Just before I graduated from law school, I had my hair cut. That was April 2009. It was the last time I would cut my hair until August of 2010. I got a lot of comments. Many were negative. But most were... I think "baffled" may be the word.

This is me in July of 2010. I am wearing a tuxedo. I have long hair. I am sporting a goatee. I have, over the years, grown a goatee a handful of times. But my hair I have only grown out once. Was it long enough to pull into a philosopher's ponytail? It was.

What does my hair look like now? Pretty much the same as it has looked since 1998--minus a bit of length on the top I suppose.

Some people liked my hair long. Most did not. Many asked me why I hadn't cut it. I gave many answers: I always wanted to try it. I wasn't cutting it until I had a job interview--after all, why pay for a haircut if you don't have to? Because my wife liked it (she was dubious when I stopped getting it cut, but in the end, she decided she really liked it a lot). All of these were true, but none of them really encapsulated why I grew my hair out. I did not grow my hair to "be rebellious" or to "make a statement," although many people flat-out assumed that this was the case (and often told me so).

Ultimately, my hair grew long not because I was trying to grow it, but because I stopped making it short.

Is that a distinction without a difference? Possibly. When I finally got started making it short again, my father-in-law asked why (assuming that perhaps I had a job interview). I said: because I decided to get it cut. Again, I could give reasons after the fact--it was hot, there were moments of inconvenience, I was tired of strangers treating me like a lowlife based on my haircut. One salesperson at Ultimate Electronics lost a pretty big commission because I went in to buy a TV and kept getting ignored.

But none of these things really motivated me to cut my hair. I stopped making it short; then I made it short again.

I've been meaning to blog about the experience for a while. I thought about making this an entry about judging by appearances, on conformity, on gender differences in the flexibility American society affords us regarding our dress and hair. Perhaps most of all, on the difference (if any) between "affirmative acts" (like getting a haircut), and "omissions" (like not getting a haircut). But I think I'll just let the story stand. I mostly avoided infusing this simple biological process with unnecessary meaning at the time, and found myself irritated when others tried to do so; I will refrain from doing so after the fact. But you're encouraged to weigh in anyway. d^_^b