Male Student Aims to Change High School’s Policy on Long Hair

Why do men with long hair still pose such a problem for some people? It’s a baffling question one high school student is asking this week, in a petition to change the policy dictating that young men’s hair must not be worn past their ears.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Nicholas Clark, of Abilene, Texas, told KTXS. “It’s discrimination. Why should a girl have two types of hair — short or long — and a guy can only have short?” Clark has worn his hair shaggy since fifth grade, to cover surgery scars behind his ears.

The grooming code in the Merkel school district, which includes Merkel High School, where Clark, 18, is a senior, is as follows, according to an online handbook: “Male students’ hair must not exceed the bottom of the ear on the sides, the bottom of the collar in the back, or below the eyebrows in the front when combed straight. Male students will not be permitted to wear pony tails, braids, or rattails.” Other no-no’s, for all students, include hair in the eyes, hair that’s not a “natural human hair color,” any “outlandish style,” and mohawks and fauxhawks.

And while such controversies more typically involve overeager clampdowns on how young women style their hair — particularly when it comes to braids and dreadlocks — an interesting reversal here is that the only female-specific rule is that hair “must be clean, neatly groomed and worn in a style that does not cover the eyes and must remain out of the face.”

Clark, who could not be reached by Yahoo Beauty, explained to the local news station that he’s had four ear surgeries since fifth grade for a condition called cholesteatoma, an abnormal growth in the middle ear that can crush delicate bones and negatively affect hearing. “I’ve had four ear surgeries,” Clark said, adding that he is “hard of hearing.” He then showed his scars to illustrate why he likes to wear his hair a bit long.

“It grows back within a month, and then it grows again,” he said, noting that he does usually get a trim, and that maintaining the acceptable length is “actually quite expensive.”

The student’s Change.org petition, addressed to school Superintendent Bryan Allen, so far has more than 300 signatures. “I have a 4.0 GPA and I am in many AP and College classes, and yet fail to see how it is a ‘distraction,’ which they so claim it to be,” Clark writes. “In case you were wondering, no, women do not have the same treatment. The females of our school do not have to cut their hair the same manner that men do, they have completely separate rules, it’s ridiculous. Why are men bullied into having short hair by figures of authority with no regard to their grades, behavior, or extracurricular activities? This is basic discrimination and the primary reason why we have gender inequality in this country. If women do not have to cut their hair, then men should not have to either, or vice versa. All I ask is for everyone to be treated with the same equal and fundamental rules that will end discrimination.”

In a follow-up, he noted that some people have asked him why he doesn’t just cut his hair. His reply: “It’s not about the hair. It’s about unequal treatment in the school that is being completely overlooked and ignored.”

One signer, Kaci Carlton, also of Abilene, wrote a message of support. “I have gone through this same thing with my clothing style, and stretched ears, especially in high school. I was in the same situation where my grades were always perfect, and I wasn’t a distraction to anybody, but I was always pushed to change,” she says. “The way that I did my hair, wore my clothes, etc. was how I was confident with myself. It’s the way I felt most comfortable. A confident child goes a lot further than an uncomfortable one that’s always told to change… Hair is such a petty issue to care about. If a child is succeeding, confident, and not causing trouble, let them be.”

Allen told KTXS that the grooming policy has been in force since 2000, when it was approved by a group of parents, teachers, and community members, and that it would take a school board vote, starting with a formally filed complaint to the district, to get it changed. Still, he spoke in support of Clark’s effort.

“The dress code is a reflection of the community’s expectations,” Allen said. “It’s very admirable when a kid can come out and, you know, kind of stand up for himself and do it in the right way.”

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