WIY:
Haven’t you heard- v’ameych kulam tzaddikim, nothing we do is just stam. Those three things have to do with binding ‘din’ in the world in order to subjugate it. Hair, Yitzchak Avinu and the left arm all represent din.
p_b_p:
The lashon of the RaMA is that they make “a type of braid that is connected to each other”. It sounds to me like it is not a regular braid.
I don’t understand why we can’t do a similar action to a sheid with holy kavanah while they do their action with destructive kavanah. That would be like saying tzaddikim shouldn’t eat food since I eat food.