To the delight of many friends and colleagues I finally made the move to cut my hair on Saturday. So on Sunday I got beaten up by this gang of crazy Christ-followers who wanted to know the reasons why as there are speculation that a Delilah is involved.

Sadly that isn’t the case (although Delilah was a deceivingly bad person it is probably happy that that isn’t the case). So I decided to let everyone know the reason why I would just put the whole story here, who knows, it might make an epic movie one day…

It all started August 2006, I was in matric and the school announced that we can do with our hair whatever we feel like doing for the matric dance, so school rules does not apply. This of course meant that we as guys can grow it longer than the approved 10cm. Back then my hair was a very short brush-cut and I decided to hell with this, I’m growing it. So I’ve been growing it since August 2006.

Eventually during late 2007 my hair became so long that people became anxious and wandered when it was going to be cut. My reply was the standard “I’m a student and I can do with my hair what I want” or something similar to that. But in 2008 it became so long that I had to start tying it down to make it look neat.

So in 2008 people started asking when am I going to cut it all off, and I decided I’ll make a list of conditions, and these are just some of them:

1.       Finish my undergrad studies (I started studying part-time in 2008 and figured this will give me a lot of time to grow my hair, at least another 5 years).

2.       Get engaged. (This of course meant that I’ll need to get a girlfriend first, and in my “nerd” state-of-mind back then this meant it will take about 7 or so years, so enough time to really get it growing).

3.       Go to the army. (What are the chances of war breaking out anyway, but if it does, then I’ll have to cut it.

4.       Conviction from the Holy Spirit. (If God speaks, who am I to argue)

5.       I don’t know.

Now all these conditions for me seemed like quite a ways to go (apart from #4 which can happen anytime) so it meant I can go crazy growing it.  Besides, on howto.com they suggest long hair is good for head-banging.

2009 came, and in January 2009 my whole life changed, but I still continued growing my hair, and only went to get it trimmed every 3 months, so it slowly but surely became extremely long. Over time I got more hassles from the guys at work and even “threatened” that they will pin me down and take a scissor and cut it off, or to sneak up from behind and snip off the pony, I saw this as empty threats and continued growing it.

My Life-group accepted me just as I am, and only since the start of 2010 somebody will randomly at odd times ask me until when am I going to grow it, and when am I cutting it… my reply was any one of the 5 reasons on my list. But it was great fun speculating what I’m going to do with my hair just before I cut it; this included a 1m spiky Mohawk and dreadlocks.

So last week I and some of the guys from church were sitting in the food court at Monte Casino waiting for the right time to go to the movies. So right there Michelle Chadwick threw a curve-ball (At that point I was thinking about some of Bill Johnson’s messages, not even at all about hair) and asked that old question “When are you going to cut your hair?” It took me a little while to click what I’ve been asked, and so it became a group discussion right then and there and I was feeling that I’m not getting out of this one, and the two Michelle’s and Catherine (and I also believe Adrian) came up with some good points that got me thinking.

Monday was holiday and I got the whole day to think, and I did, I thought the entire thing through and also came to the realization that 1 year ago my life had quite a huge change, but I was growing my hair for about 3.5 years, and so I came to the realization that externally I’m not reflecting what is going on internally… this made me decide to go ahead, I spoke to some of the guys at life-group Monday night. I got some moral support from the Van Zyl’s on Tuesday and Wednesday evening and by I believe Thursday afternoon I got the call that the appointment has been made for Saturday morning 09:00. Of course everyone at work was all excited, but thought that I would chicken out at the last minute.

I was feeling extremely nervous since Wednesday, but I knew that change needed to happen. So Saturday morning I met up with the Chado's and Felicia, but my nerves was gone, my stomach was going everywhere since I woke up Saturday, excitement and nervousness was both manifesting intensely within, I mean it is 3.5 years worth that was going to get taken away in an instant.

So it was cut Saturday morning at 09:00, after that we went to Fourways for a new outfit and I would say the rest was history.

So here are the reasons why I did it:

1.       Pacts to not cut your hair until something happens are quite useless.

2.       It takes forever to wash so much hair, and drying/tending it is impossible in less than an hour.

3.       People kept hassling me to get it cut, I just wanted them to stay quiet.

4.       Probably the most important, my outside image should reflect what is going on the inside.

5.       Because I was asked nicely and given a valid reason.

6.       It looks better.

7.       Real Man challenge was to give up something of great value. My pony tail has been donated to CANSA.

So if you think the above reasons are not valid or don’t reflect the true reason in your opinion, please don’t hesitate to tell me what you think the reasons are.

If you still don’t have the answer as to why I cut my hair after this, why don’t you give me a reason to have kept it growing…

I hoped you enjoyed reading this…

This is Christiaan Nel signing off…

P.S. if you want me to possibly for some strange reason would want me to perhaps blog something that you might possibly have an interest in or want my view on, and it is appropriate, just email me and if I think it is valid I’ll write something…