Elder Paisios and men with long hair

 

One time a young man with long hair in a pony-tail came to see the elder. The elder asked him,

"Hey, young man, what work do you do?" "I'm a student," he answered. "Do you have any classes left to pass?" Asked the elder. "I have eight."

"If you want to pass them, come over here so I can give you a haircut," he told him smiling. He went into his cell, brought his scissors and cut his hair. The young man considered it a blessing, and he told others about it, and they went to receive a similar blessing. 

"I've tonsured many people," he would say laughing. "Elder, what do you do with their hair?" Smiling, he would answer, "I keep it and give it to the bald." 

Another time he mentioned humbly, "If there's a chance that I'll be saved, it will be through the prayers of mothers. Do you know how many letters I receive in which, being moved, they thank me, since I convinced their children to cut their hair and take out their earrings?"

He didn't want men to have long hair, because he considered it effeminate, and quoted the passage by the Apostle Paul, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. (1 Cor 11:14 ) When he would see young men with long hair he would ask them, "The dedicated (monastics) and the absent-minded [1] let their hair grow out. Which of the two are you?"

[1] This is another clever witticism of the elder's. The words that he chose, "acpisgomevoi" (those dedicated) and "acfrigrftievoi" (the absent-minded), are phonetically similar - Ed.