Getting in my hair...literally and figuratively

'Wow'...'Is that you maddy?'....'You look corporate'...'You look better''..'Did your wife like it?'...'You look different'...'some how I felt the previous one was better'...'Man! You were the only one who was different around. Not sure why you changed it.'...'But, don't lose those moves man'..'You look average bothways'. These are some of the comments that I received all of last week. But one question, kept coming back to me again and again - 'Why did you do that?'

If you were wondering what this is all about, I just had a hair cut. (About time eh!). After a lot of travel last month, I finally started going to the office pretty regularly. And this was the outcome.

Being different is hard. Holding on to a longer hair is harder. No. I am not referring to the managing part. Its the acceptance part. People find it hard to accept men with long hair. Especially if you are in sales or in Customer Liaison. Some people who were close to me were pretty vocal about it. Others were more considerate. Remember! Its not what your client thinks. Its what your boss think that your clients may think. Besides I am no Michael Jackson . And, I was almost this close in losing my credibility in the official circles.

Coming back to the question of why I did that. I honestly, didn't have an answer. So I went with a standard one. 'The one inside wasn't growing. So I thought let me do something about the one outside. Now, I have decided that one outside should be at the same level as the one inside - small'.