I'm not sure if "why do you have a ponytail" is a question about a course or about a subject we teach ... actually it's rather personal... but it's a good question and I have chosen to answer in this case. Here are three possible answers for the beard - and - ponytail question. Which do you think it is?
a) I like it. I feel comfortable with it, and I have chosen it for that reason.
b) It's easily maintained. No need to be rushing to the barber's shop every few weeks, nor to be shaving on a daily basis ... and there's something exhilarating about trimming one's beard that you don't get from shaving.
c) It's a career choice. I used to train under contract for another company, and jobs were allocated by the "buggin's turn" (the selection of a trainer by rotation) principle unless one particular trainer was asked for. Now I got good reviews, and I wanted repeat bookings (= a more consistent income flow!), so I took on a distinctive look so that people could ask for me by name ... or by distinctive looks.
The answer is that
all three reasons apply. If I didn't like it, if it wasn't easily(ish!) maintained or was unpleasant to maintain, I wouldn't have it. However it still, years later, provides that slightly different look that helps me to stand out in a crowd and, with my various roles, that's no bad thing at times. Take last night, but that's another story ...
(written 2009-02-21, updated 2010-10-13)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z800 - Whimsy [24] Impossible terms - (2004-08-22)
[39] A Change is as good as a rest - (2004-09-05)
[44] Serious subject - (2004-09-10)
[69] John Toner - (2004-10-01)
[94] Special change - (2004-10-20)
[151] Coffee Standards - (2004-12-14)
[156] Signage - (2004-12-18)
[300] Dentist's Waiting Room Syndrome - (2005-05-04)
[331] 08:45 is a difficult time - (2005-05-31)
[346] No Smoking Pubs - (2005-06-13)
[395] Making Orangutangs - (2005-07-28)
[520] Three life changing comments - (2005-12-07)
[547] Taking the dog for a walk - (2005-12-29)
[568] NB ''Aspiration'' - (2006-01-18)
[610] Need a hankie - (2006-02-16)
[661] Dressed up for a phone call - (2006-03-29)
[689] The call of nature - (2006-04-18)
[701] Minature Cyclists only - limited headroom - (2006-04-27)
[758] Very good for woodlice - (2006-06-12)
[761] Great new inventions - (2006-06-14)
[784] Which way to turn? - (2006-06-28)
[807] Telling large from small - (2006-07-18)
[850] Lighter moments - (2006-08-31)
[892] A pattern in change - (2006-10-12)
[973] Too much used to Skype - (2006-12-08)
[1075] I'm not the father - (2007-02-11)
[1167] Leaning tower of Cheeser - (2007-04-28)
[1171] Traffic light control for horses - (2007-05-01)
[1241] If I say 'I am fine', what do I mean? - (2007-06-23)
[1440] Useful command or messy screen? - (2007-11-21)
[1604] M25 / South Mimms Service Area - (2008-04-07)
[1662] Westonbirt Arboretum Postcode - (2008-05-31)
[1886] Keys to friendless churches - (2008-11-15)
[1952] Small Print - (2008-12-19)
[1977] Going round the block - (2009-01-04)
[1980] Michelle - (2009-01-06)
[1988] Melksham, Wiltshire. Town Crier Competition, 2009 - (2009-01-11)
[2009] The Royal Mail Receipt - (2009-01-26)
[2028] Things people say on the phone - (2009-02-06)
[2089] The Longest Day - Wednesday, 28th September - (2009-03-18)
[2108] Funny Amusing, Funny Amazing and The Smarts - (2009-03-29)
[2127] Call in the professionals! - (2009-04-12)
[2131] Patterns in street names - (2009-04-17)
[2138] Ski bore ... train bore ... dog bore - (2009-04-24)
[2143] Throughout the year, around the world - (2009-04-27)
[2152] My four feet! - (2009-05-01)
[2157] From the 51773 family - (2009-05-04)
[2180] Patterns in numbers - room occupancy - (2009-05-13)
[2250] Bluegrass comes to Melksham - (2009-06-19)
[2251] Over a third of numbers start with the digit 1 - (2009-06-19)
[2256] Is it Python past cheetah already? - (2009-06-24)
[2397] Signwriting is dead. Long live the sign. - (2009-09-06)
[2496] A better design of mouth - (2009-11-07)
[2542] My armpit was like a zebra crossing - (2009-12-19)
[2626] On Malachite Green - (2010-02-06)
[2676] Changing Times - (2010-03-13)
[2945] Last, final, etc - (2010-09-04)
[3030] Liquorice allsorts and Dolly Mixtures - (2010-11-05)
[3203] Melksham Town Council announces ... - (2011-03-16)
[3215] Solution looking for problem - (2011-03-27)
[3223] Answering at my earliest convenience - (2011-03-29)
[3226] A busy morning for railway announcements - (2011-04-01)
[3288] Random Questions ... - (2011-05-14)
[3369] Local Council leads bans on many activities - (2011-07-24)
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[3738] Adoptive homes sought for abandoned babies - (2012-05-20)
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[3868] How to make an ohno cake - (2012-09-23)
[3912] Sand to Arabia, Coals to Newcastle or Woodburners to Russia - (2012-11-04)
[3922] Twerp - A person regarded as insignificant and contemptible - (2012-11-12)
[4067] The woman, the television, the bullock and Darlington - (2013-04-23)
[4329] Does Santa Claus need a CRB check? - (2014-11-25)
[4392] Interview conditions,and other instructions to staff - (2015-01-12)
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[1068] ls -l report, Linux / Unix - types and permssions - (2007-02-06)
[1132] Well House Manor, Melksham, Art Gallery - (2007-04-02)
[1237] What proportion of our web traffic is robots? - (2007-06-19)
[1307] Troy, up state New York - (2007-08-17)
[1375] Python v Ruby - (2007-10-02)
[1475] Tcl/Tk - updating your display while tasks are running - (2007-12-16)
[1521] Evening drive across the roof of Wiltshire - (2008-01-27)
[1621] Linux and Java Course in London - (2008-04-24)
[1629] A short introduction to our courses - (2008-05-03)
[1751] Public Training Course Dates until July 2009 - (2008-08-13)
[1843] How many cups of coffee? - (2008-10-17)
[1967] LinkedIn - Thrice Asked, and joined. - (2008-12-30)
[2125] We have lost a regular business guest - (2009-04-10)
[2222] A (biased?) comparison of PHP courses in the UK - (2009-06-07)
[2385] Reading all our recent news from a single source - (2009-08-29)
[2400] Are you wanting to learn PHP? - (2009-09-08)
[2520] Global and Enable - two misused words! - (2009-11-30)
[3168] Web Sites - Subject to Advertising Standards from 1st March - check your sites - (2011-02-13)
G207 - Well House Consultants - Staff [10] What do you look for in your IT trainer? - (2004-08-10)
[41] A Thousand and four words - (2004-09-07)
[88] Getting the right level of trainer - (2004-10-14)
[168] Welcoming Leah Davies to our team - (2005-01-04)
[185] Who am I? - (2005-01-21)
[371] The training team that's looking out for you - (2005-07-07)
[393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)
[578] Woman screaming at me - (2006-01-26)
[862] 4 weeks to go - (2006-09-11)
[895] Welcome, Martin - (2006-10-16)
[972] Both one team and two - (2006-12-08)
[1002] Meet the neighbours - (2006-12-20)
[1065] Graham Ellis - an Introduction - (2007-02-05)
[1083] Behind the scenes - (2007-02-17)
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[2044] Please Trouble me - (2009-02-16)
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[2772] Graham Ellis - Summary of Training Record - (2010-05-21)
[2775] Declarations of interest - knowing where you stand with people - (2010-05-22)
[2934] Not so much software training - more hotel keeping! - (2010-08-25)
[2960] The Well House team - September 2010 - (2010-09-19)
[3051] Positively reforming the system - could it be done? - (2010-11-14)
[3103] Thank you - and Happy Christmas - (2010-12-24)
[3201] A change to the Well House team - thank you and good luck, Chris - (2011-03-14)
[3212] Well House Manor - a home from home for the business and leisure guest in Melksham - (2011-03-26)
[3311] Exhilarating day! - (2011-05-30)
[3425] Our National Autograss Champion, from Melksham - (2011-09-08)
[3460] Flying Colours! - (2011-09-28)
[3490] How not to call when job seeking ... - (2011-10-20)
[3586] Emergency First Aid Provision at Well House Manor - part of the service - (2012-01-19)
[3961] Well House Staff Party - (2012-12-22)
[4189] Who are we - Lisa, Graham, Gypsy and Billy - (2013-10-07)
[4227] Happy Christmas from the Well House Manor team - (2013-12-25)
Some other Articles
Tuning httpd / the supermarket checkout comparisonWhat a difference a MySQL Index madeHow was my web site compromised?A Presentation about our company - web and PHPWhy the Pony Tail?Why Choose Well House Consultants for your course?Learning to program in PHP, Python, Java or Lua ...Small Web Server in PerlFinding variations on a surnameDoes robots.txt actually work?