With his brown, flowing shoulder-length hair, Ellis Laifer ’15 is one of the few boys at Staples who can rock a headband. In fact, he’s always looking for new ways to tame the mane, sometimes even flaunting a backwards baseball cap.

“I like long hair, but it’s annoying,” Laifer said. “It’s a love-hate relationship.”

But there’s more to Laifer than his Pantene-commercial-worthy hair; a lover of the environment, Laifer has been a vegetarian since the ninth grade.

When asked why he chose this diet, he laughed. “The amount of times I’ve been asked this question!”

It started back in the ninth grade, after he watched a speech advocating the vegan diet. “It was life-changing,” Laifer said.

He started off as a vegan, but after one year, he decided to become a vegetarian, noting that being a vegan is “way too hard.” He even wrote his research paper about the time he broke his veganism.

“I was at a birthday dinner in New York City, and we were eating Chinese food,” Laifer said, smiling. “It was too enticing.”

So for now, he’s a vegetarian, assuredly stating, “I know it’s better for the environment.”

His vegetarianism isn’t the only thing reducing his carbon footprint; AP Environmental Science, his favorite class he ever took at Staples, really struck a chord with him, inspiring his love for the environment even further. Now, he’s an active member of the Green Club, which recently helped install a water bottle filling station in school.

“It’s the little things that help,” Laifer noted.

Aside from loving the environment, Laifer also has a passion for a unique style of music evinced by the drumming of his hands on the table, as he bobs his head along to his newly created rhythm.

However, Laifer is more than just a drummer of tables. He plays violin in the orchestra, and for his personal enjoyment, he plays piano and guitar. Back in middle school, he took piano lessons but eventually quit. However, it was then that he realized his love for music, “which is kind of ironic,” he chuckled.

Although his fellow Staples students may not know of his many extracurricular interests, they may know him for goofing around in various classrooms.

“I try to have fun in the classroom. In physics this year, I take on a multitude of personas, so one day I’ll speak in a British accent for half the class,” he said, his bright blue eyes lit with excitement.

With his long hair and love for the environment, Laifer just wants to have fun, recognizing that in life “you always regret things you don’t do.”

When asked for some last parting wisdom, he stroked his facial scruff with intellectualism.

“Don’t take life so seriously,” he said with a grin. “Take it easy. Life can be stressful, but don’t be stressed out.”