Roanoke Attorney Eric Roland Spencer
The Roanoke Times August 29, 1997
The Long & Short of Hair
The Old Testament’s Samson got his strength from long hair. The federal government put Ben Franklin’s ponytail on the $100 bill. And by most accounts, Jesus wasn’t exactly bald.
But do some still believe that every man who skips hair cuts is a Unabomber in-the- making or a drugged-out hippie from the 60s who’s still seeing rainbows?
In Roanoke last week, Vice Mayor Linda Wyatt said she had heard at least two council members make disparaging remarks about the appearance of ponytail-wearing Joe Nash, after Nash lost an appointment to an open seat on the School Board. Council members denied making such remarks, saying they were looking at the candidates’ experience levels and not their hairstyles.
What are our attitudes about hair length and gender nearly 30 years after the Summer of Love?
To find out, The Roanoke Times interviewed a handful of area long-hairs.
When Eric Spencer first steps into a courtroom, he looks like any other Roanoke lawyer – dark suit, bow tie, and briefcase.
But a closer look at his hair, which is neatly trimmed on the front and sides, reveals that Spencer is, as he puts it, “the only pony tailed lawyer in town.”
The tail is just long enough to keep Spencer’s four-inch locks off his collar, but not long enough to distract from his otherwise traditional lawyer look.
“I wear the pin-striped suit and the white shirt too.” Spencer said. “I just look Jeffersonian about it.”
Spencer can’t think of a single case he’s tried in which hair might have been a factor in the mind of a judge or juror. But when he represents someone charged with a crime, he’s mindful that the case could turn on one juror’s conservative, “get a haircut” mentality.
“I tell my clients to get shave and a haircut” before facing a jury. Spencer said. “I don’t want them to look like they just stepped off the cover of a ZZ Top album.
“If someone on the jury doesn’t like long hair, then let them not like mine,” Spencer said. “But I don’t want them to hold it against my client.”
In his 18-year career, Spencer’s hairstyle have ranged from the “buzz cut” he wore while first breaking into Roanoke’s legal community, to his current tail --- which is constantly changing its length and look.
“I’m the Hillary Clinton of local lawyers, as far as hairstyle go,” he said.
