One morning I was standing in the assembly line when suddenly I saw teachers checking the hairs of boys, as long hairs are strictly not allowed in my school.

I grabbed my hairs with my hand to see whether I was going to get a punishment or not. Well, as I predicted... yes, they (the teachers) told me that I had long hair, so they took me out of the line. Then I, along with the other boys, waited for the punishment.

The assembly ended and all the other students went inside their classes, some of them casting pitiful glances at us. Then the teachers came with the scissors in their hands towards us, grinning from ear to ear, as if they were really barbers. They had warned us several times but we were all too stubborn to go to the barber.

I was the third one in the row, which meant I would soon be done with my hair cut. After cutting the hair of the first two boys, the teacher came to me and looked at my hair. She said, “Well, you don't have very long hair but you should get them cut in any case.”

She cut just a little bit of my hair from the top, maybe just to make sure it reminds me that I should get a proper haircut soon. They let go a couple of boys who had hair as long as mine, while all the others were whining about their messily haircut.

Although I don't go against school rules, I have a grudge against this 'long hair' issue. Of course we go to school to study and learn but... what has hair got to do with studies?

It would be stupid to say that long hair comes in front of the eyes of the students so they cannot see and read properly. Ok, I don't mean to say that boys should grow their hairs as long as those of girls but why should we be forced to have the 'crew cut' that the schools favour.

To maintain the school discipline we need to be tidy, do everything according to the rules of the school, etc. I accept that long hairs do look untidy and don't leave a decent impression on others, but I still feel they have nothing to do with studies...

Let me express why I feel bad about this 'short hair' issue. Schools want us to have very short hairs — too short to shape them into any style. So basically they want us to be style-less. We have a life after the school hours too and short hair looks very bad when we go to parties or any family occasion. We also want to spend some time in front of the mirror like girls do and do whatever we can to make ourselves appear better looking. We accept the fact that we are still very young and study in school... yet the desire to show off a nice hairstyle remains somewhere in our hearts.

 I don't understand why schools cannot give us 'a little freedom' to keep average-length hairs as — again I stress - it's got nothing to do with studies! But all they want is neat and 'short' hair cuts. Someone should remind them that Einstein had very long hair (which was rather unkempt too most of the time!) but see how intelligent he was.

Well, there you have it, both sides of the picture. Though, I know no school will change any of their 'hair cutting' rules in spite of even a million students' request, I just felt like expressing what I and most other students feel about the issue. Long hair, I guess, can only be kept during the long vacations for when the school starts, the short hair issue starts...