When we visited family for the holidays in Arizona, our five year old nephew was blown away and unable to grasp the idea of a guy having long hair. It was pretty funny. We explained, long hair isn’t just for girls, but we understood why he’d think otherwise.

Traditionally, in the U.S., men are expected to be clean cut and clean shaven at school, in business and out in the world. The pressure to conform is amazing. Men and little boys are often criticized for their long hair because people still often label men with long hair as being slackers, hippies or lazy. This stereotype is beginning to fade, thank goodness. It is becoming more socially acceptable in America and perhaps, even a trend.

So many cultures around the world look at the length of a man’s hair as a very respectable and honorable thing. Looking back through history, Native American, Hawaiian, Asian, Indian, Russian and even colonial American men wore long hairdos. Prophets, like Jesus, Buddha, Moses and Shiva wore their hair long too.

For some men, the long hair style is a matter of personal preference, but that wasn’t so for the Navajo Indians. We read that Navajo Indians believed every part of the body has a purpose and that when we lose touch with ourselves, we lose our true power. Navajo men let their hair grow out because they understood hair is connected to our nervous systems and is an extension of intuition. Supposedly, by keeping their hair long, they could build supernatural tracking abilities within themselves. In their culture, long hair was a key to extrasensory perception. We read, when a Navajo’s hair was cut, they lost their sixth sense and ability to track.

There is no biological reason why men should cut their hair short. It grows naturally and yet, men around the world have been taught to cut it off for generations. We feel that if men and women all had long hair, we’d see less of a distinction between the sexes and therefore, we might enjoy a more symbiotic relationship together.

The two of us don’t cut our hair, even though our parents made sure we were trimmed and proper when we were little. Instead, we let it do what it was made to do: grow. We see more and more guys rocking the long hair style and believe it is just the beginning. As women and men become less distracted by materialism and money, they have an opportunity to get in touch with one’s self. The more we understand that we’re energetic beings and that every part of us has purpose and power, the more we will see great shifts in our reality.