'I grew up in Amish community - I couldn't shower or wash hair for 19 years'
A woman who grew up in an Amish community with 18 siblings revealed how she didn't cut her hair or take a shower for 19 years. Lizzie Ens, 38, grew up in a strict Amish community surrounded by her brothers and sisters but always felt she “didn’t belong”.
She didn’t have any electricity, or running water, had to sew all her own clothes, and wasn’t allowed to cut her hair. Lizzie left aged 19 when her boyfriend at the time, from another Amish community, escaped himself and helped her do the same.
She left with just $20 and got a job as a dishwasher so she could integrate into modern society. Her life is now "completely different" and she finds looking back on her lifestyle growing up "crazy". Lizzie, a functional nutrition practitioner, from Phoenix, Arizona, said: “We had no electricity and no running water.
“We didn’t have showers. I had never cut my hair before I left – that was surreal. I knew from a young age that I wasn’t going to be there my entire life. “I knew I didn’t belong.” Lizzie is one of three sets of twins in her family of 19 children – the eldest now 47 and the youngest aged 25.
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She said: “We had sibling rivalry – in general, we were close. Every morning for breakfast you cooked enough for 20 people. You are cooking for an army three times a day.” From age five Lizzie would do house chores, cleaning, and milk the cows.
She said: “We are taught how to work hard from a young age. We grew all our own fruit and vegetables and had animals for meat.” Lizzie said her community was very strict – and controlled what she wore. She said: “We had to sew our own dresses and they had to go down to our ankles.
“All our hair had to be covered and couldn’t be cut.” They didn’t have bathrooms and instead had to go to outbuildings to use the toilet and used newspaper or magazines instead of toilet paper. Lizzie said: "We didn't have indoor plumbing so we didn't have showers.
"I didn't have a shower until after I left." As a teenager, Lizzie started to question the rules of her community. She said: “From my young teenage years I put my attention on things going on in the outside world. I questioned a lot.
“The men came up with the rules and the women had to follow them. I could not get on board with the hierarchy.” Lizzie had been dating a boy from another Amish community when she received a letter from him saying he had escaped.
He told her he could pick her up that night along the road if she wanted to leave too. She went to bed and left a note before climbing onto the roof and jumping off to her freedom. Lizzie said: “I sat on the roof contemplating how I’m going to jump off.
“I was jumping off to my freedom and destiny. I landed and ran.” Lizzie managed to connect with an ex-Amish couple who let her stay with them and helped her get a social security number so she could get a job. Lizzie had $20 (£15) which she used to get her first set of clothes and a haircut.
She said: “I cut my hair out of rebellion. It was a massive culture shock. You have to unlearn things. That deconstructing of what you did all your life doesn’t just go away.” Lizzie decided to “embrace” her journey and got a job as a dishwasher before becoming a personal trainer and then transitioning into holistic health and starting a coaching business.
Three of Lizzie’s siblings have also left but she hasn't spoken to most of her family in years, she says. She said she doesn’t “hang onto” her past. Lizzie said: “I embrace my life. My life is so vastly different. I look back and go that’s crazy.”
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