Why can't I have longer hair like Jesus?

[Jack Ryan]

I was raised to believe that I should always get a haircut. The scripture used was always:

1 Corinthians 11:14, “does not nature itself teach you that long hair is a dishonor to a man?” NWT

However the international standard version reads, “nature itself teaches you neither that it is disgraceful for a man to have long hair.”

so what does nature really teach us?

 

[JW Insider]

My Greek is far from perfect, but if this verse was translated from any major mss, then I can't figure how they got that translation. Except for word order, which doesn't matter much in Greek, I think all the mss match up pretty well on this verse anyway.

The addition of the word, μὲν, plus the context, makes it impossible to translate "neither" into the text as far as I can tell. (That word, plus the context of the following verse, pretty much forces it to have the same meaning that the NWT presents.)

Sounds to me like they translated it that way because of a personal preference. It's still possible to look at how men's hair grows naturally to a shorter length on average than a woman's. The verse doesn't say anything about exact hair lengths.