A ban on police officers dyeing their hair is still in force despite a High Court decision to quash a reprimand against a senior policewoman who had dyed highlights, the police chief said yesterday. 'Our internal guideline stated clearly that we put great emphasis on officers' appearance,' Police Commissioner Dick Lee Ming-kwai said. 'They need to keep a good appearance, including hair which has to be kept in its original colour. 'If they need to dye their hair, they can only dye it to its original colour. The instruction is still effective.' Mr Lee was speaking after the commissioning of two new marine police launches. The High Court ordered on Monday that a reprimand against Senior Inspector Sharon Lim Shiow-hwa for disobeying the order to restore her hair colour should be quashed. Mr Justice Michael Hartmann commented at the beginning of the hearing that the police should not impose disciplinary action arbitrarily on Ms Lim, who dyed her hair before the hair rule was imposed in January 2001. The judge also told lawyers for the police that there was no direction and no 'rational approach' for the inspector to follow in restoring her hair to its original colour. But the police force apparently said it had already agreed to Senior Inspector Lim's application to have the reprimand nullified before the court order on Monday. Mr Lee yesterday described the case as an 'out-of-court settlement', which would not affect the force's internal rules. While some frontline officers found the hair rule impractical, Mr Lee said he saw no need for the force to conduct any review of the regulations. Senior Inspector Lim, who had streaked highlights in her hair before the hair rule was imposed, was accused of disobeying an order to restore her hair colour in March 2002, and reprimanded in January last year. The officer argued that re-colouring her hair was an artificial process that could not reproduce its natural colour. She said she had instead tried to obey the order by letting her hair grow and periodically trimming it.
