It was the day before his office’s 1974 holiday party, and Andy Chertow’s brown hair had grown to his chest. Wanting to look professional, he asked his roommate to cut his hair in their Syracuse, N.Y., apartment.

Chertow had no idea at the time that would be his final haircut.

For the past five decades, Chertow, 75, has let his hair grow 10 feet long, as Syracuse.com first reported. He wears his hair in dreadlocks, but it drags on the floor if Chertow doesn’t wrap it under a hat, tuck it into a pocket or drape it around his arm.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of his last haircut, Chertow threw a party at a Syracuse restaurant on Dec. 14 with songs that fit the occasion: Linval Thompson’s “Long Long Dreadlocks,” Keith Hudson’s “I Broke The Comb” and Kofi’s “I’m In Love With A Dreadlocks.”

“It’s part of who I am,” Chertow told The Washington Post about his hair, which he said takes about 10 minutes to wash and two days to dry. Despite the hassle, Chertow has no plans to trim it again.

Chertow’s interest in growing long bangs began when he was in junior high school in Syracuse. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones inspired him - although their members’ hair looked short compared with Chertow’s current hairstyle.

Chertow said he was sent to the principal’s office in high school for his hair being too long and his parents didn’t approve of his style, so he didn’t grow it past his shoulders until he studied philosophy at Binghamton University in the late-1960s.

His penultimate haircut came in the summer of 1972 at a barbershop. Then, while working as an operating room technician at a Syracuse hospital in December 1974, his roommate, Diane Hinton, cut his hair.

Around that time, Chertow became interested in reggae, especially Bob Marley, and played some songs on his bass guitar. Chertow called himself a radical - he attended large protests of the Vietnam War - and said he related to reggae artists who spoke against inequality and violence in their music. Many of his favorite artists had long dreadlocks.

In 1979, Chertow traveled with a childhood friend to Jamaica, where he listened to a band play at the resort where he was staying. Chertow spoke with band members during a break, and they asked him to play with them; Chertow borrowed their bass guitar. He returned to Jamaica often in the next few years to perform with the band, named Soul Power & Sound.

People in Jamaica encouraged Chertow to style his ever-growing hair into dreadlocks, he said. He bought Rasta hats, which are often red, gold, black and green and represent pride in Rastafarianism culture. They’re also wide, allowing people to fit their dreadlocks inside.

Chertow, who’s 6 feet tall, said he once used a beer koozie to shape his hair into a long ponytail, but he usually covers his dreadlocks in a Rasta hat in public. Chertow also has a roughly four-foot-long beard, which he said he last trimmed in 1976 for his younger brother’s wedding.

Chertow uses a Pantene shampoo-conditioner combination - so he doesn’t have to apply them separately - a few times each week. He said each bottle lasts two or three weeks.

He once used a blow dryer but said the process took too long. Now, he wrings out his hair - like a mat - after each shower and wraps a towel around it. When he sleeps, he drapes his hair over the side of his bed - hoping it’ll stay there when he turns - and sticks his beard under his pillow. His hair often gets caught in door knobs, chairs and windows around his house.

Chertow acknowledged the long hair leaves some judging him. He worked for years as the information technology manager at Bryant & Stratton College in New York. He interviewed for other jobs, and once, he said, a secretary laughed at him before he introduced himself. He retired in 2014 from Bryant & Stratton College and now focuses on a reggae show he has played on a Syracuse radio station once a week since 1998.

Sometimes in public, Chertow said, his friends tell him people are staring at him. He said he doesn’t care.

“If it’s free entertainment for other people, well, hey, they need entertaining,” Chertow said.

Chertow said his wife, Lois, doesn’t mind his hair, and it has become a symbol of his rebellious personality among friends.

In October, Chertow was shopping at Wegmans again when he ran into Hinton, his roommate in 1974.

“I’ve got a big anniversary coming up,” Chertow recalled telling her. “And you’re a part of it.”

Hinton didn’t know what he was talking about.

“When you cut my hair back in ’74,” Chertow recalled saying, “that was the last haircut I ever got.”

Hinton, 73, had figured Chertow might’ve trimmed his hair once since then. But after learning the news, she half-jokingly encouraged him to go through with his idea to throw a party.

Chertow reserved a room at Munjed’s, a Mediterranean restaurant, on the same night his radio show aired. Chertow prerecorded his three-hour show - including songs about hair - and used Bluetooth to play it on the restaurant’s speakers.

About 20 friends, including Hinton, attended. Chertow said he received presents that fit the party’s theme, including a wood carved necklace of a man with dreadlocks wearing a red, green and gold Rasta hat.

Hinton said Chertow looked better with short hair, but when asked if he would consider cutting it again, Chertow didn’t hesitate in his response: no.