01.08. The Conclusion

We conclude therefore that

THERE IS NO POSITIVE DIVINE LAW REQUIRING A WOMAN TO WEAR A HEAD COVERING IN PUBLIC WORSHIP OR PROHIBITING HER FROM BOBBING HER HAIR. IF THE LATTER IS PROHIBITED THE FORMER IS CERTAINLY ENJOINED. But even though there is no statutory law violated, still

1. If bobbing the hair serves to deny the sex and makes the woman mannish it is condemned by the general teaching of the Scriptures.

2. If bobbing the hair is immodest or flapperish and serves to mark the woman as lacking in piety or in quiet, conservative, refined and cultured disposition, it is wrong.

3. If bobbing the hair is a concession or a giving way to that vicious propaganda which cries against all restraints and all laws under the spacious plea of "emancipating women" strikes at home and marriage and preaches free love and promiscuous sex intercourse, then bobbing the hair is a step toward hell.

4. If bobbing the hair comes from or lends itself to the tendency to renounce religion, denounce the Bible, ignore and deny the difference in the sexes and throw men and women together in a lawless relationship—then it were better that our women cut off their heads instead of their hair.

Now whether or not the practice of bobbing the hair comes from or belongs in any of the classes mentioned, the readers may decide for themselves. But the following page from a moving picture magazine of only a few months ago may help the readers to see what is regarded as the difference in appearance between a girl with long hair and one with bobbed hair. The page consists chiefly of pictures with a few words under each picture. We cannot reproduce the pictures but we give the words and must ask the readers to see the pictures in imagination. At the top of the page we have the headline and the subheadline thus:

BARBEROUS TREATMENT TO THE GIRLS Real Salt Tears, Not Glycerine Ones Were Shed by Helen and Lois.

First picture, a barber cutting off the flowing tresses of a sad-looking, sweet faced girl. Underneath the picture are these words:

"Helen Costello’s hair was long, beautiful and curly. But directors cannot see long hair in snappy modern comedies. With a sob in her throat and tragedy in her eyes, Helen allowed herself to become a shorn lamb."

Second picture, another barber at work with a director standing by and watching. Under the picture these words:

"Herbert Brenon felt like a tyrant, the barber felt like a hangman, when Lois Wilson’s hair was bobbed for ’The Great Gatsby.’ And Lois wept all during the operation."

Third picture, Lois before the operation, back turned and long, thick, curly, beautiful hair hanging far below her waist. These words:

"Lois beautiful hair was the pride of her life." (A woman’s hair is her glory—Bible) "To her it was a symbol of protest against a flippant and flapperish world. She resolutely refused to have it cut, until friends and directors coaxed her to make the sacrifice to the Great God Pep."

Fourth picture, the shorn head of poor Lois These words:

"Curiously enough the bob has changed Lois’ personality. Gone all the old demureness. And in its place an unsuspected piquancy." This page in a moving picture magazine preaches its own sermon. Whether pep and piquancy and a flippant and flapperish appearance is more becoming in Christian women and girls—especially women—than demureness, judge you.

"Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil."—Paul.