except on the palms and soles. No other animal has such a big cerebrum within its skull nor this crown of glory to adorn his head, as well befits the king of all creations - the homo sapiens."
(Dr. Chanda Singh of Hair Research Institute, Punjab)

The hair on the scalp protects the brain, the highest organ and control tower of the human body. The long hair of continuous growth on the human scalp as a distinctive human characteristic not shared by any mammal, is a sufficient reason to believe that nature has a purpose in endowing man with long 'hair on his head.' The Sikhs believe that nature does not err, and if the hair were unnecesary it would not have been provided by nature in that manner in various lengths on the body. The failure to arrest the growth of the hair by shaving shows the futility of human effort against the law of nature.

Human hair has a direct relation to the health problems of the human society. In building a better generation, one has to build from the foundation upwards and not from the top downwards. Our children are the citizens of tomorrow. The need for Vitamin D is the greatest during the active growing period of early life, hence the necessity for long hair from an early age. Purely from the health point of view, it is best to keep the body hair sacredIy intact. A good thing ought not to be rejected simply because it is the prerogative of a particular religion or society. Significantly enough the Sikh Gurus in general and the tenth Guru in particular, while giving the final form to the Sikhs saw in the unshaven hair the completeness of the human figure as well as biological benefits connected with it.

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