Why I Keep Long Hair

This is one question many want to ask and few actually dare to ask. So for what ever it’s worth, here it is once and for all – the “long story” I usually use as an excuse to not explain it.

I was born into the hippie era in the 60s and grew up on songs by Peter, Paul and Mary, The Beatles, The Monkees, Seekers, etc. Since then, I was always enthralled with the long haired concept of the free-n-easy carefree lifestyle that was associated with being a hippie. Then in my teen years, the long haired concept took a turn as I fell in love with the beach-bum surfer lifestyle. As an avid surfer and a son-of-the-beach, the only thing missing from this total concept was the long hair because it was disallowed in school. Yet I longed for the day I would grow my locks out beyond my shoulders.

Between 1983 to 1985, the hair story took its most tragic challenge – National Service. Enough said. But after completing my national obligation, I found myself no longer bound by restrictive rules regarding my hair! I grew it out and within 7 months (no kidding), my hair was down to my shoulders. I was, by then, a crew member in the film industry. While working, I kept my hair in place with a Levis bandanna and occasionally would put on a cap. I never tied it up in a pony tail nor slicked it back with grease (as was the fashion then). I loved the feel of free-flowing hair down my neck and back. After a little more than a year of growing it out, my hair was halfway down my back and the front reached my chest.

While growing it out, I made a curious observation – the more my hair grew, the better I became at my job and the more money I made. I made a few “dabbles” in the local equity market and made a nice profit. After five years, I quit the company and went solo as a Producer. I chose to maintain a length just below my shoulder blades and chest and kept it in place with a skull cap or bandanna. Most of the time, I let it loose or tied it in a loose pony tail. My career as an independent Producer soared and business was very good. I was winning 1st and 2nd prizes at lucky draws and even got a Group 2 prize win in Toto.

Then late in 1992, two events dictated that my long locks had to go – Reservist In-Camp Training and my marriage.

Business slowed after I came back from ICT and things got a little tight. I went through 13 years of ups and downs while I kept my hair short for the annual return for ICT. Between 1992 and 2005, I went through three major setbacks including my infamous bankruptcy in 2001. As I struggled with my trading in the early part of my On-Line Trading career, my hair remained cropped short and neat. I was formally released from Reservist duties in 2005 and after all those years and all the financial worries I had, I completely forgot about my hair.

My focus on putting every effort into my studies, research and trades distracted me from many things including household duties, my health and sometimes even my kids. I also neglected my hair and it inevitably grew out. I put in more hours reading and studying and before I knew it, my hair had grown and covered my ears and my neck. Trading improved. When I started teaching, I thought that a hair cut was in order to look “respectable” and credible but as soon as I lost my hair, my trades went down again. So I grew it out again and my ears have not seen the sun since and the rest is history.

As I look back, every time my hair was short, life had been a struggle. My best and most successful years have been when my hair was long. Call it Law of Attraction, call it superstition, fengshui or even pure nonsense … nothing, but nothing will ever make me cut my hair so short ever again. I will die with my long hair and will have it no other way.

I must be the only Bear who likes it “Long”.

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