Your hair, your religion, it is all your choice. No one can force religion into your heart, even if they can force you to grow your hair long. Keeping long hair will not make you more of a Sikh, no matter what your parents feel.

Sikhs keep their hair long as a visible symbol, a constant flag saying "Here I am! I am Sikh and I am proud of that and I want you to know it!" Guru Gobind Singh gave us these symbols so that no one would claim to be a Sikh who did not have enough conviction in his religion to declare it to the world.

If you are not yet far enough in your spiritual journey to feel that conviction, if your journey is leading you elsewhere, or if you believe that this is not how you want to declare your faith to the world, then it is your choice to cut your hair.

Sikhism is not meant to bind your freedom or your spirit. It is supposed to be a path to the liberation of your spirit. Do not let anyone use tradition to bind you to something that you do not feel or believe.

The practice of forcing children to keep symbols is detrimental to the message of the Sikh religion. Making people believe that their religion consists of or is satisfied by blindly applying symbols or performing rituals will only convince children that their religion is all form and holds no function or meaning.

No rituals, no symbols, make a person religious or lead one to the Hukam. Guru Nanak put this same message in the Japji Sahib, what I consider to be the most encapsulating piece of literature in laying the foundational beliefs of Sikhism. By practicing as monks in the time of Guru Nanak, thinking thousands of thoughts, isolating yourself from others and living in silence, you cannot achieve understanding and true manifestation in harmony with the rest of creation (the Hukam). Your soul cannot be satisfied by abandoning the world, all people, and all possessions. Neither can your soul be satisfied by accumulating worldly possessions. The only true path to understanding, to feeling the true connection to everything else, is self-realization, living within all other things as you were meant to the fullest of your potential and in harmony with all other things and people. According to the Gurus, you have your body, as it is, for a purpose.

If all of creation is made together to be all parts of one larger whole, every piece of the puzzle was made with it's bends and shapes on purpose to make the larger picture fit together perfectly. Thus if we are made in a certain way, with certain attributes, or certain talents, we are made that way because it is with these attributes and talents that we are supposed to exist within the rest of creation. It is this logic that stands behind accepting our bodies as they are given as holy.

However, I personally hold the opinion that if you are not harming the abilities of your body, that you are not limiting the tools and vessel that has been given to you for fulfilling your place in life, for achieving full self-actualization. I do not believe cutting hair is rejecting the body that you were given, not loving it, or limiting it. Drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, doing drugs, these things hurt and limit the abilities of your body and your mind. I understand why they are not allowed in Sikhism. But I believe that the importance of long hair lies more in it's symbolism of adherence Sikhism. Other people would disagree with me. But religion is always a personal journey. No one can show you your own inner path. They can only share with you those things that have led them to further peace. Attempting to force it upon you is wrong and not justified in Sikhism. Sikhism is not a conversionistic religion. Symbols do not hold the heart of Sikhism. They are for those who already accept what they are meant to symbolize and for those who find pride or meaning in them. To force a symbol of a religion without the meaning existing behind it is to cheapen both the symbol and the religion that it represents.

Your hair will grow back if you want it to. As I said before, Sikhism is not a burden to bind you with. It's symbols should never be. Sikhism is meant to lead you to full self-realization. Do not let yourself be driven away from Sikhism by those who believe that it is their duty to make you give the appearance of something you do not feel inside of you.

Belief first. Symbols second to let you and others know of the beliefs behind them. Without the first, the second is hollow.