Just after her landslide reelection victory in 1983, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher summoned her secretary of state for energy, Nigel Lawson, to No. 10 Downing St.

“I’d like you to take over as chancellor [of the exchequer],” he recalled her telling him. And then she added: “‘There’s just one thing: You must have your hair cut.’ … I suppose she thought it would not create confidence in the financial markets if you had a long-haired chancellor. But that was the only advice she gave me at the time.”