>Funny how things tend to be the same, regardless of place. Back in 1980, when I got my first job (teaching maths in a high school, in soft-communist Yugoslavia), I got it because nobody else applied with a proper diploma, and they got me before they saw me. I looked pretty much the same as on the picture above (except the hair density was better). The principal said they didn't mind it at all (but later I heard comments which circulated behind the open door to the hall), but the school was an open institution and parents come in and other people come in, and we don't want to start rumors and another wave of disputes about the educators' image... in the end, I cut my hair halfway (still over the collar), kept the beard, and had no objections ever.
>
>Oh, yes, one fellow mathematician once asked how can I be a professor with a beard. He quickly accepted the explanation that I'm using the inside of my head
> for my work, not the outside, and that I'm setting an example that it's not the looks what counts, it's the work you do.

Dragan;

There was a cartoon in the newspaper around 1970, when long hair "was the thing". It showed a guy with short hair and a guy with long hair. The guy with short hair was not able to think as his hair filled the inside of his head. The guy with long hair had no such problems, as his long hair allowed his brain plenty of room to do its job.

Tom