The writer, thinker and inker, Scott Adams once suggested that there should be a magazine called "clues for the clueless". His only worry was that clueless people on reading it might suffer such trauma from the realisation of just how wrong they had been all of these years that they might all commit suicide thus losing the magazine circulation figures. Of course the idea of a new suitable reader being born every minute certainly, he thought, held some appeal.

One of the topics he suggested should be in there was the tricky truth surrounding peoples responses to your new haircut. He pointed out that if they don't say anything then they don't like it.

This is not universally true but it's certainly close enough. If you see the spark of recognition and then no comment then it's a dead cert. If, however, they never seem to notice it then it might just mean they don't notice such things.

But what he didn't tackle at least not in anything I've seen, is what it means when somebody does comment on your hair. Obviously it's dependent on what they say and who they are. If they say "nice haircut" then you're in the clear, your hair is nice. If they say to you "you've had a haircut" then first check who you are. If you are a woman then regardless of the sex of the other person this other person doesn't like your hair. If you are male then check to see if the other person is a woman or a gay male. Then this means they don't like your hair either. But if they are straight then "you've had a haircut" is the closest they'd go towards a compliment. If they didn't like it they would just grunt.