I’m the real Mark Laidlaw, and I approve this message.

No he is just a sellout

to me, after the events of HL1 G-man gave Gordon a haircut while he was in stasis. which is the actual reason Gordon doesn't like G-Man.

Most male citizens have similar short-haired haircuts, which makes me think it's reglamentary to have shorter hair to prevent obscuring of facial features to scanners; so showing he was growing his hair out would've caused Gordon to get picked on - so as ridiculous as it sounds your comment is the most likely explanation as to why the ponytail disappeared, if you really really want to believe it was canon

Can someone send this to Mark

I like the black mesa explanation, that he cut his hair right before going to work on the day the resonance cascade happened.

"Aw man, you cut the ponytail. Sellout."

My headcannon is that when Gordon got captured by the marines they yanked on the ponytail so hard the hair tie came out and he hit his head

Canon

I was gonna call BS but after seeing the source you cited I cannot disagree

Personal headcanon, gman removed the ponytail to conform to combine dress norm so Gordon could be hidden for a while.

Gordon had a ponytail?

Guard literally mentions it's cut off before he gets to the lobby

That's in black mesa not the original hl1

Weird I could have sworn my playthrough I heard him say that. Oh well. I like that idea.

Black Mesa retcons his Ponytail out of existance to explain why he doesn't have one after HL1.

I'd argue then it must be a simple design change with no story behind it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Black Mesa is a fan creation, the discrepancies with HL1 aren't canon

I realize now it's in BM not hl1, my bad 👍