The Ashram Girl and her hair

[Should the Ashram girls keep long hair or shave their heads clean?]

When you remove the hair, you save the time which would be devoted to dressing it as well as the money which you spend on combs, oils and what not; you kill the superstition that the 'glory' of a woman is her hair and your head is free from dirt. A head shaved clean is the symbol of brahmacharya for women. If young girls as well as married women shaved their heads clean, a clean shaven head would cease to be a sign of widowhood as it is at present. And so on.