It always helps if you can find a reason to not be hair-shirted about it.    From Wordnik.com.  [10:10 – progress on our pledges] Reference

It was the kind of bonkers, hair-shirted remark (in an otherwise very good speech) which taints the environmental movement.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2007-01-01] Reference

Nor are we calling for ‘hair-shirted denial’, merely that it be demonstrated that money is being spent properly and that all is open and above board.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tories Ceauşescu Moment?] Reference

But this should not mean hair-shirted self-denial, where MPs who do not employ staff and pride themselves on low expenses, such as the Tory Philip Hollobone, are applauded by naive antipolitician populists.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tories Ceauşescu Moment?] Reference

But alas, for the hair-shirted old dominie's backsliding disciples.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. I (of 2)] Reference

When he produced articles like this, hair-shirted fellow socialists got cross.    From Wordnik.com.  [Latest news breaking news current news UK news world news celebrity news politics news] Reference

Even Wolsey burns books, but Thomas More, the hair-shirted lord chancellor, burns men.    From Wordnik.com.  [Books news, reviews and author interviews | guardian.co.uk] Reference

Voluptuousness: unto all hair-shirted despisers of the body, a sting and stake; and, cursed as "the world," by all backworldsmen: for it mocketh and befooleth all erring, misinferring teachers.    From Wordnik.com.  [Thus Spake Zarathustra A book for all and none] Reference

I can get my Right Honourable friend the Lord Chancellor to move the Bill, but in such difficult times, there might simply be too-many hair-shirted ascetics to be overwhelmed, even by Don Touhig and Sir Nicholas Winterton in-tandem.    From Wordnik.com.  [politicalbetting.com] Reference

Mr Cameron said the Tory vision for a low-carbon future, set out in a policy document published yesterday, would deliver energy that was "greener, cleaner and also cheaper" without forcing voters down the path of "hair-shirted environmentalism".    From Wordnik.com.  [Climate Ark Climate Change & Global Warming RSS Newsfeed] Reference

I do not pose the question out of malice, let alone to annoy hair-shirted Robespierres among the readership, but because the reaction against the petty greed displayed by some MPs over their expenses has unleashed "reforms" that will make it unattractive for many people to enter politics.    From Wordnik.com.  [Blogposts | guardian.co.uk] Reference

On the left, it reminds more hair-shirted types of the great popular quest for security, comfort, and material advancement; on the right, it underlines the fact that deference is long dead, and - Cameroons take note - post-Thatcher ­Conservatism must always at least partly speak with a thrustingly arriviste accent.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Guardian World News] Reference

It is happening and if we have a chance to do something about it... and I’m not a hair-shirted environmentalist, I’m a freedom loving person but I think the great thing about the market which is why I favour it above state planned provision, certainly for anything that isn’t a natural monopoly is that the market responds to the demands of the age and that is for green technology and sustainable solutions.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2009-09-01] Reference

Here's a hair-shirted Palmer hard by.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 270, August 25, 1827] Reference