Origin 1699
Uncut hair, the first of the five articles of faith worn by initiated Sikhs and the only one that is not an object brought to the body but the body itself. Hair on the whole body is left uncut for life, and on the head it is ordinarily covered with a turban.
The reasoning given is that the hair is as it was made and that cutting it asserts an improvement on that. It stands against the two things Sikh teaching had been arguing with for two centuries: the ascetic's shaved head, which marks renunciation of the world that Sikhism refuses, and the ordinary grooming by which caste and status were displayed. Left alone, hair does neither.
Its practical function is that it cannot be set aside. A kirpan can be left at home and a kara can be slipped off, but hair takes years to grow and cannot be resumed at short notice, so a Sikh who keeps it is identifiable at all times and cannot quietly stop being one for an afternoon. Guru Gobind Singh created a body that was meant to be visible when visibility was dangerous, and the kesh is the mechanism.
That is also why it carries the cost. The turban and beard have made Sikhs targets for attackers who mistook them for Muslims, and the kesh has been the subject of employment, schooling, helmet and military-service litigation in many countries. Forcible cutting of a Sikh's hair is treated within the tradition as among the gravest injuries that can be done to a person, and it has been used deliberately as a means of humiliation in periods of persecution.
An initiated Sikh who cuts the hair becomes patit, and may be restored through penance and re-initiation.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItSourced to the subject's own accountKept by initiated (amritdhari) Sikhs as one of the five Ks ConsecrationSourced to the subject's own accountNot consecrated; an instrument, not a consecrated object 1 Origins
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account Attributions
TraditionSourced to the subject's own account Learn More
The Uncut Hair That Is the Body Itself
The kesh is uncut hair, the first of the articles of faith of the Khalsa, and it is unique among them in being not an object brought to the body but the body left as it is.
Accepting what is given
To leave the hair uncut is to accept the body in the form in which it is given rather than to alter it, and the kesh expresses a submission to the divine will and a respect for the natural form of the person, so the first of the five articles is a discipline of non-action, a refusal to cut, where the others are things worn or carried. The uncut hair of the head is kept covered and tied, the turban that covers it being the most visible sign of the Sikh, and the comb, the kangha, is one of the five precisely to keep the kesh clean and ordered.
The whole person marked
Because the kesh is the body itself and not an object, it makes the person entire a bearer of the commitment, and it cannot be set aside and taken up again as a garment can, which gives it a particular weight among the five: cutting the hair is the breach that most clearly marks a departure from the discipline of the initiated. The keeping of uncut hair distinguishes the Sikh sharply in appearance and has at times drawn discrimination, so the kesh has also been a point at which the community defence of its identity has been tested. It is the foundational article, the one that marks the whole body and around which the comb and the turban are arranged.
The Turban That Covers It Is Its Own Taught Skill
Kesh is not manufactured, it is the hair itself left uncut for life, but maintaining it involves a real, taught craft, tying the turban, dastar, that covers it, and that skill is passed down within families rather than picked up casually.
A length of cloth, and a learned technique
A dastar is typically four to six meters of cotton cloth wound around the head in a specific sequence, with distinct regional and community styles of tying, and children are taught the technique by parents or elders over years of practice rather than learning it from any written instruction. The cloth itself is an ordinary textile, the skill is in the folding and winding, which takes practice to do neatly and to hold through a full day.
Who is required to keep it, and how the hair itself is treated
Uncut hair is required of all baptized Khalsa Sikhs as one of the Five Ks, and in many observant households, hair that falls out naturally during combing or washing is gathered and disposed of respectfully rather than treated as ordinary waste, a small daily practice that extends the same regard given to the hair while it remains on the body. Sikhs who do not maintain kesh, whether never baptized or having chosen to cut their hair, are not treated as having damaged an object, since kesh is a personal bodily practice rather than a manufactured item with its own separate custody question.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Belongs to Tradition
Element Of
Uncut hair is the first of the five and the one the turban exists to cover.
Found In
Part Of
The kesh is the first of the five articles of faith, and the only one that is the body rather than an object brought to it.
Related To
The kangha exists to keep kesh, uncut hair, clean and combed; both are among the five Ks.
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