Haircut Regulation

Before the change of the haircut regulation, junior and senior high school students were not allowed to have long hair. Girls should wear jaw-length straight short hair while boys had crew cut.

Master Hong Sheng’s hair is of good-quality and grows quickly. Not like many people had the haircut once a month, he needed to have his hair cut twice a month. His mother had complained about it, “How could your hair grow so quickly? What a waste of money!”

During the lunch break at school, every student must sleep with their head on the table. Instructors and the picket would go on patrol to inspect if everyone was disciplined. One day when Master Hong Sheng was taking the nap as usual, the instructor saw his long hair and thought it violated school rule. He rushed into the classroom, took a pair of scissors and cut Master’s hair in a complete mess without a word. However, neither did Master had the thought of arguing with the instructor nor he felt wrong or awkward. He still had lessons with a sense of normalcy.

Long Hair

In the university, there was no haircut regulation. In order to save living expenses out of town, Master rarely had the haircut. As a result, every time when he came back home, his mother would complain about it, “Keep your hair this long as a boy. That’s outrageous!” Master explained, “In order to save money. Don’t you say it was a waste of money to have hair cut too often?” It was until in a calligraphy class, the teacher saw Master’s hair flow down over his shoulders, he found him looked great with long hair; therefore, Master didn’t have his hair cut anymore.  Master’s mother also had no complains about it after knowing that having long hair was the calligraphy teacher’s advice.

A few years later, there were several learners offering to have the hair cut for Master. The first time was during Master’s Buddha Dharma teaching in Fangliao Art Centre, the senior fellow apprentice-Meilying helped to cut Master’s hair. Ji Gong knelt behind Master, crying. He was reluctant to see Master’s hair being cut because body and hair were given by parents. We shouldn’t hurt them. That was the basic filial piety.

The second time was during Master’s Buddha Dharma teaching in Sticky House. The younger brother of Buddhist nun, Yi Hui was a hairstylist and had his own hair salon nearby. He made a very handsome short hairstyle for Master. One day when granny Kao came to help to look after Sticky House, she saw Master’s new hair style and said, “You pretended to be old before. Now you look young with this short hair.” Master said, “I just moved here. Cutting hair short can avoid being seen as an outcast by neighbours. They will be accustomed to see my hair grow long gradually.” He also explained looking too young had been his biggest obstacle to have Buddha Dharma propagation. People would underestimate him due to his appearance and would not listen to him. Therefore, he pretended to look older. As the old saying goes, “Young people are unreliable.” Master couldn’t make himself look too young for people attaching importance to Dharma teaching.

The third time was during Master’s Buddha Dharma teaching in Tranquil Garden. I requested Master to give his hair to me (Hair has the same pronunciation as Dharma in Chinese. It represents Dharma here. She desired to learn Dharma and hoped Master could teach her.). After a while, Master granted my request. On the day of passing “hair”, I brought a barber to Tranquil Garden to have haircut for Master. I bowed down to Master in worship, received the hair from Master with reverence. At that moment, Master enlightened me, “Hair represents worry. Cutting off thousands of hairs means removing worry. A Buddha learner should remove worry before devoting to erudite learning because one who has worry can’t have wisdom. Without wisdom, it would only increase worry by learning more methods.” Master also said something more with deeper meanings which I couldn’t remember. It seemed that he said hair is the slowest body part to decompose.

Master’s mother, who used to object his long hair had become the person who was most opposed to Master cutting hair short afterwards. Thus we can see that people will change their perceptions as long as we give them time.