Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
Another American disciple joined Prabhupada -- Ramanuja, from Haight-Ashbury. He had been initiated just before Swamiji had left San Francisco, and he sported a full black beard. Prabhupada didn't like the beard. Cautiously and indirectly he mentioned it: but Ramanuja's beard stayed. Ramanuja carried a book about Tibetan Buddhism, and he didn't seem fixed in Krsna consciousness philosophy. But here he was, one of the looser, sentimental San Francisco devotees, ready for Indian adventures with Swamiji.
From Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita Chapter 27: India Revisited: Part 1
Ramanuja's beard was huge. Looking like an ordinary hippie, he misrepresented Srila Prabhupada wherever they went. Prabhupada told Acyutananda, "Tell your friend to shave." Acyutananda and Ramanuja talked, but Ramanuja wouldn't shave. Wanting Ramanuja to agree on his own, Prabhupada didn't ask him again, but when a copy of the latest Back to Godhead magazine arrived from the States, Prabhupada got an idea. Two illustrations in the magazine showed Haridasa Thakura converting a prostitute. After her conversion the prostitute had shaved her head. Showing the pictures to Ramanuja, Prabhupada asked, "What is the difference between this picture and that picture?"
"I don't know, Swamiji," Ramanuja replied.
"No," Prabhupada said, pointing to the pictures. "What is the difference in this picture?"
"Oh, she's a devotee."
"Yes," Prabhupada said, "but what else?"
"Oh, she has a shaved head."
"Yes." Prabhupada smiled. "A devotee has a shaved head."
"Do you want me to shave my head?"
"Yes."
Ramanuja shaved. But within a few days he began growing his beard and hair back. "From now on," Prabhupada told Acyutananda, "no more cheap initiations. They have to know something."
From Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita Chapter 28: India Revisited: Part 2
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