Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Corinthians 11:14

"Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a dishonor to him?" — 1 Corinthians 11:14 (ASV)

Does not even nature itself. The word nature (fusiv) evidently denotes that sense of propriety which all people have, and which is expressed in any prevailing or universal custom. What is universal, we say, is according to nature. It is such as is demanded by the natural sense of fitness among people.

Thus, we may say that nature demands that the sexes should wear different kinds of dress; that nature demands that women should be modest and retiring; and that nature demands that the toils of the chase, of the field, of war—the duties of office, of government, and of professional life—should be discharged by men.

Such, in general, are the customs the world over; and if any reason is asked for the numerous habits that exist in society, no better answer can be given than that nature, as arranged by God, has demanded it. The word in this place, therefore, does not mean the constitution of the sexes, as Locke, Whitby, and Pierce maintain; nor reason and experience, as Macknight supposes; nor simple use and custom, as Grotius, Rosenmuller, and most recent expositors suppose; but it refers to a deep internal sense of what is proper and right—a sense which is expressed extensively in all nations, showing what that sense is.

No reason can be given, in the nature of things, why women should wear long hair and men not; but the custom prevails extensively everywhere, and nature, in all nations, has prompted the same course. "Use is second nature;" but the usage in this case is not arbitrary but is founded in a prior universal sense of what is proper and right.

A few, and only a few, have regarded it as comely for a man to wear his hair long. Aristotle tells us, indeed (Rhetoric 1—see Rosenmuller), that among the Lacedemonians, freemen wore their hair long. In the time of Homer, also, the Greeks were called by him karhkomowntev acaioi, long-haired Greeks; and some of the Asiatic nations adopted the same custom.

But the general habit among men has been different. Among the Hebrews, it was regarded as disgraceful for a man to wear his hair long, unless he had a vow as a Nazarite, Numbers 6:1–6; Judges 13:6; Judges 16:17; 1 Samuel 1:11. Occasionally, for affectation or singularity, the hair was allowed to grow, as was the case with Absalom (2 Samuel 14:26); but the traditional law of the Jews on the subject was strict. The same rule existed among the Greeks, and it was regarded as disgraceful to wear long hair in the time of Aelian (Hist. lib. ix. c. 14; Eustath. on Hom. ii. v.).

It is a shame to him. It is improper and disgraceful. It is doing what almost universal custom has said appropriately belongs to women.