Dignity in the Coiffure

This happened way before 2009 so I thought everyone would know this bit of Singapore history…

This explains a lot of things… like how I am always stopped at the customs. (And also why I have such an unforgettable mugshot for my driver’s licence!)

Sep 12, 2009
Past in posters (extract)
By Deepika Shetty, Straits Times

A ‘poster boy’ for the impact the posters had on society is musician Jatt Ali, 53. The Long Hair poster with the tag line: Males With Long Hair Will Be Attended To Last, has some hair-raising memories for him.

The authorities at that time associated people with long hair with hippies and drug addicts.

Jatt tells Life!: ‘This is from the 1970s. I had long hair and each time I went to the post office, I was served last. People took these posters seriously.

‘Once I was even picked up during a police ambush in the Peninsula Plaza area and ended up missing the show I was meant to perform at. Together with 20 other long-haired boys my age, I was locked up for 12 hours. My parents made a lot of noise after that and kept asking me to cut my hair, but I never did it.’

Arts impresario Robert Liew, 60, too, recalls the poster. He says: ‘We equated long hair with individualism. The Government equated it with undesirable Western influence, primarily drug consumption.

‘There was a fair amount of consternation, but before things came to head, no pun intended, it was all over, the drug threat abated and the length of one’s hair returned to the domain of fashion.’

Sociologist Paulin Tay Straughan, 46, points out that beyond the obvious and in-your-face messages, these posters tell an important story.

‘My mother was a nurse in the Family Planning Department and I pretty much grew up with the Stop At Two message. Things were so much simpler then. The fact that we have to use fancy effects, new media and phrase our messages cleverly now shows how far we have advanced as a nation.’

She adds: ‘I know some of these posters seem like a real blast from the past and are extremely amusing. But they also show how Singaporeans did not question as much in the early days. Having survived the war, all people wanted was stability. They had full faith in their lawmakers and there was no cynicism.’