A school in Essex has forbidden pupils from copying The Only Way is Essex star Joey Essex’s haircut. 

The Guardian reports that a Billericay school told parents that students who opted for ‘extreme hairstyles’ or pompadour cuts – where hair is cut very tight round the sides but a luxuriant bouffant is left up top, like in Joey Essex’s case – would be ‘unable to attend lessons’.

Of course, this haircut ban is just the latest in a long line of schools banning things children and teenagers enjoy. Sometimes, of course, the school is right, doing what is ‘common sense’, but sometimes it is hard to see where school principals are coming from as they impose their authority maliciously and inflict unnecessary rules . 

We ask: is it common sense or mindless megalomania?

Banning BFFs. Schools in the UK reportedly banned children from having best friends because they were seeking to protect them from the fall-out of the friendship ending.   
Common sense or mindless megalomania?  I have had the same BFF since I was seven. We fell out once, around 19 years ago over a mislaid pencil but we have since gotten over it. I emailed her about 15 minutes ago and we speak almost every day. BFFs are amazing. So yeah mindless megalomania.

Banning fake tan. If they dislike Joey Essex’s haircut, they are probably not too keen on his complexion either. Head mistresses usually prefer their pupils’ legs to be white rather than orange.
Common sense or mindless megalomania? It is common sense unless, of course, pupils have scrupulously exfoliated and managed to apply an even, light, gentle tan with absolutely no streaks. In which case, bravo.

Banning e-cigarettes. Schools have forbidden the little nicotine devices as they are concerned that they are a gateway to real smoking. (Schools are really quite interested in the idea of gateways. Gateway drugs, gateway sex…)
Common sense or mindless megalomania? Common sense. They look stupid.

Banning eyeliner. Schools don’t like eyeliner, almost as much as they don’t like short skirts. But teenage girls have always loved to outline the inside rim of their lower lids in heavy kohl, aping Margot from The Royal Tenenbaums and Nancy from The Craft. 
Common sense or mindless megalomania?
Mindless megalomania. Sure, sometimes it looks a little silly but it’s a rite of passage for teenage girls and its effects are only temporary. Give the poor awkward teenagers this; their eyes can’t get fat or spotty or greasy and so they just love to make them up.