Should Buddhists Dye Their Hair?

Or have their hair professionally cut and styled? And what about wearing make-up? Or getting plastic surgery? Is this an ego thing? And if we do these things how far should we take it?  How do these things fit within a Buddhist life?

One of my most frequented blogs is called dhamma musings. The humor, creativity and thorough knowledge demonstrated in this blog is delightful.  Shravasti Dhammika who has been a monk for over 30 years and is now based in Singapore has written two wonderful articles there about Buddhism and Hair.  Hair and More on Hair.

Seems Buddha himself wasn’t too concerned with hair although those around him certainly were. And in a comment to the first Hair article mentioned, Barry wrote that in Zen tradition hair is known as “ignorance grass” .

Having done this bit of research on Buddhist views of hair and finding no definitive answer it is obvious I have to go deeper into history, to the very roots of Buddhism and that is to Hinduism.  And there’s certainly lots of material there.  Here’s the background stuff. Try to keep reading, I’m going to talk about the Kama Sutra pretty soon!

Hinduism accepts the following objectives of human life, known as the puruṣārthas:

• kāma “sensual pleasure”
• artha “livelihood, wealth”
• dharma “righteousness” [or "duty" in some definitions]
• mokṣa “liberation, freedom [from samsara]“

There are  four stages of life in Hinduism and these are known as the four Ashramas and the Hindu concept of dharma (duty) infuses each stage:

• Brahmacharya: The first 20 years of life,  often referred to as the scholar stage.  Brahmacharya was, for the Brahmin and other upper castes a time for learning and contemplation of life with the help of a Guru.
• Grihastha : next 40 years (20-60) is the householder’s stage. Once married one  satisfies the above-mentioned kama(sense pleasure) and artha(material gain) within married life and career.
• Vanaprastha: Next 20 years (60-80) is the detachment from the material world,  entering into contemplation and for undertaking  pilgrimages (such as the Char Dham Yatra which I mentioned  in a previous post).
• Sanyasa: conception of the mystic life to prepare the next life or moksha.

So the initial times in life are when one is actively engaged with the world and has interaction with it. There is not any sense of guilt about making a living or enjoying some of the things in life. It is, in fact, something of a responsibility. This is perhaps where the 8 fold path is helpful in a Buddhist sense. Things such as Right Livelihood and Right View can help steer one’s choices while engaged in the householder’s stage.

The text of the Kama Sutra, and it is a text not an illustrated sex manual, has a number of references to beautification of the body in order to enhance the bond between people in a relationship. There is even a recipe for a henna preparation to dye the hair.

A Slight Digression

The Kama Sutra itself gives an interesting look at some of the thinking in India in pre-colonial times. The intricacy of social and sexual relationships is quite astounding. The entire book is a manual of how to conduct one’s self within these types of relationships. Sexual monogamy is not seen as the ideal in this text. And marriage and “pleasure” relationships are often co-existing. Their importance and duration however are very distinct. Marriage is for life and pleasure is a quickly passing fancy.

India has a long history of polygamy (man with numerous wives)  and polyandry (woman with numerous husbands). Sexual possessiveness, in the sense of exclusivity,  while certainly an issue with some jealousies no doubt arising, was not a principal concern.  There are people in my area that still maintain these practices. Particularly polyandry wherein a woman is married to 2 or more husbands, usually brothers.  In socio-economic terms this has worked where rapid increase in population is not sustainable and where the incomes of 2 men are often needed to support a family. And there is support for this in such ancient Hindu epics as the Mahabharata wherein Draupadi, the principal female protagonist, is married to the 5 Pandava brothers.  Although later one of them, Bhim, marries another. (a Rakshasa who is sort of a powerful spirit-a great story but I digress further) The Mahabharata itself contains the Bhagavad Gita one of the most referenced texts on Hinduism and the god Krishna.

Conclusions

Since I’m writing a blog post here and not a thesis I won’t go on much further with that. The concluding points for me from looking at this topic for a while seem to relate to two areas. They are attachment and vanity.

If hair becomes an obsession and takes away time, money, attention and focus from other more significant aspects of life then it is quite obvious that there is some skewing regarding perspective. One is not wholly defined by a bad hair day. Nor is one defined by ornately decorated extensions and thousands of dollars worth of “product”. The ego investment seems to equal the dollar investment.

Superficial enhancements are just that. They define one in a superficial way and in a superficial environment. Seen as such I don’t see any issue with it. It becomes play, a dress-up game. But seen as a definition of self on a deeper level is counter-productive and quite likely damaging to the self.

If one is trying to trick nature by holding onto some past stage in life and live in or relive the past or create some projected “beautiful” future, it is a psychologically and emotionally convoluted situation. This does not accord with life in reality at present. It is trying to live a dream or fantasy. And fantasy is never as rich and deep and rewarding as reality.

And yes I am going to dye the hair. Why? Partly to maintain a certain social image. And more importantly because someone close to me says to see any grey hairs reminds him I’m going to die some time and that makes him feel sad. Sometimes it’s as simple as that.