Being specific, he further materialized his words with witnessed proof that only last month a boy was detained and misbehaved by a police officer in Pokhara simply due to his long hair. Perhaps, he wanted the prevention of similar fate upon me.[break]
“Grandpa, I was solely devoted to my public service commission’s examinations, besides my academic line, thus there was no time,” I simply chuckled in defense and vowed to trim it upon my return to Kathmandu.
Last week, after coming back home from a sojourn visit to my maternal family in Pokhara, I surfed the internet and queried up one of my police uncles to know facts about legal provisions regarding long hair and other fashionable intakes in Nepal.
The governmental source on the internet reveals that Nepal bears no laws against growing long hair or wearing
earrings.
Similar to the line, my uncle shared that although there were no privileges for long hair and earrings under the reign of the then Majesties, nowadays, nobody is barred from interests of such types.
Under the rule of the Shah’s neither an artist nor a musician, neither a singer nor any other guy was privileged enough to entertain such desires.
If you think about the trend thoroughly, long hair, earrings, bracelets and necklaces are in fact essential parts of a Nepali male.
The trend also seems to be flourishing further in order. The same way, public eyes and vision seem to be critical toward these guys, parents seem to be ranting over such desires of their children.
Our society assumes that long hair, earrings and other knick-knacks depict the identity of rowdy guys, thugs, hooligans and drug abusers.
No ideal or intelligent guy deserves this. If the so called “ideal guy” follows this trend, he will be categorized as the educated ‘hero’, ‘dada’, or a ‘gunda’.
Every man’s hair determines his personality. Some may grow their hair for fashion, some might do it to address their inner pangs, others for their spiritual quest and some might for negative purposes well.
If you approach any spiritual leader or heroes in “Kollywood” or sapients of academia-most can be seen with long hair.
I do not agree with the common social syllogism that if people have long hair, they are criminal in nature, thus deserving discrimination from society.
It is not sure that only those with trimmed hair are always obedient, salient, silent and innocent creatures of society.
Those people are also heard to be engaging in unfair business at numerous times.
Our society should adopt a positive approach toward those with long hair.
Dear all, do not judge a book by its cover, only!
The writer is currently preparing his dissertation for the completion of Masters Degree in English literature from Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur.
Related story
Seven ways to take care of Rapunzel Hair
