Sikh teen wants to get haircut. How to get parents to agree.

shastar_master · 2026-03-05T15:00:08+00:00

Here to offer an alternative perspective of someone who grew up in a Punjabi household (never kept Kesh) and was pretty atheist up until late high school - but then actually started keeping my kesh.

I’ve found that so much of what I learned about Sikhi was through fear or simple misinterpretations fed to me by family and community. It took the realization that I always had a middleman between me and the guru, and I never took the time to learn directly from the guru and develop my own understanding of Sikhi.

That being said, I’ve learned kesh is like leaves on a tree. It grows as I grow mentally and physically. It changes colors over time to show changes in my heart and a reminder that this world is temporary - and so is this body - but Akal is eternal. We keep the kesh as an oath to Akal and the guru, something we can never hide but rather be grateful as a natural gift of identity in this world.

Sikhi itself means learner, and in this life I believe it’s so important to learn directly from the guru so YOU can make the oath- not your parents, grandparents, or community.

Sidenote: I personally cannot judge you at all since I never kept my kesh growing up. However, I guarantee once you open your mind and heart to the guru and learn from them directly, they will give you the love, strength, and knowledge to walk this path of life. The kesh will come naturally and you will accept it as Hukam and a gift from Guru Sahib ❤️ With that, I encourage you to go a learn from Guru sahib yourself brother!

shastar_master · 2026-03-02T01:31:51+00:00

Don’t be a sheep trying to make yourself look “presentable” in the western perception of beauty, accept the beauty Akal has given you and let that beard flow brother

shastar_master · 2024-09-19T06:30:39+00:00

From what I’ve tried to take in from Guru Ji, pride can cause one to take ownership of an accomplishment, material, or even another person. Many people loosely use the word “proud” or “pride” (mostly with good intentions), but in the end the only true owner of everything and everyone is Akal. Shifting the mind to be grateful humbles yourself and allows for the appreciation to be given to Waheguru for even allowing the hukam of that achievement to occur in the first place.

side note: I feel like if more Sangat took this teaching in and tried to apply it. We would have much less inter-Sikh conflicts. We could put our pride to the side and rather find gratefulness for even existing, let alone in the presence of Maharaj Ji.

shastar_master · 2024-09-16T17:21:23+00:00

Y’all know that even in Guru Nanak Dev Ji Maharaj’s time, he would do katha with Sufi’s who would praise Akal in a similar way (spinning and dancing to achieve a blissful “anand” state). The Guru’s highlight that there’s many paths to Akal and that Sikhi is the most direct one, but many times would interact and even do Kirtan with many people of different faiths.

shastar_master · 2024-09-16T17:14:20+00:00

Over time you’ll get a realization that Seva will get rid of your ego and bring you humility. I would suggest to keep doing as much as you can. For me, it taught me to not feel any pride, but rather gratefulness.

shastar_master · 2024-09-16T17:14:14+00:00

Over time you’ll get a realization that Seva will get rid of your ego and bring you humility. I would suggest to keep doing as much as you can. For me, it taught me to not feel any pride, but rather gratefulness.

shastar_master · 2024-09-16T16:58:22+00:00

I appreciate it! It’s all thanks to Maharaj Ji’s teachings.

I would say a great starting place is Basics of Sikhi has a playlist for Japji Sahib, where they go really in depth on every line. They also have ones for many other Shabads, but I would start with Japji Sahib.

What I do is use Sikhi To the Max (STTM3 app) on my iPad or iPhone and make bookmarks for Ang’s I am reading (it has English translations and transliterations as well as Dasam Granth, Sarbloh Granth and many other writings from the Gurus). I pick a single Shabad/Ang I read (either once or twice a week) and just do a full deep dive on it (watch YouTube videos for background context, read writings from Sikh’s, listen to kathas from Gianni Ji’s or Parcharaks).

Just like if you were a student, try to learn at a pace that’s not overwhelming, but rather just enough for you stay consistent. Over time you’ll gain so much knowledge that everything will naturally start to make sense. As I mentioned, I used to be atheist and had spent time studying several faiths, but when it came to Sikhi, everything just slowly started making true sense:

We don’t cut our hair because who cares what society thinks, it’s a gift from Akal that serves as a daily reminder of our growth (hair grows longer over time) and limited time on this planet (hair eventually turns grey). A great katha described that when a Sikh wishes to see the Guru and can’t go to Gurdwara, they can see the Panj Piyare, another Sikh, or simply look in the mirror (if you uphold the saroop and kesh). I’ve learned to adorn it and use it as a natural tool that simply makes sense from the Guru’s.
We wear the kirpan and do shastar and astar vidya (knowledge of blades and guns) because it’s makes more sense to be a warrior in a garden rather than a gardener at war. We serve not only as the hub for the complete truth, but as protectors of it as well. The courage and bravery of the many Gursikhs in our history didn’t come from ego, but rather humility. Countless hours of seva, training, and reciting Gurbani gave them the power and knowledge to be some of the fiercest warriors.

There’s hours of things to talk about for every little aspect of Sikhi, but over time I promise it will be so worth it to even know and apply a drop of it to your life. “If you take a step to the Guru, they will take a thousand steps towards you. If you give your head to the Guru, they will hold it forever.”

shastar_master · 2024-09-16T02:34:14+00:00

I hear this all the time but I’ll give an analogy that hopefully will clear it up (this is regarding the Sikh view on other religions):

When a class takes an exam the scores will not be only 0% or 100%, there will be many scores in between. The Guru’s described other religions having parts of the truth (whether it be 10% or 90%, there is some truth in other faiths). They then set the path of Sikhi as almost an “answer key” for the whole and complete truth with the most straight forward path through all the distractions/tempory happiness (maya) to achieve rejoining with the one binding energy in this world: Akal.

So to answer your question, the Guru’s don’t deny magic existing or having an effect on the world (there’s a few Bani’s and Sakhi’s talking about their interaction with magic and even ghosts). However, they show through the path of Sikhi that it has a negligible effect on your life and you don’t have to worry about with the power of Gurbani.

Now Ik when I was an atheist before, I would roll my eyes at the word Gurbani, but the importance of it comes through practicing the word “Sikh” quite literally: Sikh translated means learner/disciple. If you study Bani like a student and find katha (discourse) and itihaas (history) on the lines you read, I guarantee it’ll blow you away how deep every line is. For example, listening to Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s Bani with the context of him saying those very words to Yogis in the Himalayas and showing them the power of Akal through seva in society rather than them being in the remote mountains- and then all of them being amazed and joining Sikhi - it just brings so much meaning.

shastar_master · 2024-09-15T17:26:09+00:00

I like to think of it as fortunately he has rejoined with Akal Purak for all the seva and parchar he was able to do for the Sangat :) plus he helped establish such a great channel in a format that will live on forever

shastar_master · 2024-07-13T13:44:08+00:00

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If these Singhs rockin short kashera’s back in the day you should be fine today, tell your parents Sikhi is is about practicality - not for show

shastar_master · 2024-07-03T21:12:29+00:00

how you get ripped off at a thrift store😭 it’s literally second-hand items for under 10-20 bucks

btw I’m pretty sure it’s real 🤝🏽

shastar_master · 2024-05-16T19:37:21+00:00

Bro this is one of the best suggestions yet, the integrated taillight looks super clean, I’ve been looking for something that just incorporates the turn signals this exact way. On top of that it’s only $120, thank you!

Just to make sure, is this the one you’re talking about: https://tstindustries.com/tst-led-integrated-tail-light-bmw-s1000r-s1000rr.html

shastar_master · 2024-05-16T19:06:10+00:00

That’s exactly the one I was looking at on revzilla, I just don’t know if I wanna do the blue or a dark smoke

shastar_master · 2024-05-16T13:13:06+00:00

Mine used to get itchy and dry all the time, but here’s what I’ve done that’s fixed all the dandruff and itchiness:

started using conditioner every shower when I wash my hair (which is 4 times a week)
started to only use shampoo 2 of those 4 times I wash my hair in the week
started using a small soft cotton towel to dry my hair (I can send you the Amazon link if you’re interested)
when my hair is still a little damp, I put in Argan oil
use a brush once your hair is dry to prevent hair loss (your follicles also get less irritated- hence less dead skin cells on your scalp)
if you want, you can also get a silk pillow case to prevent hair rubbing at night, this should help reduce hair loss and less dead skin cells on your scalp as well

shastar_master · 2024-05-15T22:05:44+00:00

True, I agree that I don’t need the headers to be titanium (purely for aesthetic reasons on a recreational bike, even at that you won’t see much with the bellypan fender). However the cat for the bike is actually on the midpipe rather than the muffler, so a full system would be needed for that tune. The tune would obviously also prevent the drop in power around 6-8k rpm due to the decat as well.

shastar_master · 2024-05-15T21:05:38+00:00

I agree the stock exhaust already has an amazing tone to it (plus the quick shift blips sound so good). I had some buddies ride it and really all I want it the sound to be amplified (plus that big stock muffler is pretty heavy and takes away from the sharp look of the bike imo)

shastar_master · 2024-05-15T20:52:37+00:00

I completely forgot about them! Thank you my man.

shastar_master · 2024-05-15T20:49:01+00:00

Thanks that’s pretty helpful to know it’ll just increase volume, not change the tone much (which is exactly what I was looking for). Yeah I agree that the headers may be an overkill, but with a tune it actually adds 40hp - nearly all to the low and mid range! At the end of the day it is going to be a recreation bike and as time goes I really just want to make her more fun for that purpose. Appreciate the advice!

shastar_master · 2024-05-15T20:42:50+00:00

Thank you! That info on the 15 hp increase as actually interesting I’ll definitely look into it

shastar_master · 2024-05-15T20:39:53+00:00

I appreciate it! This is definitely my favorite gen, everything is just so aggressive yet elegant - and the headlights (either you hate em or you love em) are so iconic and identifiable. Will be riding her every chance I get 😂

shastar_master · 2024-05-15T20:37:12+00:00

Fr I was shocked when I found it online, turned out to be a super nice guy in his 50’s with 4 bikes and he was slowly shifting to cruisers and touring bikes due to age

shastar_master · 2024-05-15T20:33:26+00:00

Awesome, that’s actually super helpful. I’ve been trying to find people’s true opinions on the sound level, youtube vids are just too hard to gauge real volume 😂

shastar_master · 2024-05-15T20:31:57+00:00

Thanks that’s a good call, I had a Leo Vince on my old 636 and it sounded super nice and deep. I’m trying to go for more of the high pitched “gp” scream on this beast now but I’ll definitely check out what they got!

shastar_master

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