I'll expand on the "long hair" thing a little. I played 4 years of college football in the early 1980's... and I played in HS in the late 70's. I had mid back length hair back in those days. I still have a ponytail to this day. I had my church leaders pull me aside, my coaches and even a local TV reporter comment on the fact that I had my hair that long while seeming like an upstanding young man. In HS I was told (while no rule existed) that I wouldn't play if I didn't keep my hair under my helmet. In college it was OK to have as longer but couldn't cover my name.
I was asked at my church to cut it once.... ironically in front of a painting of Jesus sitting with children in a field with hair longer than mine.
It's real and it's one of many examples why I believe the most evil groups have common associations and then move to exclude anyone who doesn't conform. As a Christian, I genuinely believe that churches and other organizations supposedly based on Christianity spend far too much time looking for specs and avoiding logs. I just choose to distance myself from organized Christianity while still being a Christian. But even in that you are attacked as only organized Christians are true Christians. In large part the organizations are about the organizations...and the money while while using Christianity as a tool to police the organizations... and everyone else.
....and guess what? At the end of a lot of USAID trails are Christian Organizations, Church endowments and so called Charities...
Yep, utterly MINDLESS conformity to completely MEANINGLESS convention. These types all think long hair - or whatever - means something. It doesn't. Neither does short hair. None of this crap means anything in an absolute sense - its all relative. Its an attempt to create an absolute in a relative universe. It utterly fails as do all such attempts.
I never saw the value or purpose of conformity for its own sake in any event (obviously).