I do not believe Jesus had long hair and here are my reasons.

First, archaeology objects to these contemporary portrayals. Early pictures by Leonardo de Vinci and Michelangelo picture Christ with short hair. The busts of Pompey, Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, and King Herod Agrippa all showed that short hair was the style (Hollywood movies agree).

Some will argue that Jesus was a Nazarite (cf. Numbers 6:1-27). The problem, however, is that Jesus was not a Nazarite. He was a Nazarene and a Nazarene was simply someone from Nazareth (Matthew 2:23). The words are not nearly so close in the original languages as they appear in English.

If Jesus had taken the Nazarite vow, three things would have been forbidden to Him: 1) A Nazarite could not consume grapes in any form (dried, moist, juice, vinegar or alcoholic); 2) A Nazarite could not cut his hair, and; 3) A Nazarite could not touch or come near a dead body.

Long hair aside, if Jesus was a Nazarite He could not have taken the damsel by the hand to raise her from the dead (Mark 5). And He could not have instituted the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11) because He would have been forbidden from eating or drinking grapes or grape juice of any kind. Thus, the argument that Jesus had to have long hair because He was a Nazarite is false.

Another important Scripture on the subject is found in 1 Corinthians 11:14, “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” The Greek word for “shame” in this verse is translated “vile” in Romans 1:26-28. God is associating the “shame” of long hair on men with the “vile” affections of perversion.

Additionally, if Jesus looked so radically different form everyone else of His day, why did Judas Iscariot need to identify Him in the Garden of Gethsemane? Every New Testament indication is that Jesus looked exactly like other Jewish men of His age. In fact, even the Talmud in Jesus’ day required that a man get his hair cut at least once a month!

What is long hair? Look in the mirror… What do you think? In contrast to long hair on men, 1 Cor. 11:15 says, “But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.”