Why does Friar Tuck always have that weird hairdo?

Search: friar tuck hair

Why: Yesterday, we watched (/slept through) the Ridley Scott / Russell Crowe Robin Hood. Friar Tuck's hair looked like this:

Other Friar Tucks:

Answer: It's called a tonsure! It sets him apart.

Tonsure is the practice of some Christian churches, mystics, Buddhist novices and monks, and some Hindu temples of cutting the hair from the scalp of clerics, devotees, or holy people as a symbol of their renunciation of worldly fashion and esteem.

It's kind of like the opposite of a yarmulke, huh. He might wear a zucchetto to cover it.

The size and shape of the bald spot has varied over time. In the 20th century, "first tonsure," part of a rite for members of the Roman Catholic clergy, was to be no larger than the size of a priest's host. In England and America, clerics didn't make a bald spot for fear of persecution, but they ceremoniously cut hair. In accordance with Pope Paul VI's motu proprio Ministeria quaedam of August 15, 1972, "First tonsure is no longer conferred."

But some people still use it, like in France:

and Denver:

Source: Catholic.com, Wikipedia

The More You Know: A joke, courtesy of the forums over at Catholic.com:

Of course you heard of the cannibals who were so sick? They sent for a witch doctor from the neighboring village. He couldn't figure out what was wrong, so he said, "You have a lot of gastero-intestinal discomfort. What have you been eating?"

They said, "Just the usual -- anyone we can catch, including that Catholic missionary a few days ago?"

"What Catholic missionary?"

"Oh, you know -- a guy with a brown robe and the crown of his head shaved."

And the witch doctor asked, "How did you cook him?"

"The usual way, broiled him."

"YOU DUMMIES, that was a friar, not a broiler!"