The custom of Heathen people?

So after doing  a little digging on the topic I found some interesting articles about this verse, and it really helped my insight into why this was not allowed.  In the article the publisher explains why this was wrong:
It was the custom of some heathen nations to cut and trim their beards and hair into particular shapes in honor of some pagan god. The Egyptians, for example, had their hair cut short and in a certain way, so that what remained appeared in the form of a circle surrounding the head (the halo was derived from this). In another instance, a round spot would be shaved off. Both of these forms are indications of sun god worship.
http://rcg.org/questions/p029.a.html
 I find this interesting  because was the Protagonist in some way jealous of the Hebrew people, and was this command to set his people apart because he is holy, which can sometimes be described as be different because I am different.

To further my understanding this concept I continued reading this article, and it also described what it means in our society today. Here is another excerpt: Modern forms of such extremes include: extremely short or even no hair to intimidate (e.g., Nazis, skinheads); strangely cut, colored or spiked hair to intimidate, but also to attract undue attention (e.g., punk rockers, the more recent “Gothic” look, etc.); strangely cut and colored hair at sporting events (a form of idol worship); and many others.

From what I have found this helps out but what also made me ponder more on the issue is that the article said it is ok for modern Christian to shave their hair. In my opinion it is very much so a contradiction to the verse itself, but nevertheless it served its purpose for part of my question.