Pigtails and Ponytails

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  It's interesting and fascinating watching older girls deftly braid their hair, then turn around and do their younger sister's. Braided hair is as much a part of a conservative Mennonite girl's life as wearing a dress. Old Colony, Kleine Gemeinde, Holdeman, Beachy, and Conservatives all teach their little girls to wear braided hair. For some of the Mennonite groups, braids are usually dropped as the girl enters her teenage years.
  The Holdeman Mennonites require all school-age unbaptized girls to wear either braided pigtails or braided ponytails. No other hairstyle is accepted while at school or at church.
  The Kleine Gemeinde are no longer as firm in that area as they used to be. Little girls now wear their hair in whatever style their moms prefer as long as its not "worldly." Lately it seems they are leaning towards buns and loose ponytails rather than traditional pigtails.



  Beachy and Conservative Mennonites also believe in teaching the unbaptized girls to wear braids. But the churches within these 2 groups may vary in the way each congregation practically applies the doctrines. The more conservative ones do not permit any other style except braided pigtails and ponytails while the liberal ones allow buns and other casual hair-dos. 



  Old Colony Mennonite girls also wear mandatory pigtails, but since they put on a duak (headcovering) whenever they go out in public, the braids are folded up and pinned to the back of the head (see picture below). 


  Non-traditional (aka modern) Mennonites resemble the rest of Belizean women in the variety of hair styles they use. Bobbed hair, bangs, boyish hair cuts, etc. 
  In another article I will write about the hairstyles of men and women in each Mennonite denomination, how it distinguishes them from other groups, and how it relates to their Biblical views.

  

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