Why Did Monks Have This Haircut?
Have you ever looked at a medieval painting of a Catholic monk and wondered why and who came up with the hilarious haircut they rocked? Many religions and their practitioners follow strict regulations of their individuality to get closer to their God or achieve enlightenment.
One of the more common regulations is haircut: in Buddhism, monks shave their heads clean to symbolize cutting ties with the secular world. In medieval times, the same applied to Catholic monks, except it was a unique cut where only the top of their scalps are shaved and the edges left untouched.
Why was it that Catholic monks only shaved the top of their heads?
The haircut that these monks had was called the Tonsure, or Tonsura in Latin. The word tonsure means “clipping”, as in clipping one’s hair off. The bizarre haircut started around 1073 when Pope Gregorio VII was enthroned. During this time, the culture in the church was very lenient on haircuts, dress code, and even dating amongst monks, priests, and nuns.
During Gregorio VII’s time was also when corruption was very rampant in the church as well. To tackle the old corruption problem within the church, the Pope decided to…
