It took fifteen months, but it has officially happened: I'm once again a long hair. When I was a kid my Mom always cut my hair, and she kept me with a decent amount of style free shag. For basketball tryouts in junior high, the coaches said no one would make the team who had long hair. It didn't click with me, and I didn't cut my hair. I also didn't make the team (I would have rode the pine anyway). By high school, I had shaggy mullet (pretty loose with my business on top along with the party in the back).

At the end of my sophomore year, I cut my hair in a serious way. The abuse of being a long hair in a rural town had worn me down, and looking back, it was probably a last ditch effort to fit in with the crowd. It didn't matter. A misfit is still a misfit regardless of appearance. It's funny how quick people can forget past hair styles. They look at old photos of themselves in yearbooks and cackle about the big bang flips, crew cuts, fades, new wave Flock of Seagulls, rocker manes, or whatever style was prevalent in those oh-so-sensitive teenage years. What's funny is that no one thinks the hair style they have right now is silly. In two years, everyone will laugh at themselves again. The other option is to quit changing hairstyles and have the same look for the rest of their lives. Daring and silly, or consistent and boring. Those seem to be the hair choices.

Back in college, I sported the easy to maintain grunge hair. First, it was Kurt Kobain length and more like Jerry Cantrell by my senior year. On the employment front, no one wants to hire a long hair. As a result, I worked at a dog kennel during most of those years, and the dogs didn't mind. I went to job fairs with little interest in the companies, and they had an equal lack of interest in me. In a last ditch effort to get a career after college, I cut my hair to half its length. The ruse fooled no one, and I began working at the bottom of the ladder. Again, a misfit is still a misfit regardless of their look.

Hair is the ultimate tricker. I've seen a lot of really incredible hair on otherwise horrible looking people. How is it we can maintain nice looking hair and have such difficulty keeping the rest of us looking impressive? For everyone, the point happens when our hair starts being too honest. Gray hair, thinning hair, losing hair. People dye it, tease it, comb it over, highlight it, plug it, toupee it. Anything besides letting the hair explain how they truly are. Instead of embracing the natural state of our hair (and ourselves), we do what we can to fake others out. No one wants to know what stressed out neurotic individuals we truly are, and even worse, no one wants to heed the natural messages our hair tells us.

After college, I ran the gambit of hair lengths. I've shaved my head down to a quarter inch a few times. I called it The Fresh Start look, but others thought I had gone skinhead. If you've never shaved your head, I heartily recommend it. You learn the natural parts and character of your hair better than any hairstylist can teach you. I never use gels or hair spray unless I'm acting in a play. Incidentally, the reason I cut my long shaggy hair fifteen months ago was because I was in a 50s rendition of 12 Angry Men (not too many long hairs on juries back then). Of course, no one remembers that I had fairly long hair just 15 months ago, and now it has returned. No one remembers anything.

This weekend marked my official return of long hair. I attended a couple plays, a friend's house and a rock n' roll show. People who hadn't seen me in a couple months blurted out instinctively about my long hair. That's another funny thing, you don't decide when your hair is long. There will be more than enough people to let you know.

I wish I could say there was some overarching reason for growing my locks long again, but it's really not that big a deal. I could say it's the Sampson thing (and there's a lot of truth in that story). I could say it's in protest to the war in Iraq (it wouldn't bother me if you made that association). I could say that it keeps my cab customers in line (I keep them in line no matter what hair style I have). If I'm truly honest with myself, I know it's my rock n' roll band. I tend to jump around a lot as I sing and play my bass. Having some hair to fling about adds an extra visual to my messy and simple style of playing. There is also the added bonus of having a head shield. It cuts down on my peripheral vision, and I can truly hide inside my head. It's a strange yet satisfying comfort.

So there you have it, another guy has gone long hair, but I've been in this territory before. I know there will be that moment when it gets to be too much and goes away. The taunts from hicks and jocks don't bother me (actually no one messes with me because I'm a big boy now). Even my grandmother's fretting has no impact (don't worry G-ma, it's only a phase). It's just hair, but until the next big cut, it's here baby, there mama, everywhere daddy daddy, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair...

Chris Jungle has never paid for a haircut.