Just SayingHong Kong’s prison bosses learn what happens when you mess with a man and his hair

Hong Kong’s aged original Young Turk, lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, is back in the headlines after a long quest for relevance. He now wants to take a crack at the city’s leadership election and run for chief executive as a candidate from the pan-democratic camp.

But the man better known as “Long Hair” made an unexpected impact on Hong Kong’s prison policy recently when the High Court ruled in his favour that a forced haircut during his brief incarceration in 2014 over a rowdy protest was unlawful. The judge bought Long Hair’s argument about the unfairness of subjecting all male prisoners to head shearing, while sparing their female counterparts the indignity. It constituted sexual discrimination under our Basic Law.

The Correctional Services Department has until June 1 to comply with the ruling and put an end to this asymmetrical treatment of inmates. One option is to draw an equal line with haircuts for all 1,800 female inmates currently in lock-up. They’re said to be a little miffed about the prospect of losing their hair, understandably, while the man responsible gets to grow his on the outside like a Lhasa apso.

Here, I must digress to caution Long Hair against upsetting an entire demographic of women over something they take so personally. I’m speaking from experience: nearly a year after I made unflattering remarks about Canto-pop star Leon Lai’s singing, I still haven’t stopped getting hate mail from his female fans; and I’m still half-expecting to get clocked in the back of the head some day by some auntie with her swinging handbag.

A source told the Post that compulsory haircuts for women behind bars might provoke “unimaginable consequences”.