A man has successfully won an appeal against the Police Service of Northern Ireland for not allowing him to complete his training because of his lack of hair.

The Belfast High Court heard how the man, who cannot be named for security reasons, was unable to produce either a 3cm hair or 200 body hairs for a drugs test as part of the process in order to become a trainee officer. The man launched an appeal in which he challenged the reasoning behind the unsuccessful application, citing that the snub was not only irrational, but discriminatory.

Lawyers representing the PSNI accepted that the outcome of the man’s trial was unjustified and told the judge that the man would be reinstated back in to the training process as soon as possible. The police service has stated that they will look in to an alternative method of drug testing for all similar cases that might occur in the future.

40% of man are said to display noticeable hair loss by the age of 35 worldwide. Considering this statistic, many are puzzled as to why the PSNI wouldn’t already have measures in place to prevent such eventualities. Basil McCrea, who is a member of the Police Board, suggested that the case shouldn’t have even come to court. He criticised the PSNI for not already making “appropriate allowances” in place for DNA analysis testing.

McCrea, who is also a member of the Ulster Unionist Party, said that “common sense should have prevailed”. He continued that the process shouldn’t evolve around an applicant’s ability to be able to complete a drugs test, but rather that you should simply be “able to prove that you are not involved in any misuse of illegal substances” by whichever method you can. “If you can do that, then that should be the end of it”.