new thread
Five (5) months.
Smaller picture.
Hi Raymond
your hair seems lots longer and thicker than your last update, and in such a short time too!
It seems you are truly a longhair now!....no turning back!
it certainly suits you so keep up the good work dude
scott
dont grow up....grow down instead!
Hello Raymond,
Your hair really looks to be taking off in growth mode and is beginning to start to look a bit more long haired then the norm. With the summer weather your hair looks to have had a growth spurt. Keep up the good work and enjoy the various stages and milestones as you get to them.
Cheers,
Duncan
Hi Raymond, Great colour, length and thickness. Five months of steady growth and well on the way. Congratulations, Ian
Hello Raymond or do you prefer to be called Father. Is most people in your church ok with your longer hair, which I might add looks great.
Tom
Hey Tom,
Thanks for the compliment about my hair. Coming from a brother longhair I really appreciate it. It helps me to perservere in growing it out.
I'm comfortable with being called either Father or Ray or Raymond.
One priest spoke with me several times about getting my hair cut but I refused. I've had a comment from someone about how quickly my hair is growing. I've had another comment from my friend and photographer, David Ortiz about how my hair is maintaining much of its blond texture as I grey. He said that when he goes grey it will be stark. He has black hair. When I got a buzz haircut five (5) months ago a couple of women commented 'You cut off your beautiful locks!'.
Raymond
padre, you have good head of hair to start with, if you want to see what you'll look like with long hair use some type of photo shop type program and play around. if you have any artist in you you'll be pleasantly surprised. good luck buddy James/Tampa,Fl
Hi Raymond,
I have to admit your hair, at this stage, has tons of body.Nothing boring about your mane for sure.It'll be interesting seeing how it turns out with longer length.Very nice update Raymond.Cheers my friend.
Mark
Hi Raymond,
You have an excellent head of hair to work with, good and thick, and it is growing very well indeed. Keep up the good work!
Keep it growing,
David
Now you've got some hair to talk about. Looks good, and i like it's wavyness! It's around where my hair was when i started growing it this time (picture taken a month after my haircut). Give it at least a year and i guess it will look fantastic!
(I kinda like that lenght actually, and i'm thinking about cutting it to something like that sometime this autumn)
Hey Abstrakt,
Thanks for the compliment, bro. It means alot to me. It helps me to perserver in growing out my hair when others speak otherwise. Just this evening someone said that he was going to make an appointment for me to have my haircut tomorrow. I told him that I had plans for tomorrow afternoon.
Thanks for posting the pic of when your hair was about the same length as mine is now. I feel a special affinity with you now as my longhaired bro. Are you sure that you want to cut your hair back to this length? Far be it from me to tell anyone what they should do with their hair. However, I posted another message to you earlier about how cool it must feel to wake up and feel you own hair all around your upper body. Are you sure that you want to give that up?
You longhaired brother,
Raymond
Good to hear that :) I got the same feeling from this board a year ago or more, and it really helped alot.
Yeah, i certainly know the feeling of having hair on my upper body in the morning, as i've had hair past shoulder lenght twice now. To me, that's nothing special really, but i can understand why short haired people without any longhair experience can be curious about it. The downside of getting a haircut for me would be to not know how if would feel and look to have a full, low ponytail (which i am only a tiny bit from achieving). Not sure it would look good, though, but you never know until you've tried, right?
Does your diocese have any rules for the clergy? I'm wondering how far you will be able to grow/go? We had a member posting a while back, Father M (He was Deacon M when first posting). AIR, he had permission of his bishop to grow his hair, though technically long hair among the clergy was not permitted. I believe he went into youth ministry after ordination, and he proved to be quite effective in his ministry. His bishop was very pleased with the results, and allowed him to continue with the hair growing. It's been quite a while since he's last posted. He said that the bishop was allowing him to be sort of an experiment, and that he agreed he would cut if his bishop asked; but the response of the youth to him and his ministry certainly was having an effect on the bishop who has yet said anything about cutting. The youth find a priest with longer hair to be more approachable. I gather he is quite busy, and hopefully still growing his hair.
Father Stan Fortuna is very popular with young people, and has had his long ponytail for many years. Several members of his Franciscan community also have long hair. Many do not know this, but Francis of Assisi and many of his followers, were longhairs. They did not cut their hair, or their beards. Francis was only a deacon, but there were priests that joined his community of ragamuffins. And the Eastern Churches, both Orthodox and Catholic, have longhair traditions among their clergy. You and Father M and Father Stan and the others in his community are hopefully going to be instrumental in starting a revolution in the West; more longhair clergy. I hope you will be allowed to grow as long as you want to.