Tonsure a part of the rite of "pabbajja" and also a part of becoming a monk (Skt. "Bhikshu") or nun (Skt. "Bhikshuni"). This involves shaving head and face. This tonsure is renewed as often as required to keep the head cleanly shaven. The purification process of the "metzora" (one afflicted with "tzaraath") involved the ritual shaving on the "metzorah's" entire body except for the afflicted locations. And as the term tonsure may be used as a broad description for such hair styling of devotees as a ritual symbol of their renunciation of worldly fashion and esteem, Orthodox Jewish males do not
Tonsure to be less than the size of a communicant's host, even for a tonsuratus, someone simply tonsured, and the approximate size for a priest's tonsure was the size of a priest's host. Countries that were not Catholic had exceptions to this rule, especially in the English-speaking world. In England and America, for example, the bare spot was dispensed with, likely because of the persecutions that could arise from being a part of the Catholic clergy, but the ceremonious cutting of the hair in the first clerical tonsure was always required. In accordance with Pope Paul VI's "motu proprio" "Ministeria quaedam"