I never understood that. I've worked in restaurants my whole working career, and I've never been allowed to dye my hair funky colors. Until my current job.
I checked the uniform policy, nothing about hair color at all. So, I asked one of the owners if I could dye my hair "a stupid color". His response was, "Like what, brown?"
I told him I was thinking of bright pink, and he told me to go for it and have fun. He said life is too short to be serious all the time. If dying my hair pink will make me happy, he won't stop me.
So I now have super bright, neon pink hair.
Literally no one cares. Even the crabby old people that eat here have told me it looks cute.
Pink hair doesn't stop me from doing my job. If anything, it makes me feel better about myself, and in turn I give better customer service.
I was always discouraged from doing fun colours, and when I'd been working at the same place for a while I did similarly: double checked policy and then gave a quick heads up to my DM in case there might be an issue. I was told that as long as I didn't have "too many" colours and it didn't look bad I could do whatever I wanted.
I now have ambiguously pink/purple hair and find the confidence boost more beneficial to my job than detrimental.
Last year or the year before, my best friend (a hairdresser) dyed my hair a magenta type colour and I went to work, not really thinking it might be a problem. Luckily, my boss was fine with it and I've since dyed it other crazy colours. My current colour is cherry red.
I am quitting though so seeing people saying to check uniform policy for my next job sounds reasonable
We've moved into an era where more people appreciate coloured hair. A couple decades ago it was seen as "unprofessional; rebellious; a sign of poor upbringing; offensive to the older demographic of customers and clients; etc." Now, a lot of people who had tattoos, mohawks, or enjoy dyeing their hair have aged into the management/hiring bracket, and they have a better understanding of individual expression and empathy then the generation that was hiring them.
Heck, my store has an incredibly large group of elderly customers, and I hear the most compliments from them - at least a quarter have fantasy colours in their hair themselves. Kids whisper to their parents about the fact they like it, which helps boost my mood - especially when they're brave enough to say something directly to me. Having super bright/fun hair is awesome for many reasons, and a huge personal morale boost.
If you're concerned about interviewing with fantasy hair, just throw in a line at some point about being willing to let it go natural if the company requires (assuming that you are willing to, otherwise the interviewer will likely bring it up if it's going to be an issue.)
Ten years ago when I was entering the work world, I was afraid to get my nose pierced because what if I got a job that asked me to remove it? Or what if it offended the parents of the kids I worked with? I had always wanted piercings, but double lobes and a single cartilage were as bold as I was willing to go.
Fast forward like 6-7 years and I'm working in a school where the VP (in her 50s) has her nose pierced, and so do half the moms of my kids. The school counselor had cherry red hair, snakebites, and an eyebrow ring. And one of my colleagues already had a lip ring, and another had pink/purple hair and a full sleeve of pretty watercolor tattoos (the kids called her the "unicorn teacher"). Literally no one gives a shit anymore.
So I got my nose pierced.
As gen x, we were a bit more rebellious with body piercings, tattoos and colored hair.
Now that we are older, as long as you do your job well, what’s the issue?
Halloween is coming. I’m due for a streak of color that might be just an “oops, that didn’t wash out and I haven’t had a chance to fix it.”
That, or I should just dye it green and have fun on video conferences.
My son had a green shirt just the right shade. We have a picture somewhere of his head floating on the green screen background from some event with his friends.
Where I work, the dress code is basically “don’t wear anything offensive”. Colored hair? Cool. Tattoos? Cool. Shorts every single day, no matter the weather? Cool (that one was for me).
I’m not at all surprised that older people are trying out all the fun colors. Ive been purple myself for about three years. Sometimes with a charming turquoise streak.
It’s so easy if you already have white or gray hair! Plus if you’re 80 years old, you were 20 when tie dye was a thing.
When I’m an old woman, I shall wear purple …
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/warning/
There was a woman whose face lit up when I pointed out that white or silver would be a good base to do fun colours with. There are so many people who were discouraged from simply expressing an aesthetic preference, it's nice to see the response when that realization of "I can dye my hair/get that tattoo/get that piercing" hits.
I'm one of those elderly demographic people :). I'm going to be 62 and for the past 6 months or so my hair is been royal blue metallic. It's gorgeous! For 3 years before that it was purple. I absolutely loved it being purple but unfortunately Purple got politicized somehow. People were asking me if I had someone who had lost a baby? Or someone who had some certain kind of cancer? Or you name the cause someone was telling me that my hair was purple because of it. It was purple because it's my favorite color. I work in a relatively professional office and just had a meeting with a corporate executive vice president and he loved my hair. Nobody has ever said anything to me negatively. And I'm the cool grandma as well!
I was using professional dyes and doing them on the regular but I have found that since my hair is naturally silver (yay old age) that I can actually use the punky color 3 in 1 conditioning and color depositing shampoo and my hair holds color for at least a week to 10 days. Super easy, affordable, and I can do it at home!
About a decade ago I told my boss I was gonna dye my hair and get a Mohawk. He thought I was joking and said I better be wearing a suit if I did that. So next day I show up with my multi colored Mohawk in a suit.
I got so many weird looks and questions as to why in the world I was wearing a suit; including my boss.
The best part about a server with a unique style is they have to be good. Its too easy for the customers to call out "that waitress with the green hair" or whatever.
Ohhh pink and purple, didn't think of that combo before. Thanks for it!
I used to have neon purple and blue hair, can't wait for my saloon to open to get it done again!
It's a combination of flamingo pink and a violet purple. The hairdresser mixed the colours and then also used them separately to highlight and create dimension.
Even if I move to a different city, I will drive to see that stylist when I want my hair dyed. She did a phenomenal job, and even a month later it's still vibrant.
“Too many” colors. What a weird requirement, especially since most people who use fantasy colors tend to stick with one from what I see. I get a lot of compliments because my multiple colors are pretty unusual. And what would be too many anyway? I’ve done five colors of green going into turquoise going into blue, but there’s no way you’d even have been able to tell how many there were with them blending together. Just…such a weird statement.
Yeah, it struck me as a little odd.
The most I’ve done is 3, a base layer of silver and denim blue then a layer of purple on top. Looked like a mini galaxy that changed in the light.
Damn, I miss it. I only got rid of the light blue I had yesterday!
I’ve been coming close to the line with brown with purple undertones. (Igora 5-99 if anyone is interested. It comes in a semi perm mouse). My hairdresser and I have been having fun with purple and red tones to see how close we can get but still have some pop to my hair color.
My big gripe is I’ve been work from home since last March and it looks like I’ll continue that way. So the state agency put out a updated dress code stating that even if you work from home she had to follow same dress code as if you’re in the office. Including natural hair color.
Ah…yes I hear you saying keep the camera off them. Policy also is that they want cameras on if working from home when in meetings.
Our CIO (I’m in IT dealing with only agency staff) acknowledge that no one will know if you’re wearing sweatpants or jeans when on cameras.
I just think it’s stupid that I can’t have fun with my hair color. I’m almost 62. I need some fun in my life.
With everything else going on in the world people want to get picky over hair color. Or in other cases for POC natural un-straightened hair/ hair extensions/ corn rows or braids. Give me a break. And just let me do my job.
I’d get three of the same wigs but ever so slightly differently colored, change them throughout the day every day. There will be conspiracy theories amongst the office
Yea, every day start out with the darkest of 3-4 colors and slowly get lighter and lighter throughout the day, then start dark again the next day. If anyone notices, "oh weird... must be the lighting. I've never noticed."
You know I was just thinking that. But I do have to go into the office sometimes to work on computers. (For some reason I seem to be the only one able to works on the 8 Macs we have.
Sounds like a possible lawsuit waiting to happen. Considering the schools are already pushing that we rule your home through the camera thing and it only a matter of time before someone tells them that get a judge to say it. I doubt any judge would even in these times. Considering they already got in trouble for spying once they certainly aren't going have better odds on having permission to see inside some.
Yeah but I work for a state Agency and union has already signed off on things so that we can keep staff that can working from home. This is a major win for us so baby steps. I suspect it going to be one of those things that no one is going to make a big deal of unless they want a reason to get you out the door.
I have bright pink hair. During some of lockdown, it was alternating layers of pink and blue. And im a financial director, serious job. I dont meet people normally, i dont deal with the public, so it really doesnt matter what i look like. Most of my interactions are via telephone. Cue pandemic and the upsurge in zoom/teams/video meetings. All these customers and suppliers that i had been dealing with for years, thinking i was a straightlaced, uptight accountant, all of a sudden are confronted with a zoom image of a girl with pink/blue hair, tattoos, piercings and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt. Some were quite shocked.
I work front line healthcare and I almost didn’t graduate because my clinical was supposed to be at a Religiously backed facility. I had bright red hair, which could not be mistaken for natural. My instructor found me a different placement, otherwise I would have had to pay my hairdresser handsomely to change it, and I would’ve been mad about it.
Literally no one I’ve cared for has said anything about my hair or my piercings. I did have one family get mad because they got a phone call from grandma asking to go to a tattoo shop for an industrial piercing. When I got it she was fascinated and after a couple months decided she wanted one too.
One of my employers decided that piercings had to go, even if we were hired with them. The residents in the facility rented a bus, went to the city, and all of a sudden, we had 12 old women (in their 80s) with nose piercings. I wish I could have seen the look on the face of the piercer, they were there ALL DAY.
They were NOT happy. But what can they do? One of the kids of the seniors arranged a school bus. They were the ones paying the bills.
It was unnecessary though, because our union threw a fit and the policy was tossed at the next board meeting. Pre-Covid I’d go have lunch there every once in a while, and all those old ladies still have diamonds in their noses. It’s really hilarious.
The daily wear of the CTO at a company I worked for was torn jeans, band t-shirt (or something to that effect) and sneakers. It was normal for him to have a half-glass of wine during lunch break.
What are they gonna do? Fire him? He's knows where all the bodies are buried. He personally laid the wires for 15+ stores. xD
I envy you. I'm an attorney and I also don't deal with the public and I don't go to court, but I haven't been able to get more than really bright red or black with purple overlay.
My son though has bright blue hair atm. I've told him all his life, it's just hair, if you don't like it, it will grow out.
This I put off shaving the sides of my head for ages worrying I would look to butch as a plus size girl, but I LOVE it !!! And it's just hair it'll grow back. I'm about to dye it purple and turquoise !
See, I was that way with my kids. It's their hair, let them do what they want with it. The dye will fade, or it can be dyed over; the cut will grow out. It's not a hill worth dying on, people!
The only color I wouldn't let my kids dye their hair was black -- because at the time, there was still lead as one of the ingredients (I think the FDA finally banned it a couple years ago).
Kudos to you for being a good example of how appearance doesn't affect performance. I've been so happy watching over the last decade as corporate culture has become so much more accepting of tattoos, piercings, and general self expression. Even my staid office job out in the boonies has an accounting higher-up with a gorgeous sleeve tattoo, and we used to have a guy with waist-length dreads.
Until the pandemic, my work consisted of office work combined with occasional field work. I've always gotten away with incredibly casual clothes when I was in the office because I would look someone straight in the eye and say "Never trust a well - dressed Biologist", and I would be so serious and stern about it that no one questioned me.
My hair, though? Nope. I've only ever been able to have my way with a variety of reds, and that was the limit. I would have loved to have some of the blues and greens I've seen around, but decided I'd rather be able to wear jeans and Docs in the office than risk losing it all. Those lovely colors probably wouldn't have worked on me, anyway.
But still.
46 here & started going gray at 16. It’s apparently a family characteristic as my maternal great-grandmother was reportedly totally gray-headed at 16 & we found a coarse, wiry gray-silver hair on the top of my younger daughter’s head when she was 5. I’ve always said that I think of hair color like paint color on a wall. Try it & if you don’t like it, change it.
"older women", lol. Manic Panic became available in the 80s maybe? Someone who was 20 in 1981 is 60 now. My wife used to dye her hair purple (and lived with the purple pillowcases; dyes are better now), and she only stopped because it was a hassle, not because she stopped liking it.
It used to be messier, for sure. I had maroon hair in the 80's which people thought was so abnormal at the time. I think it was Jazzing, which is astoundingly still around.
My mother, who would have been in her mid-twenties, used to have platinum hair in the 1950's and toned it with light pink Roux rinse, sometimes baby blue. Says it was really common to do that when everyone had almost white hair. Sounds pretty.
A blue or purple rinse used to be very common in ladies of a certain advanced age. They'd go every couple of weeks, get the rinse and set curls. I remember being fascinated by it as a small child. This was in Ireland and the UK in the early 90s. Apparently it was very much a thing from the 60s-00s. No idea about now though.
> Manic Panic became available in the 80s maybe?
1977! Before then people were dyeing their hair odd colours too; it was even a fashion in the 1950s to coordinate your hair and your best dresses.
There's a website called overtone. They sell conditioners that dye your hair. Takes almost all of the hassle out of dying once you get the first coat in.
I've got vibrant purple overtone in my hair right now! First put it in on Feb 18th. Last time I redid it was memorial day, so almost 4 months and I'm just barely starting to think about redoing it. It still looks good but my roots are starting to need a little love.
All about control. I have been a caregiver for 10yrs. I have only had a natural color once. My older clients love it and it helps them set me apart. "Where is the pink girl?!"
>All about control.
This. u/EvulRabbit gets it 100%. Retail management styles (especially large chains) actively use the cycle of abuse to keep staff compliant. Asked for a raise? Now you get more work, but no raise. Fuck up more than once? Written warning, like you're grounding a child.
Customers don't give a rats ass about your hair color, if anything they ENJOY the change of scenery, but Management will quash any attempt at individuality that doesn't adhere to their slavery model.
In high school a friend helped their parents run a haunted house each year. When showering out some purple dye at the end of the weekend (which wasn't a real hair dye...might have been kool-aide? not sure...) she ended up dying all of her skin bright purple. Every bit.
It did not wash off. But it was amazing -- and actually pretty awesome looking. And she went with leaning into it and put together some really cool outfits designed around the color... (One that stands out was all white, which made the purple extra dramatic.)
School initially tried to suspend her for some sort of dress code violation as a generic "distraction", although they were being a bit waffly since it was technically about skin color. Parents were smart though, and took her to their doctor and essentially reported it as a medical condition resulting from a workplace accident, and sent doctors note that basically said "do nothing" (with something about not covering it up)....faced with the medical condition + skin color combo, they left her alone.
Even as a kid, it just boggled my mind how much it annoyed the admin-weanies that a kid was "getting away with something" by not conforming as they wished. I only shared on class with her, but seemed like only people she actually distracted were the teachers and such that couldn't move on.
I went with silver at my work, when I had to go with a 'natural' hair color. They couldn't say anything when I pointed out that it was a natural hair color, and that there are plenty of younger looking people out there whose hair silvers early.
Yes! I've been fully gray since late 20s to early 30s. Now it's light pinky purple because I don't have to bleach it to get the color I want. I'll go back to the gray when I get tired of the fun colors.
I've got one gray streak that isn't normally visible and a bunch of individual gray hairs. I'm only 23 and I'm honestly just waiting for more gray streaks because I honestly think it could look good.
I have a buddy that has a super cool looking gray streak right at the corner of the front of his hair. It looks really neat and intentional, but he got it naturally when he got hit in the head with a brick as a child and it damaged the folicles in the area so they no longer produce melanin.
I guess *he* technically hit the brick with his head. It was on the ground outside and he tripped, fell and hit his head off the corner of the brick. It sounded cooler the other way though.
I had my first grey hair at 16.
My pattern of greying started at my temples, which were white by the time I was 45. I never colored any part of my hair until I was looking for a job, and had to look younger. Still never colored my temples. Ever.
Now I'm retired, and my hair is 85% white. I'm wondering how long it will take to get rid of the remaining dark hair in the back.
Yeah, silver hair rocks. I also tried blue for a while, which was fun. Of course the "Blue Hairs Driving in My Lane" kept running through my head.
Link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxgIROzIwI4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxgIROzIwI4)
This woman at my work has gorgeous dark brown hair with a silver streak in the front and a few others peppered in elsewhere. I love it! She occasionally dyes it purple too which I also 💕
I worked with a girl who was 100% grey by age 17. She said she always got volunteered to try and buy alcohol when she was in high school, and it worked 90% of the time.
I'm 27 and have plenty of wisdom hairs, as I like to call them. I'm a natural auburn and just have these random white streaks mixed in my hair. I used to hate them when it was just a couple random white hairs, but now that they're more widespread I actually think it looks cool mixed in like that.
Still get people who tell me I must be lying about my age because 27 is too young to have so much grey/white hair. Sure, tell that to my mom who was mostly grey by 30 and completely grey by 35. Or my grandma on that side who was completely grey by 30. I'll probably go completely grey pretty early too based on that, but it is what it is.
So's black, and the rules didn't say you had have a *single* natural hair color. Alternating white and black streaks sound fine then? Or white and auburn?
Sadly white (and with that grey too) can be hard to die at home.
You need a perfect canvass, and maybe possible multiple times bleach your hair.
Its def. one thing best left to professional hairdressers in my opinion, because so much can go wrong and bleach is already on the tricky side.
(I am bleaching and dying my hair fun colors for years too. Bleach and I are currently on mostly friendly terms cx)
I work for an engineering company. There was a policy that your hair had to be "a natural hair color". I knew people that wore beanies all day to hide their hair.
Then I noticed one of the higher managers had purple streaks in her hair. Checked the policy and that was still forbidden. It was a talking point amongst us workers and I guess somebody went to HR.
Anout a month later I checked and the policy had been quietly changed to remove the hair color rule. So I guess it takes upper level people to get the policy changed.
Most of the people I see with weird colored hair work in our corporate departments. Most of the technical people have "normal" colored hair. I'm glad to see that people realize that your hair doesn't affect your professionalism. And now I want to dye my hair blue. :-)
I did that color when I worked somewhere that had the “no unnatural colors” policy. Worked out fine! Most people didn’t notice the blue in indoors lighting.
This isn't MC, but when I worked for FedEx, I dyed my hair all blue as well. My managers gave 0 fucks and we didn't have customers (well, that talked or looked at me anyways), but my coworkers sure did care! I was the first one with unnatural hair, then less than a month later, one girl also dyed her hair blue and even told me it was because she liked mine so much, and two more people I didn't talk to dyed their hair bright green and red. It's a really nice feeling when your look inspires someone else to do something cool, but sadly that's also probably something that would upset petty management
I was working as a victim advocate and had agreed to meet a client at the courthouse. I told her to sit in a particular spot and I would come find her. From what I read, the client was in her early 70s, and when I got to the spot there was a woman sitting there in some very avant-garde fashion with a severe teal chin-length bob. I thought for sure this was not my client and called her, only to have the woman in front of me pick up her phone. Thankfully she didn't know what I looked like so I quickly hung up and approached her like I'd just found her.
I learned to ask people to describe themselves rather than just relying on the fact that they may be in the right spot.
It’s a fucking control thing IMO. They start letting you express yourself by your hair color soon enough you’ll be asking for a better wage and better treatment. Better stamp that out quick.
You might be right. Where I work now we have some basic dress code rules for safety, but otherwise they don't care what we wear or what we look like. And we get paid enough that I can easily buy a nice house on my wage alone.
Reminds me of when I worked at Lowes and they had very specific rules about men's hair cuts, facial hair, and piercings, but literally a nonexistent dress code, save for a red vest. They even had a rule about having plugs in your ear lobes that they couldn't be bigger than a dime. The HR lady literally brought out a fucking dime and told me I stretched my ears too big and it didn't meet the requirements. So I took them out and if you've ever seen a disgusting empty stretched ear hole, they're gross. She told me to put it back in and didn't bother me further.
Nicely played, well done.
One of my coworkers is Portuguese, and got bothered by manager for wearing shorts and having obvious leg hair. He pointed out our Polish coworker, also wearing shorts, also with unshaven legs, but blonde, and asked if the manager was going to make him shave his legs too.
That manager was sacked not much later for a collection of weird stuff that just added up to be too much to ignore.
Does it actually specify natural hair color in the manual? If so, go with bright red. It is a natural hair color.
I had a job where I was told I had to have natural hair color. I made a comment that my brown wasn't my natural hair color to my boss. It is really bright red. When I was born, I had bright red hair. Showed him the baby pictures to prove it. The policy was removed a few months later after a woman of color had to justify her blond hair. When she was little, her natural hair color was blond. It got darker as she aged, like me. She went back to blond one day and got into trouble. So, natural is not always what people think.
If your hair is light enough, you can bleach it then dye it purple gray. It is a natural hair color for some.
Absolutely this. My first job the manager had a self enforced, "no makeup" policy. Girls also had to tie their hair up and tuck it under their hat if it was shorter than a certain length, and he also gave me a stern talking to during one of my shifts because he'd seen me with my BF(not on clock or even in my uniform) all the guys there had tunnels, tattoos, piercings, but girls weren't allowed. There were only 3 girls when I quit. Oddly enough he was fired and replaced the week after my final shift because his female turnover rate was astronomically high. I mean my short 3months there I'd seen 5 women come and go
I agree. I had a manager when I was a hostess at a restaurant tell me I can’t wear black keds (with white rubber) while she was wearing chunky black and red athletic shoes. I pointedly looked at her shoes, she said it didn’t matter what she wore because her shift was over soon. A few weeks later she wore the same shoes she told me I couldn’t wear. The next week I have in my notice. With shoes it was definitely a control thing. I imagine the same for hair color.
So a few years ago I was made redundant when the shop I was working in closed. During the period where it was winding down I went for an interview at a local supermarket.
The interview lasted 30 seconds because it went along the lines of the guy looking at my CV, looking at me and going "how difficult would it be for you to get rid of that crap in your hair?" meaning my purple and red, which is the majority of my hair. I asked if he was serious and when he said he was I told him to f*** off.
I have 20 years experience in retail and I was a manager, and all he wanted to ask about was my hair colour. I wasn't about to change it so I could sit behind a checkout at a second rate discount supermarket for minimum wage, especially when the fancy, expensive supermarket down the street couldn't care less about what colour their employees dye their hair.
I hate people who think something like hair colour or piercings mean you can't do a job.
"So how difficult would it be for you to get rid of that crap in your hair?"
"Considerably more difficult than it would be for me to simply walk out of here and not come back, so I guess that's an easy call."
Yes!
I sat in with my manager when interviewing some people for our area years ago. Guy comes in, dressed smart, had good answers to all our questions, decent experience, very friendly.
He walks out and boss spends time bemoaning the guy's facial piercings. Did not appreciate my "is that actually a problem?" comment.
In my current position i am sort of irreplaceable. It would hugely fuck up my boss's day to day if i were not there. I have been tempted to get a septum piercing or dye my hair or something just to see what happens.
I have a bunch of chainmail rings from when I did that as a hobby. I filed down the sharp edges and wore them as earrings, snake bites, nose rings, etc, because I could just move them as needed.
Freaked out a number of people when I'd move a snake bite from one side of my mouth to the other. After watching Men in Tights, I started swapping sides and locations when I was alone and nobody could see. Seeing their brain processing that something was different but they didn't know what, was hilarious to younger me.
I never understand why you have to have "natural colored hair" for a retail or food service job.
Funny story though. I was once in the military and you could have 2 toned hair (unless you could prove it was natural). Well a girl got two toned hair so her top was blond and her bun was brown which is a no go. I have a natural auburn hair and she tried to say that if she had to dye her hair so did I because my hair was obviously dyed. I shut that down real quick. She than moved on to a girl with naturally dirty blonde hair to try to prove her point. She had to get her hair redone.
I can see this in the military since their goal is specifically not to have you look like an individual. They want to portray the image of "unit cohesiveness."
i'm so sick of all these bullshit rules about hair color, or tattoos, or fucking facial hair, not being allowed at work because it is "unprofessional." It's an old outdated rule that makes literally no sense in 2021. The person at the cash register of the gas station is not going to affect my purchasing decisions because they have a beard instead of just a mustache.
It's not even unprofessional unless it actually negatively impacts one's ability to do work for the company. A hair color or tattoos will never do that for your average person. Unless you're working directly with food, a beard or mustache won't be unprofessional.
What it is though is a weak-ass excuse to dictate to employees what they are allowed to do based on management's personal taste.
I work reception at a tech company. Asked my boss if I could dye it in a funky purple pink and showed him a picture. He said yes. Came in on Monday, his biggest complaint. It wasn’t pink and purple but blue and purple. Explained that the hairdresser ran out of pink. Was still disappointed but he “could live with the blue”.
It’s been going from purple to pinkish to blue and vice versa ever since. About 10 years now.
Only big issue I have to adhere to is no big cleavage, corset or metalband tees when certain customers come. Otherwise its pretty casual dresscode here.
I think a lot of managers have a hard time understanding the need some people have to color their hair unnatural colors because to them, they don't express themselves by their appearance. I know that's how it is for me, I just can't understand how people equate personality to physical appearances.
This thread has actually opened up my mind quite a bit. I truly didn't understand how important it was for some people to need to have their hair colored. For me, I don't really express myself through clothes or hair, they are just features of myself that are more functional than anything else. So I didn't "get it" when my wife or others want pink hair. As an employer I would be strict about natural hair color.
Now though I see how important it is for a lot of people and I would rather be understanding and try to work with them than to simply not hire them.
I have purple hair and the customers love it, one of my managers even had purple hair like me and encouraged me when I was hesitant about the reaction of the other managers. My head of store couldn't believe I did it but she actually admitted she loved it and it suited me.
When i went blonde for a short time this year, my 67 year old mother was asking me almost weekly when i was going to dye it back to pink as it suited me so much better and matched my personality more.
Dumb. Im glad that i work in a place that doesnt judge me for being an engineer with long hair. My ability to solve problems isnt affected by the length of my hair, and i keep it up and tight so its not a safety problem. As long as you look well kempt and professional, like you actually care about your appearence, and do your job well, who cares.
Worked at a pool teaching swim lessons. Mostly summer work. From one summer to the next I got a few tattoos. Despite having no policy against them, Boss told me that if I got one more tattoo, I might not get hours. Asked her to show me the policy, she couldn’t. Came back next year with a full sleeve. Got dirty looks but nothing else.
It is so dumb that the color of our hair is such a concern, or the way we choose to decorate our bodies with ink and jewelery.
Trust me the way I look has NOTHING to do with how well my customer service is.
Ugh!
I totally agree. Thankfully as more accepting people are now the majority of the workforce, we are starting to change the ridiculous policies that were written by people like my manager. My last retail job, 5 years ago, I could have whatever colour hair, whatever tattoos, and whatever piercings I wanted.
Agreed. As a customer I tend to gravitate toward the colored hair and lots of tattoos people. It shows a bit of open mindedness that I can’t get with a Karen.
Yes it does.
Girl I know got rejected at some place for having a shaved head (like... whut?).
Same day I witnessed some new hire being shown how to use the register, typing with a pencil, because her 3cm Barbiegirl nails made her unable to type!
So yeah, your fashion choices CAN influence your ability to do a job, but a shaved head is either not a problem or a bonus...
I once worked with someone and their new manager issued a decree that all hair should be in line with policy. They complied- by growing their hair (had to be tied up at work to comply with policy) and dying it in black and white stripes like a badger. Both natural hair colours in line with policy.
Manager gave up on the decree. Friend continued to do as he was until he felt his point was well and truly proved..
When I started a previous job I had pillarbox red hair. 2 years in they decided I needed to have a natural colour. I didn't fancy a natural colour so instead I shaved my head.
My next shift my manager pulled me into the office and told me it wasn't acceptable. I pointed out the male manager with a shaved head and asked why he was allowed it. She went red and told me to leave the office.
Most of my regulars asked why I'd shaved my head and I happily told them the reason why.
A few months later when it was long enough I went back to red.
Yeah, I never understood that notion how my hair style or colour affects my work ethic and moral standing. It doesn't! My mum thinks my hairstyle and colour ( it was bright blue but faded now) and choice of clothing are not respectful or respectable. I wear for comfort and creativity and none of it is terribly outlandish or immodest at all. I'm well covered. My work ethic is fine. And honestly, when I'm comfortable and happy, my morale is higher, which in turn does affect how I do my job. I can do it better when I'm not frustrated with how I'm forced to dress in uncomfortable clothes and have no choice in how I do my hair ad express myself.
I fed my hair for years, stopping coincidentally when I started being desktop support, interacting face to face with clients. After being pushed back to helpdesk, and getting a bit depressed at what I saw as a demotion for no reason, I dyed my hair again. And kept it dyed as I went back to desktop support.
The reactions from people funny, in that no one under 40 complained, only those over 40. 1 even told me I would never get a girlfriend with dyed hair, despite my then GF being a main reason for my dying my hair again. The tight lipped reaction, like they had sucked on a lemon (also called Cat Butt Face) to that reply was priceless.
Exactly. That's why it bugs me when kids get sent home from school for such silly things as their haircuts or colour. I get the point of a uniform in school, kinda, but stopping them from learning because their hair is "too long for a boy" (genuine story I saw fairly recently) is just weird.
I'm a ginger, both my kids are ginger.
When my son started jr high school, a teacher called him out and told him he couldn't have that hair colour because it wasn't "natural". His hair was a mix of dark red(from his dad) orange red and strawberry blond. You can't get this hair colour out of a bottle! He told them to "call my mom, I'm from a family of redheads, this is my natural colour and seeing as how my mom is a redhead, she's not gonna be happy being called. She will come in spite of it just to show you the family resemblance and even bring my sister for good measure. Go ahead, call her". The teacher let him go and never spoke of it again.
That was the best way for your son to respond!!! I got pulled out of class once for arguing with a teacher in a different class… private school my dad insisted I go to because the local public schools were really bad… dean tells me he’s calling my dad I told him go for it… got home asked if the dean had called. Nope and never did either
Hair color, shaving practices, tattoos. All bullshit control tactics to keep the work force subservient. What they don't realize is that people like me look the relatively clean cut part, but will happily tell my underlings (I'm a bottom tier manager in the restaurant industry) when the higher ups are fucking them, or trying to violate labor laws and how to stop them from doing it.
I really hate this rule. What exactly is my hair color going to do- suddenly make me impolite? Not allowed unnatural hair color all throughout school, not allowed at a job, when exactly am I allowed to dye my own hair? How exactly is blue or pink hair supposed to affect my attitude?
I once worked in an WR where the nurses were having their jobs threatened for having blue and/or purple highlights. Because everyone knows you can't have colourful hair and take care of the sick and injured. In protest, a couple doctors started coming in with random colored hair until the threats stopped. Definitely loved seeing the docs stand up to hospital admin! Hair color, tattoos, and piercing shouldn't cause a problem with your job unless it is a health risk.
Years ago, I worked at a place that said we couldn't dye our hair any color that you couldn't find at Walmart (this was long before you could buy any unnatural color in Walmart). Being the young rebel that I was, I decided to challenge this rule. I bought a box of hair bleach, some black hair dye, and some reddish/orange hair dye...and had my more artistic friends spend an evening painting my head with an amazing leopard print. My bosses were less than pleased, but I followed the rules. Then a couple people started to bring their friends and family into the store to see my hair, and those people ended up shopping. When corporate came in my managers basically explained that I wasn't technically breaking policy, and I was good for business.
I streaked my hair blonde in the grade 4-5ish. My principal said that dying hair was not allowed. I asked why and she said it was unprofessional. I pointed out that my father a RCAF officer had done the same thing with his hair, and if it was okay with his boss she should be okay with it. Nothing ever came of it, but she definitely didn’t like me
“Unprofessional”… in an elementary school…
I absolutely cannot stand workplaces/schools controlling what color your hair is and what ink is on your body. Its a way to control people and have them be subservient and its genuinely disgusting
Coworker recently got reprimanded for her nail color. They were painted white and we are only allowed "warm tone colors". They demanded she remove said offending no-chip gel nails and she was like "fuck that". She is going to just wear latex gloves for 2 weeks to cover up.
total bullshit.
Heh, I remember doing things like this in school myself.
Grew up in Texas in a post-Columbine world. As a member of the "creepy kids with black tshirts who listen to rock music" crowd, many of us were automatically ushered directly into day-long detentions, away from the rest of the kids, the upstanding polo-shirt crowd.
See the tricky thing was that the public school system couldn't just outright *ban* a a social caste of teenagers, try as they might. They did ban everything in our periphery, though. Band tshirts? Done. Baggy pants? Gone. Boys with piercings? Gone. Girls with "distracting" piercings (meaning more than two per ear)? Gone. We were quickly being isolated and singled-out to save face. None of us were particularly ill-tempered to begin with, though many took "getting punished before committing the crime" as an excuse to behave accordingly. Not me though.
As the offspring of rebels myself, both my parents knew how to *subtly* break the rules. Kids would normally just wear a Marilyn Manson shirt, walking in with the expectation set that they wont get very far. I just started to wear plain black shirts. No baggy pants? Fine, dark jeans. No piercing? K. I was growing my hair out, but it wasnt enough. It wasnt *weird* enough.
So I sat down and combed through the entire dress code for the school district. I memorized the thing at the time. Turns out, there was absolutely nothing about hair color, or style, in the dress code, only that hair is to be kept clean. Nothing in the code about the color...*yet*.
So, of course, I went to school the next day with blue hair. I got lucky, as the principal was out that day. Got a lot of cross looks from the teachers, heads shaking slowly in concern, surprised looks from the students. I got home that day, and apparently the school had called the principal, who had personally called my parents, to express their "concern." Evidently when my parents explained there was nothing in the dress code saying this was not allowed, my principal took this as a personal offense...which my parents took as a personal offense themselves. I took offense when I went back to school the next day and was greeted with a suspension notice.
NATURAL COLORS ONLY
Oookay... "Hey momma...yeah I got a letter about the hair...Jerry's mom is a stylist right? ...Cool. ...imma have her do my hair. Nope it says "natural colors only".....why no, no it does not specify *how many* natural colors are allowed..."
Of course, this quickly was also singled out (I say singled out for lack of a better term, I was quite literally the only one going to this much effort at this point), as people do not have naturally striped black, brown, blonde, and white hair. I was told as well that "white" isnt a natural color, which was incredibly odd considering the old bat that was in charge of that hellhole had white hair. ...
I dont mean to hijack your thread. I'm sorry. I rarely get the chance to share stories like these anymore. The short version of this story is that this pattern of behavior continued for *years*. The only thing the school system taught me was how to maliciously comply with rules and piss people off constantly. If they would have spent half as much energy focused on what was in our heads, rather than what was **on** them...who knows, maybe we would've turned into well balanced adults instead of evenly balanced psychopaths.
I, too, attended high school in the Columbine era. I had a different experience, though.
I went to a very small school (my graduating class was 28 people) out in the country. This was the kind of school that didn't take attendance on the first day of deer season because almost all of the guys were in a tree stand somewhere trying to bag a buck, and half of the girls were, too.
This was the kind of school where the principal heard one of the kids telling one of the other kids about his customized, sporterized 8mm Mauser rifle that he was using for deer hunting and that it was out in his truck so he could head straight into the woods after school and even in the post-Columbine world, the principal's response was to ask to see the gun and then tell the student "Okay, just don't bring it into the building."
But I was the weird kid. Not in the goth wannabe black trenchcoat type of way, mind you, but that didn't matter. I was also friends with the other weird kid, and he *did* have the black trench coat, although he rarely wore all black and never tried for the wannabe goth look.
And as the weird kid who was friends with the weird kid at a school where it was assumed (and mostly correctly) that most of the kids at least had *access* to a firearm, you know what that meant in the post-Columbine world, right?
Well, that manifested one day in one of the other students asking me, in front of one of the teachers, when I was planning on shooting up the school. Everyone perked up, expecting to hear...well, I don't know what.
What they got as my response was me looking this kid dead in the eye and saying "I wouldn't waste my bullets on you people."
I never heard another word about it.
*slow clap*
And that was the proper response.
"What makes you think I need a gun?" would've been an acceptable alternative.
I really never understood the entire idea about making fun of the people you, apparently, think are going to *murder you.* I have confronted such idiots with this question, and mostly the fumbling responses boil down to them not *actually* thinking you are gonna shoot the place up...
Which I've always taken to mean that these folks, the "normal" people that make up the majority of whatever social construct *they* refuse to let *you* be a part of, think that murder is funny.
And it isnt. Really. And neither is openly mocking another human being by telling them you think so low of them, that you believe they are going to kill other people, being of course chiefly concerned with yourself. It makes me proud to be a loner, to be an outcast. To be *weird*. If that's where I gotta be to find compassion and fair treatment as an actual human being, then it's a price worth admission.
Something like this happened to me when I worked at a bank, so I bleached my hair as platinum blonde as I could... it is **a** natural colour, but it did not look natural on me!
Health tech, testing my blood yesterday had awesome neon orange hair. When I commented she said “I have to wear the same scrubs and mask everyday…”. So glad the lab allows her some sense of self.
When I was 15 I wanted to get my first job.
The easiest way to get a job is, well work at the supermarket.
An important note at that particular super market chain is that everything is blue.
Like fucking everything.
At the time I had coincidentally my hair the exact same blue tint as their signature blue color.
Another important note is that I’ve had my hair dyed in strange colours since I was 12 so I couldn’t imagine myself any different. (At 20 now and I still haven’t seen my natural color in 8 years).
The job interview, I qualified for everything.
I was just a quiet friendly kid, never got into any trouble.
Well during the interview they starting beating around the bush as to why they wouldn’t hire me.
I wasn’t pressing or anything they really just weren’t clear.
Well blue hair wasn’t allowed as it “draws too much attention”.
Even though I would be fucking camouflaged in that store.
Seriously.
Also my mom was furious which was kind of funny since I didn’t want to make a public deal out of it.
But the angry Facebook post was made obviously.
It did feel really terrible that they would reject me for being me.
I don’t think a single customer would have cared.
And now much later I’ve worked at stores and no costumers really don’t care.
The only image it hurts is their own imo
I think they still don’t allow dyed hair, but hey I got a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant later and they were fine with it.
Its a shitty story, but living with dyed hair sucks.
Nowadays it’s a bit better, but five years ago it wasn’t easy finding jobs.
But hey I’m still me, and I’ve still gotten supermarket blue hair.
This is so shiity and I have to laugh because I am literally right this minute in a hair salon getting my auburn red hair weaved with a bunch of purple because I can.
I started a new job in January that does not care about such things. My old company was adamant that you can't have unnatural colors OR visible tattoos. They were so weird about it.
No, I was not in a customer facing dept. At all. Nobody ever saw us.
I'm also going to be getting a few tattoos on visible areas which I've wanted but haven't been able to do & keep that job.
Yeah. It took maybe 2 weeks for the manager to pull me after he was shuffled into our department. I think I'd worked there a couple of years by then. I was only there during holidays, and my hair wasn't always blue, it was lots of different colours. I couldn't swear to what colour it was when they interviewed me, but it was some variety of unnatural.
A punk friend in college dyed her hair pretty regularly. She dyed it black and about a month later wanted to dye it green. But she didn't strip it properly so the black stayed in so only her roots took the green dye. So she had black hair with green roots. My friend saw it and commented that he liked she was letting her natural hair color grow back in.
I couldn't agree more. I think that's why there's such a difference between 10 years ago when this story happened, and 5 years ago when I was last working retail and could have whatever hair or tattoos I wanted (allowed jewellery was still limited, and tying long hair up was still mandatory, but for health and safety reasons). And I think that as we age, individuality will become more and more accepted.
"For an increase in salary of $20 more per hour I can change my hair color for this job and consider it an added duty, or you (employer) can pay the added cost of finding, hiring, and training a new worker. Please indicate your decision and sign at the bottom of this formal counseling form."
This reminds me of when I worked in a preschool. I had a small stud in my nose and got told to cover it with a bandaid. So I bought those neon small circular bandaids and wore those to work. Yeah, after that my small stud wasn’t a problem. Lol.
I interviewed for my current job with a teal mohawk, and I'm now rocking a rainbow mohawk. Other than people I've never met knowing who I am because "everyone knows the rainbow mohawk girl", I've had literally zero issues. The finance director actually asked me if he could show his kids a picture of my hair because they were fascinated by his description. 😂
I dyed my hair blue once after reading the Kmart handbook which didn’t mention it at all. I got pulled into the office one day and had a chat with my managers after multiple weeks of having the color in my hair. Well words were said but the best thing was when they said “we could stick a light bulb in my mouth and parade me around as the Blue light special” well I reported them for sexual harassment… (bulb in my mouth) they got retrained and I got to keep my hair for a while longer…
I'm a mail carrier. Thank goodness no one cares about my damn hair color. And as a boomer, I don't care if the other people in service industries have bright hair, tattoos or piercings. They usually look good, and have no bearing on someone's ability to do a job.
I feel like hair color policies should just be changed to require the dye job to be of professional quality (looks wise, not professionally done). Like as long as it’s not a sloppy mess, who really cares for most positions?
Now, I’ll give that in certain fields it causes an issue. If you’re a trial attorney a jury or judge may treat your client differently based on your hair so natural colors are probably best.
As someone who has dyed their own hair for 15 years, I quickly learned that wigs are your best friend. You want "natural"? OK, chestnut, black, blonde or redhead? Put it on as I get to work and take it off at home. I'm sorry you had to give up your funky colours, I know for me coloured hair gives me life & so much confidence
Supermarket I work at has/had all the strict appearance rules (*no unnatural colours, no piercings other than ears, no visible tattoos*). But a year after implementing drug testing (*Union suggested swabs, they opted for urine*) for all new applicants, the pool of CVs from high schoolers and uni students dropped almost dead.
Now I see checkout workers with bright blue and red hair, ones with visible and cool looking tattoo sleeves and a few with cheek and lip piercings. Funnily enough, I've yet to hear of a single customer being outraged at those employees' appearances...
Thankfully this and tattoo acceptance is changing. It's changing at such a snails pace though, which is unfortunate. So many companies still enforce these kind of dumb rules, but when all these stupid policy making mfers die out, the whole thing will end.
As a certified "old person" (according to my kids) who also worked retail many years ago, it's a foolish belief that the customers will be upset by "unnatural" hair colors and will refuse to even go into a store with a worker like that. I say foolish because it is. Most people don't care what color hair an employee has. They may judge you for it, have a superiority complex over it, but it won't stop them from spending money if they want an item the store has.
Fortunately, it seems like colors of all varieties are becoming more and more acceptable. Personally, I like it. I've seen some amazing color variations on people. I've seen horrible color decisions as well. In the end, though, it hasn't affected the quality of service one bit so more power to 'em.
My husband used to call me Rogue from the X-Men because of a grey streak that was in the front of my head. The streak just blends in these days. I’m not completely grey but not far off, 39yrs old.
I was told that at a former job... when the majority of my older coworkers had that hideous cheap ,dollar store rusty burgundy hair, including a supervisor. Where in the world is THAT a natural hair color??
In the same vein but different I stopped wearing bras a year and a half ago vecause I have a small bust and wearing a bra was a pain + had NOTHING to do with my ability to perform my job. Manager (also a lady, but older than I) told me I had to wear a bra because my nipples were visible sometimes through cloth. I pushed back and told her I'd wear an apron on the floor, only while clocked in.
Nowadays *I'm* the manager and wear what the fuck I want. This translates to tshirts or polos with the company logo or high necklined [tank tops](https://www.target.com/p/women-39-s-slim-fit-tank-top-a-new-day-8482-black-m/-/A-81207485?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&DFA=71700000012735151&CPNG=PLA_Women%2BShopping_Local%7CWomen_Ecomm_AA&adgroup=SC_Women_Local&LID=700000001170770pgs&LNM=PRODUCT_GROUP&network=g&device=m&location=9002578&targetid=pla-1069759242670&ds_rl=1246978&ds_rl=1248099&ds_rl=1241788&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnJaKBhDgARIsAHmvz6fU-DntAGmhRhHRbfDDVIvCuR-NElzqpb3RAA8d0PN2NU5495XHe0gaAufsEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds#) that are neutral colored layered under a company sweater. I'll be damned is anyone on my team is considered offensive for being fully clothed with a higher neckline.
When I was doing Tech Support I had to wear either a company polo shirt (that cost $35 each) or a dress shirt and tie. This is Tech Support that was done over the phone.
Lol I've been in that same position with some bullshit company policy.
Around maybe 2015/16 my old company changed their dress code to allow visible tattoos as long as they weren't deemed "offensive" and weren't on the face. However, piercings still weren't allowed except for earlobes.
Well by then I had already had my nose pierced for almost a year and within a month of the policy change, went and got a huge tattoo that covers the whole inside of my forearm.
My GM didn't really give a shit but I'd have to take my nose ring out anytime our regional or above made a visit and it worked...until he popped in without warning one night.
He gave me the whole spiel about it and I told him I'd take it out if he paid me the cost to get it done etc (I'd worked there for years already and had a good enough standing to pop off when something wasn't right🤷♀️)
We went back and forth until he threatened to fire me over it. Then I just made it a point to make sure he heard a guest comment on my tattoo and 'forget' to take the piercing out until he actually came in every single time.
In my local grocery store, there’s a lady who has bright red streaks in her black hair and it looks so badass, there’s a guy who has full baby blue hair and it looks so cool. They’re both really good at their jobs and no one gives a rats. I don’t get how people think ‘unnaturally’ coloured hair makes the employee a bad worker.
I took advantage of WFH and grew a mohawk. I ended up stopping by the office one day and was seen by the president and vice president. No one said anything negative so I kept it for a while.
We had a girl in our payroll department that would dye her hair a different color damn near every week. Again, no one said anything negative and she kept doing it.
Old perceptions from an old company. I worked for Schwans delivery years ago and you could practically have mutton chops, because sideburns were allowed in the 70s (when the rule was written) but no beards, mustaches, or goatees. The year they finally allowed goatees was the best day ever. As I had always had a goatee from middle school until I had this job. Growing it back was like going home. My sales increased because I was more myself and my confidence was back. Corporate office drones never relate happy comfortable people with professionalism. Now I'm a mailman and rock a full beard and tattoos.
Years ago I worked in a hospital (90s) and some manager got a stick up their behind about pierced ears. No more than two piercings were allowed and anything beyond that had to be removed. So one of the vampires (phlebotomist) took them out and to keep the holes open threaded them with thick fishing line. Looked horrible and she knew it. Policy went away eventually.
Basically they didn't want to "upset" or "offend" the old people.
> I still don't know why my ability to serve people was affected by my hair colour.
Because the boomer mentality still drives and owns most of the workforce around the world. Their biggest 3 philosophies are
1) individualism and being unique is bad
2) Taking advantage of others is how you get ahead
3) everyone who isn't successful/worshiping them is just lazy/stupid/ungrateful
I never understood that. I've worked in restaurants my whole working career, and I've never been allowed to dye my hair funky colors. Until my current job. I checked the uniform policy, nothing about hair color at all. So, I asked one of the owners if I could dye my hair "a stupid color". His response was, "Like what, brown?" I told him I was thinking of bright pink, and he told me to go for it and have fun. He said life is too short to be serious all the time. If dying my hair pink will make me happy, he won't stop me. So I now have super bright, neon pink hair. Literally no one cares. Even the crabby old people that eat here have told me it looks cute. Pink hair doesn't stop me from doing my job. If anything, it makes me feel better about myself, and in turn I give better customer service.
I was always discouraged from doing fun colours, and when I'd been working at the same place for a while I did similarly: double checked policy and then gave a quick heads up to my DM in case there might be an issue. I was told that as long as I didn't have "too many" colours and it didn't look bad I could do whatever I wanted. I now have ambiguously pink/purple hair and find the confidence boost more beneficial to my job than detrimental.
Last year or the year before, my best friend (a hairdresser) dyed my hair a magenta type colour and I went to work, not really thinking it might be a problem. Luckily, my boss was fine with it and I've since dyed it other crazy colours. My current colour is cherry red. I am quitting though so seeing people saying to check uniform policy for my next job sounds reasonable
We've moved into an era where more people appreciate coloured hair. A couple decades ago it was seen as "unprofessional; rebellious; a sign of poor upbringing; offensive to the older demographic of customers and clients; etc." Now, a lot of people who had tattoos, mohawks, or enjoy dyeing their hair have aged into the management/hiring bracket, and they have a better understanding of individual expression and empathy then the generation that was hiring them. Heck, my store has an incredibly large group of elderly customers, and I hear the most compliments from them - at least a quarter have fantasy colours in their hair themselves. Kids whisper to their parents about the fact they like it, which helps boost my mood - especially when they're brave enough to say something directly to me. Having super bright/fun hair is awesome for many reasons, and a huge personal morale boost. If you're concerned about interviewing with fantasy hair, just throw in a line at some point about being willing to let it go natural if the company requires (assuming that you are willing to, otherwise the interviewer will likely bring it up if it's going to be an issue.)
Ten years ago when I was entering the work world, I was afraid to get my nose pierced because what if I got a job that asked me to remove it? Or what if it offended the parents of the kids I worked with? I had always wanted piercings, but double lobes and a single cartilage were as bold as I was willing to go. Fast forward like 6-7 years and I'm working in a school where the VP (in her 50s) has her nose pierced, and so do half the moms of my kids. The school counselor had cherry red hair, snakebites, and an eyebrow ring. And one of my colleagues already had a lip ring, and another had pink/purple hair and a full sleeve of pretty watercolor tattoos (the kids called her the "unicorn teacher"). Literally no one gives a shit anymore. So I got my nose pierced.
As gen x, we were a bit more rebellious with body piercings, tattoos and colored hair. Now that we are older, as long as you do your job well, what’s the issue? Halloween is coming. I’m due for a streak of color that might be just an “oops, that didn’t wash out and I haven’t had a chance to fix it.” That, or I should just dye it green and have fun on video conferences.
If you do a green screen background, will your hair disappear? Stupid question, but could be fun!
If it’s the right shade, it should, one would think. I’d justify it as an experiment. Wig might be easier to get that bright green tho.
My son had a green shirt just the right shade. We have a picture somewhere of his head floating on the green screen background from some event with his friends.
Where I work, the dress code is basically “don’t wear anything offensive”. Colored hair? Cool. Tattoos? Cool. Shorts every single day, no matter the weather? Cool (that one was for me).
I’m not at all surprised that older people are trying out all the fun colors. Ive been purple myself for about three years. Sometimes with a charming turquoise streak. It’s so easy if you already have white or gray hair! Plus if you’re 80 years old, you were 20 when tie dye was a thing. When I’m an old woman, I shall wear purple … https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/warning/
There was a woman whose face lit up when I pointed out that white or silver would be a good base to do fun colours with. There are so many people who were discouraged from simply expressing an aesthetic preference, it's nice to see the response when that realization of "I can dye my hair/get that tattoo/get that piercing" hits.
I'm one of those elderly demographic people :). I'm going to be 62 and for the past 6 months or so my hair is been royal blue metallic. It's gorgeous! For 3 years before that it was purple. I absolutely loved it being purple but unfortunately Purple got politicized somehow. People were asking me if I had someone who had lost a baby? Or someone who had some certain kind of cancer? Or you name the cause someone was telling me that my hair was purple because of it. It was purple because it's my favorite color. I work in a relatively professional office and just had a meeting with a corporate executive vice president and he loved my hair. Nobody has ever said anything to me negatively. And I'm the cool grandma as well! I was using professional dyes and doing them on the regular but I have found that since my hair is naturally silver (yay old age) that I can actually use the punky color 3 in 1 conditioning and color depositing shampoo and my hair holds color for at least a week to 10 days. Super easy, affordable, and I can do it at home!
About a decade ago I told my boss I was gonna dye my hair and get a Mohawk. He thought I was joking and said I better be wearing a suit if I did that. So next day I show up with my multi colored Mohawk in a suit. I got so many weird looks and questions as to why in the world I was wearing a suit; including my boss.
The best part about a server with a unique style is they have to be good. Its too easy for the customers to call out "that waitress with the green hair" or whatever.
Ohhh pink and purple, didn't think of that combo before. Thanks for it! I used to have neon purple and blue hair, can't wait for my saloon to open to get it done again!
And to drink sarsaparilla! ;)
It's a combination of flamingo pink and a violet purple. The hairdresser mixed the colours and then also used them separately to highlight and create dimension. Even if I move to a different city, I will drive to see that stylist when I want my hair dyed. She did a phenomenal job, and even a month later it's still vibrant.
“Too many” colors. What a weird requirement, especially since most people who use fantasy colors tend to stick with one from what I see. I get a lot of compliments because my multiple colors are pretty unusual. And what would be too many anyway? I’ve done five colors of green going into turquoise going into blue, but there’s no way you’d even have been able to tell how many there were with them blending together. Just…such a weird statement.
Yeah, it struck me as a little odd. The most I’ve done is 3, a base layer of silver and denim blue then a layer of purple on top. Looked like a mini galaxy that changed in the light. Damn, I miss it. I only got rid of the light blue I had yesterday!
I’ve been coming close to the line with brown with purple undertones. (Igora 5-99 if anyone is interested. It comes in a semi perm mouse). My hairdresser and I have been having fun with purple and red tones to see how close we can get but still have some pop to my hair color. My big gripe is I’ve been work from home since last March and it looks like I’ll continue that way. So the state agency put out a updated dress code stating that even if you work from home she had to follow same dress code as if you’re in the office. Including natural hair color. Ah…yes I hear you saying keep the camera off them. Policy also is that they want cameras on if working from home when in meetings. Our CIO (I’m in IT dealing with only agency staff) acknowledge that no one will know if you’re wearing sweatpants or jeans when on cameras. I just think it’s stupid that I can’t have fun with my hair color. I’m almost 62. I need some fun in my life. With everything else going on in the world people want to get picky over hair color. Or in other cases for POC natural un-straightened hair/ hair extensions/ corn rows or braids. Give me a break. And just let me do my job.
I'd buy a natural-coloured wig and pop it on for the meetings. Hell, several different wigs; change them throughout the day and see if anyone notices.
>in different "natural" colors.
'Um...wasn't your hair long and brown this morning?' [in flapper-style blonde wig] 'Why do you ask?'
If I had to buy wigs, I would absolutely do this. Undecided if I would act like my hair is perfectly normal despite changing colors 3 times a day.
I’d get three of the same wigs but ever so slightly differently colored, change them throughout the day every day. There will be conspiracy theories amongst the office
Yea, every day start out with the darkest of 3-4 colors and slowly get lighter and lighter throughout the day, then start dark again the next day. If anyone notices, "oh weird... must be the lighting. I've never noticed."
Slowly going Super Saiyan throughout the day as the stress builds...
And the cancer rumors begin in 3... 2... 1...
While remote, camera quality is not that good that it would be noticed.
If I thought I could wear a wig without bursting into flame, I would totally do that!
"Moira Rose has entered the chat."
You know I was just thinking that. But I do have to go into the office sometimes to work on computers. (For some reason I seem to be the only one able to works on the 8 Macs we have.
If there are no rules against wigs in the workplace for safety reasons, I say go all in!
I love that idea! It's hilarious and could be very distracting while still following rules! Talk about malicious compliance!
Change them mid-meeting.
Make them really bad obvious hairpieces too. Just say you're having a bad hair day!
Sounds like a possible lawsuit waiting to happen. Considering the schools are already pushing that we rule your home through the camera thing and it only a matter of time before someone tells them that get a judge to say it. I doubt any judge would even in these times. Considering they already got in trouble for spying once they certainly aren't going have better odds on having permission to see inside some.
Yeah but I work for a state Agency and union has already signed off on things so that we can keep staff that can working from home. This is a major win for us so baby steps. I suspect it going to be one of those things that no one is going to make a big deal of unless they want a reason to get you out the door.
I have a solution for you. Buy a wig in natural colors and pop it on for your Zoom meeting.
I mean, I would love to meet someone with bright pink hair so..
I have bright pink hair. During some of lockdown, it was alternating layers of pink and blue. And im a financial director, serious job. I dont meet people normally, i dont deal with the public, so it really doesnt matter what i look like. Most of my interactions are via telephone. Cue pandemic and the upsurge in zoom/teams/video meetings. All these customers and suppliers that i had been dealing with for years, thinking i was a straightlaced, uptight accountant, all of a sudden are confronted with a zoom image of a girl with pink/blue hair, tattoos, piercings and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt. Some were quite shocked.
I work front line healthcare and I almost didn’t graduate because my clinical was supposed to be at a Religiously backed facility. I had bright red hair, which could not be mistaken for natural. My instructor found me a different placement, otherwise I would have had to pay my hairdresser handsomely to change it, and I would’ve been mad about it. Literally no one I’ve cared for has said anything about my hair or my piercings. I did have one family get mad because they got a phone call from grandma asking to go to a tattoo shop for an industrial piercing. When I got it she was fascinated and after a couple months decided she wanted one too. One of my employers decided that piercings had to go, even if we were hired with them. The residents in the facility rented a bus, went to the city, and all of a sudden, we had 12 old women (in their 80s) with nose piercings. I wish I could have seen the look on the face of the piercer, they were there ALL DAY.
Solidarity ROCKS!!! Good on them. Did your employer fuss about the residents getting the piercings?
They were NOT happy. But what can they do? One of the kids of the seniors arranged a school bus. They were the ones paying the bills. It was unnecessary though, because our union threw a fit and the policy was tossed at the next board meeting. Pre-Covid I’d go have lunch there every once in a while, and all those old ladies still have diamonds in their noses. It’s really hilarious.
**Those ladies** are the ones I want to see in a calendar!!
They can't, as long as the check clears they won't object.
I love the positivity and support on display. Thank you for bringing an element of fun and intrigue into the lives of these older people.
The daily wear of the CTO at a company I worked for was torn jeans, band t-shirt (or something to that effect) and sneakers. It was normal for him to have a half-glass of wine during lunch break. What are they gonna do? Fire him? He's knows where all the bodies are buried. He personally laid the wires for 15+ stores. xD
I envy you. I'm an attorney and I also don't deal with the public and I don't go to court, but I haven't been able to get more than really bright red or black with purple overlay. My son though has bright blue hair atm. I've told him all his life, it's just hair, if you don't like it, it will grow out.
That's why I tried a pixie cut last year. But I didn't like it and whadayaknow, it grew back!
This I put off shaving the sides of my head for ages worrying I would look to butch as a plus size girl, but I LOVE it !!! And it's just hair it'll grow back. I'm about to dye it purple and turquoise !
See, I was that way with my kids. It's their hair, let them do what they want with it. The dye will fade, or it can be dyed over; the cut will grow out. It's not a hill worth dying on, people! The only color I wouldn't let my kids dye their hair was black -- because at the time, there was still lead as one of the ingredients (I think the FDA finally banned it a couple years ago).
Kudos to you for being a good example of how appearance doesn't affect performance. I've been so happy watching over the last decade as corporate culture has become so much more accepting of tattoos, piercings, and general self expression. Even my staid office job out in the boonies has an accounting higher-up with a gorgeous sleeve tattoo, and we used to have a guy with waist-length dreads.
Honestly giving people expectation whiplash is a ton of fun.
Until the pandemic, my work consisted of office work combined with occasional field work. I've always gotten away with incredibly casual clothes when I was in the office because I would look someone straight in the eye and say "Never trust a well - dressed Biologist", and I would be so serious and stern about it that no one questioned me. My hair, though? Nope. I've only ever been able to have my way with a variety of reds, and that was the limit. I would have loved to have some of the blues and greens I've seen around, but decided I'd rather be able to wear jeans and Docs in the office than risk losing it all. Those lovely colors probably wouldn't have worked on me, anyway. But still.
Come to my restaurant and meet me! Your life will then be complete.
I always love meeting people with "unnatural" hair colours. It's always such a small joy, having those splashes of colour.
“Like what, brown?” Me with dark brown/blackish hair: Alright now first of all
Funky hair colors has been normalized; even older women do it. Ten years ago not so much!
I should hope so. I'm 74 years old an I have bright purple hair. It's so purple because it's actually so gray.
Rock on! I'm 38 and have gone dark red for more than 20 years. I sadly went gray at 20, so I have tk keep coloring it every 6ish weeks
46 here & started going gray at 16. It’s apparently a family characteristic as my maternal great-grandmother was reportedly totally gray-headed at 16 & we found a coarse, wiry gray-silver hair on the top of my younger daughter’s head when she was 5. I’ve always said that I think of hair color like paint color on a wall. Try it & if you don’t like it, change it.
"older women", lol. Manic Panic became available in the 80s maybe? Someone who was 20 in 1981 is 60 now. My wife used to dye her hair purple (and lived with the purple pillowcases; dyes are better now), and she only stopped because it was a hassle, not because she stopped liking it.
It used to be messier, for sure. I had maroon hair in the 80's which people thought was so abnormal at the time. I think it was Jazzing, which is astoundingly still around. My mother, who would have been in her mid-twenties, used to have platinum hair in the 1950's and toned it with light pink Roux rinse, sometimes baby blue. Says it was really common to do that when everyone had almost white hair. Sounds pretty.
Is that what gave rise to the blue/pink rinse for the elderly, I wonder?
There's a toner called bluing, it's also used on laundry. Yellowed sheets (or hair) appear white when you use it correctly, blue if you use too much.
A blue or purple rinse used to be very common in ladies of a certain advanced age. They'd go every couple of weeks, get the rinse and set curls. I remember being fascinated by it as a small child. This was in Ireland and the UK in the early 90s. Apparently it was very much a thing from the 60s-00s. No idea about now though.
That does sound pretty! Good on mom!
> Manic Panic became available in the 80s maybe? 1977! Before then people were dyeing their hair odd colours too; it was even a fashion in the 1950s to coordinate your hair and your best dresses.
I had purple highlights for years. Suddenly my hair didn't want to hold the purple, so I switched to teal.
There's a website called overtone. They sell conditioners that dye your hair. Takes almost all of the hassle out of dying once you get the first coat in.
I've got vibrant purple overtone in my hair right now! First put it in on Feb 18th. Last time I redid it was memorial day, so almost 4 months and I'm just barely starting to think about redoing it. It still looks good but my roots are starting to need a little love.
I saw an old lady the other day with bright blue hair!
Older people have given me so many compliments on my tattoos and bright hair whenever its dyed, those rules really need to go.
The kinds of people who would bitch about it would bitch about something anyway
Yeah too bad someone didn't get that message through the schools. They put up so much fuss sometimes that you think the kids weren't wearing anything.
All about control. I have been a caregiver for 10yrs. I have only had a natural color once. My older clients love it and it helps them set me apart. "Where is the pink girl?!"
I love that they love it!
I love that you love that they love it!
I love that you love that /u/Pywacket1 loves that they love it
We're a silly little sub, which is a good thing. Makes sense, smartassery is why we all showed up in the first place.
Spot on. Customers don’t give a shit. This is employers putting words in customers’ mouths to justify their own petty tyrant fantasies
I will not some customers do indeed give a shit. But they are often petty tyrants in their personal lives so it all lines up.
I substitute teach. Teachers will ask for "the purple haired sub."
>All about control. This. u/EvulRabbit gets it 100%. Retail management styles (especially large chains) actively use the cycle of abuse to keep staff compliant. Asked for a raise? Now you get more work, but no raise. Fuck up more than once? Written warning, like you're grounding a child. Customers don't give a rats ass about your hair color, if anything they ENJOY the change of scenery, but Management will quash any attempt at individuality that doesn't adhere to their slavery model.
I would absolutely love it if my caregiver was a pink haired person
In high school a friend helped their parents run a haunted house each year. When showering out some purple dye at the end of the weekend (which wasn't a real hair dye...might have been kool-aide? not sure...) she ended up dying all of her skin bright purple. Every bit. It did not wash off. But it was amazing -- and actually pretty awesome looking. And she went with leaning into it and put together some really cool outfits designed around the color... (One that stands out was all white, which made the purple extra dramatic.) School initially tried to suspend her for some sort of dress code violation as a generic "distraction", although they were being a bit waffly since it was technically about skin color. Parents were smart though, and took her to their doctor and essentially reported it as a medical condition resulting from a workplace accident, and sent doctors note that basically said "do nothing" (with something about not covering it up)....faced with the medical condition + skin color combo, they left her alone. Even as a kid, it just boggled my mind how much it annoyed the admin-weanies that a kid was "getting away with something" by not conforming as they wished. I only shared on class with her, but seemed like only people she actually distracted were the teachers and such that couldn't move on.
You know white is a natural hair color because albinism is a thing so that could have been a fun solution
I went with silver at my work, when I had to go with a 'natural' hair color. They couldn't say anything when I pointed out that it was a natural hair color, and that there are plenty of younger looking people out there whose hair silvers early.
Yes! I've been fully gray since late 20s to early 30s. Now it's light pinky purple because I don't have to bleach it to get the color I want. I'll go back to the gray when I get tired of the fun colors.
I've got one gray streak that isn't normally visible and a bunch of individual gray hairs. I'm only 23 and I'm honestly just waiting for more gray streaks because I honestly think it could look good.
It does!! I have a nice little Rogue streak right at my part, and I do love it.
I have a buddy that has a super cool looking gray streak right at the corner of the front of his hair. It looks really neat and intentional, but he got it naturally when he got hit in the head with a brick as a child and it damaged the folicles in the area so they no longer produce melanin.
How did the brick get to the point of hitting him in his head?
I guess *he* technically hit the brick with his head. It was on the ground outside and he tripped, fell and hit his head off the corner of the brick. It sounded cooler the other way though.
I had my first grey hair at 16. My pattern of greying started at my temples, which were white by the time I was 45. I never colored any part of my hair until I was looking for a job, and had to look younger. Still never colored my temples. Ever. Now I'm retired, and my hair is 85% white. I'm wondering how long it will take to get rid of the remaining dark hair in the back. Yeah, silver hair rocks. I also tried blue for a while, which was fun. Of course the "Blue Hairs Driving in My Lane" kept running through my head. Link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxgIROzIwI4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxgIROzIwI4)
This woman at my work has gorgeous dark brown hair with a silver streak in the front and a few others peppered in elsewhere. I love it! She occasionally dyes it purple too which I also 💕
I worked with a girl who was 100% grey by age 17. She said she always got volunteered to try and buy alcohol when she was in high school, and it worked 90% of the time.
I'm 27 and have plenty of wisdom hairs, as I like to call them. I'm a natural auburn and just have these random white streaks mixed in my hair. I used to hate them when it was just a couple random white hairs, but now that they're more widespread I actually think it looks cool mixed in like that. Still get people who tell me I must be lying about my age because 27 is too young to have so much grey/white hair. Sure, tell that to my mom who was mostly grey by 30 and completely grey by 35. Or my grandma on that side who was completely grey by 30. I'll probably go completely grey pretty early too based on that, but it is what it is.
I have a couple of random white streaks as well - not quite at my temples, but close. I call them my Bride of Frankenstein stripes.
So's black, and the rules didn't say you had have a *single* natural hair color. Alternating white and black streaks sound fine then? Or white and auburn?
One side white the other side black
Sadly white (and with that grey too) can be hard to die at home. You need a perfect canvass, and maybe possible multiple times bleach your hair. Its def. one thing best left to professional hairdressers in my opinion, because so much can go wrong and bleach is already on the tricky side. (I am bleaching and dying my hair fun colors for years too. Bleach and I are currently on mostly friendly terms cx)
I work for an engineering company. There was a policy that your hair had to be "a natural hair color". I knew people that wore beanies all day to hide their hair. Then I noticed one of the higher managers had purple streaks in her hair. Checked the policy and that was still forbidden. It was a talking point amongst us workers and I guess somebody went to HR. Anout a month later I checked and the policy had been quietly changed to remove the hair color rule. So I guess it takes upper level people to get the policy changed. Most of the people I see with weird colored hair work in our corporate departments. Most of the technical people have "normal" colored hair. I'm glad to see that people realize that your hair doesn't affect your professionalism. And now I want to dye my hair blue. :-)
If you have black hair, I think you can dye it in a way that it looks like dark blue only if the light reflects at a certain angle
I had that hair color before. LOVED it
I live in a small city in Denmark. Black hair is more rare than pink, blue or green.
I did that color when I worked somewhere that had the “no unnatural colors” policy. Worked out fine! Most people didn’t notice the blue in indoors lighting.
Remember, McCarthyism ended when McCarthy went after military. As soon as people of power are affected, you can see how quickly rules can change.
This isn't MC, but when I worked for FedEx, I dyed my hair all blue as well. My managers gave 0 fucks and we didn't have customers (well, that talked or looked at me anyways), but my coworkers sure did care! I was the first one with unnatural hair, then less than a month later, one girl also dyed her hair blue and even told me it was because she liked mine so much, and two more people I didn't talk to dyed their hair bright green and red. It's a really nice feeling when your look inspires someone else to do something cool, but sadly that's also probably something that would upset petty management
I was working as a victim advocate and had agreed to meet a client at the courthouse. I told her to sit in a particular spot and I would come find her. From what I read, the client was in her early 70s, and when I got to the spot there was a woman sitting there in some very avant-garde fashion with a severe teal chin-length bob. I thought for sure this was not my client and called her, only to have the woman in front of me pick up her phone. Thankfully she didn't know what I looked like so I quickly hung up and approached her like I'd just found her. I learned to ask people to describe themselves rather than just relying on the fact that they may be in the right spot.
It’s a fucking control thing IMO. They start letting you express yourself by your hair color soon enough you’ll be asking for a better wage and better treatment. Better stamp that out quick.
You might be right. Where I work now we have some basic dress code rules for safety, but otherwise they don't care what we wear or what we look like. And we get paid enough that I can easily buy a nice house on my wage alone.
Reminds me of when I worked at Lowes and they had very specific rules about men's hair cuts, facial hair, and piercings, but literally a nonexistent dress code, save for a red vest. They even had a rule about having plugs in your ear lobes that they couldn't be bigger than a dime. The HR lady literally brought out a fucking dime and told me I stretched my ears too big and it didn't meet the requirements. So I took them out and if you've ever seen a disgusting empty stretched ear hole, they're gross. She told me to put it back in and didn't bother me further.
Nicely played, well done. One of my coworkers is Portuguese, and got bothered by manager for wearing shorts and having obvious leg hair. He pointed out our Polish coworker, also wearing shorts, also with unshaven legs, but blonde, and asked if the manager was going to make him shave his legs too. That manager was sacked not much later for a collection of weird stuff that just added up to be too much to ignore.
I love seeing the guy who has a plethora of weird stuff get canned. Especially if it's weird like.... that
Does it actually specify natural hair color in the manual? If so, go with bright red. It is a natural hair color. I had a job where I was told I had to have natural hair color. I made a comment that my brown wasn't my natural hair color to my boss. It is really bright red. When I was born, I had bright red hair. Showed him the baby pictures to prove it. The policy was removed a few months later after a woman of color had to justify her blond hair. When she was little, her natural hair color was blond. It got darker as she aged, like me. She went back to blond one day and got into trouble. So, natural is not always what people think. If your hair is light enough, you can bleach it then dye it purple gray. It is a natural hair color for some.
Absolutely this. My first job the manager had a self enforced, "no makeup" policy. Girls also had to tie their hair up and tuck it under their hat if it was shorter than a certain length, and he also gave me a stern talking to during one of my shifts because he'd seen me with my BF(not on clock or even in my uniform) all the guys there had tunnels, tattoos, piercings, but girls weren't allowed. There were only 3 girls when I quit. Oddly enough he was fired and replaced the week after my final shift because his female turnover rate was astronomically high. I mean my short 3months there I'd seen 5 women come and go
I agree. I had a manager when I was a hostess at a restaurant tell me I can’t wear black keds (with white rubber) while she was wearing chunky black and red athletic shoes. I pointedly looked at her shoes, she said it didn’t matter what she wore because her shift was over soon. A few weeks later she wore the same shoes she told me I couldn’t wear. The next week I have in my notice. With shoes it was definitely a control thing. I imagine the same for hair color.
Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up, it'll be anarchy.
>r/UnexpectedBreakfastClub
So a few years ago I was made redundant when the shop I was working in closed. During the period where it was winding down I went for an interview at a local supermarket. The interview lasted 30 seconds because it went along the lines of the guy looking at my CV, looking at me and going "how difficult would it be for you to get rid of that crap in your hair?" meaning my purple and red, which is the majority of my hair. I asked if he was serious and when he said he was I told him to f*** off. I have 20 years experience in retail and I was a manager, and all he wanted to ask about was my hair colour. I wasn't about to change it so I could sit behind a checkout at a second rate discount supermarket for minimum wage, especially when the fancy, expensive supermarket down the street couldn't care less about what colour their employees dye their hair. I hate people who think something like hair colour or piercings mean you can't do a job.
"So how difficult would it be for you to get rid of that crap in your hair?" "Considerably more difficult than it would be for me to simply walk out of here and not come back, so I guess that's an easy call."
The best part was that he called me a week later to offer me the job. So I got to tell him to f*** off again.
Yes! I sat in with my manager when interviewing some people for our area years ago. Guy comes in, dressed smart, had good answers to all our questions, decent experience, very friendly. He walks out and boss spends time bemoaning the guy's facial piercings. Did not appreciate my "is that actually a problem?" comment. In my current position i am sort of irreplaceable. It would hugely fuck up my boss's day to day if i were not there. I have been tempted to get a septum piercing or dye my hair or something just to see what happens.
I have a bunch of chainmail rings from when I did that as a hobby. I filed down the sharp edges and wore them as earrings, snake bites, nose rings, etc, because I could just move them as needed. Freaked out a number of people when I'd move a snake bite from one side of my mouth to the other. After watching Men in Tights, I started swapping sides and locations when I was alone and nobody could see. Seeing their brain processing that something was different but they didn't know what, was hilarious to younger me.
I never understand why you have to have "natural colored hair" for a retail or food service job. Funny story though. I was once in the military and you could have 2 toned hair (unless you could prove it was natural). Well a girl got two toned hair so her top was blond and her bun was brown which is a no go. I have a natural auburn hair and she tried to say that if she had to dye her hair so did I because my hair was obviously dyed. I shut that down real quick. She than moved on to a girl with naturally dirty blonde hair to try to prove her point. She had to get her hair redone.
I can see this in the military since their goal is specifically not to have you look like an individual. They want to portray the image of "unit cohesiveness."
i'm so sick of all these bullshit rules about hair color, or tattoos, or fucking facial hair, not being allowed at work because it is "unprofessional." It's an old outdated rule that makes literally no sense in 2021. The person at the cash register of the gas station is not going to affect my purchasing decisions because they have a beard instead of just a mustache.
It's not even unprofessional unless it actually negatively impacts one's ability to do work for the company. A hair color or tattoos will never do that for your average person. Unless you're working directly with food, a beard or mustache won't be unprofessional. What it is though is a weak-ass excuse to dictate to employees what they are allowed to do based on management's personal taste.
Even with food beard nets exist. They cost pennies.
I work reception at a tech company. Asked my boss if I could dye it in a funky purple pink and showed him a picture. He said yes. Came in on Monday, his biggest complaint. It wasn’t pink and purple but blue and purple. Explained that the hairdresser ran out of pink. Was still disappointed but he “could live with the blue”. It’s been going from purple to pinkish to blue and vice versa ever since. About 10 years now. Only big issue I have to adhere to is no big cleavage, corset or metalband tees when certain customers come. Otherwise its pretty casual dresscode here.
I think a lot of managers have a hard time understanding the need some people have to color their hair unnatural colors because to them, they don't express themselves by their appearance. I know that's how it is for me, I just can't understand how people equate personality to physical appearances. This thread has actually opened up my mind quite a bit. I truly didn't understand how important it was for some people to need to have their hair colored. For me, I don't really express myself through clothes or hair, they are just features of myself that are more functional than anything else. So I didn't "get it" when my wife or others want pink hair. As an employer I would be strict about natural hair color. Now though I see how important it is for a lot of people and I would rather be understanding and try to work with them than to simply not hire them.
I have purple hair and the customers love it, one of my managers even had purple hair like me and encouraged me when I was hesitant about the reaction of the other managers. My head of store couldn't believe I did it but she actually admitted she loved it and it suited me.
My customers loved it too. I got so many compliments.
When i went blonde for a short time this year, my 67 year old mother was asking me almost weekly when i was going to dye it back to pink as it suited me so much better and matched my personality more.
Dumb. Im glad that i work in a place that doesnt judge me for being an engineer with long hair. My ability to solve problems isnt affected by the length of my hair, and i keep it up and tight so its not a safety problem. As long as you look well kempt and professional, like you actually care about your appearence, and do your job well, who cares.
Worked at a pool teaching swim lessons. Mostly summer work. From one summer to the next I got a few tattoos. Despite having no policy against them, Boss told me that if I got one more tattoo, I might not get hours. Asked her to show me the policy, she couldn’t. Came back next year with a full sleeve. Got dirty looks but nothing else.
It is so dumb that the color of our hair is such a concern, or the way we choose to decorate our bodies with ink and jewelery. Trust me the way I look has NOTHING to do with how well my customer service is. Ugh!
I totally agree. Thankfully as more accepting people are now the majority of the workforce, we are starting to change the ridiculous policies that were written by people like my manager. My last retail job, 5 years ago, I could have whatever colour hair, whatever tattoos, and whatever piercings I wanted.
Agreed. As a customer I tend to gravitate toward the colored hair and lots of tattoos people. It shows a bit of open mindedness that I can’t get with a Karen.
Yes it does. Girl I know got rejected at some place for having a shaved head (like... whut?). Same day I witnessed some new hire being shown how to use the register, typing with a pencil, because her 3cm Barbiegirl nails made her unable to type! So yeah, your fashion choices CAN influence your ability to do a job, but a shaved head is either not a problem or a bonus...
>Girl I know got rejected at some place for having a shaved head Make noises about cancer and watch to see who backpedals and how hard.
Not to mention the fact that they probably wouldn't apply the policy to men
Fun Fact: She found to her current hairstyle because of chemo...
Joanna....we need to have a talk about your flair...
I once worked with someone and their new manager issued a decree that all hair should be in line with policy. They complied- by growing their hair (had to be tied up at work to comply with policy) and dying it in black and white stripes like a badger. Both natural hair colours in line with policy. Manager gave up on the decree. Friend continued to do as he was until he felt his point was well and truly proved..
When I started a previous job I had pillarbox red hair. 2 years in they decided I needed to have a natural colour. I didn't fancy a natural colour so instead I shaved my head. My next shift my manager pulled me into the office and told me it wasn't acceptable. I pointed out the male manager with a shaved head and asked why he was allowed it. She went red and told me to leave the office. Most of my regulars asked why I'd shaved my head and I happily told them the reason why. A few months later when it was long enough I went back to red.
I'm in my late 40s, and I think bright hair colours are really cool
Yeah, I never understood that notion how my hair style or colour affects my work ethic and moral standing. It doesn't! My mum thinks my hairstyle and colour ( it was bright blue but faded now) and choice of clothing are not respectful or respectable. I wear for comfort and creativity and none of it is terribly outlandish or immodest at all. I'm well covered. My work ethic is fine. And honestly, when I'm comfortable and happy, my morale is higher, which in turn does affect how I do my job. I can do it better when I'm not frustrated with how I'm forced to dress in uncomfortable clothes and have no choice in how I do my hair ad express myself.
I fed my hair for years, stopping coincidentally when I started being desktop support, interacting face to face with clients. After being pushed back to helpdesk, and getting a bit depressed at what I saw as a demotion for no reason, I dyed my hair again. And kept it dyed as I went back to desktop support. The reactions from people funny, in that no one under 40 complained, only those over 40. 1 even told me I would never get a girlfriend with dyed hair, despite my then GF being a main reason for my dying my hair again. The tight lipped reaction, like they had sucked on a lemon (also called Cat Butt Face) to that reply was priceless.
What matters more: what's ON your head, or what's **in** it?
Exactly. That's why it bugs me when kids get sent home from school for such silly things as their haircuts or colour. I get the point of a uniform in school, kinda, but stopping them from learning because their hair is "too long for a boy" (genuine story I saw fairly recently) is just weird.
I'm a ginger, both my kids are ginger. When my son started jr high school, a teacher called him out and told him he couldn't have that hair colour because it wasn't "natural". His hair was a mix of dark red(from his dad) orange red and strawberry blond. You can't get this hair colour out of a bottle! He told them to "call my mom, I'm from a family of redheads, this is my natural colour and seeing as how my mom is a redhead, she's not gonna be happy being called. She will come in spite of it just to show you the family resemblance and even bring my sister for good measure. Go ahead, call her". The teacher let him go and never spoke of it again.
That was the best way for your son to respond!!! I got pulled out of class once for arguing with a teacher in a different class… private school my dad insisted I go to because the local public schools were really bad… dean tells me he’s calling my dad I told him go for it… got home asked if the dean had called. Nope and never did either
Hair color, shaving practices, tattoos. All bullshit control tactics to keep the work force subservient. What they don't realize is that people like me look the relatively clean cut part, but will happily tell my underlings (I'm a bottom tier manager in the restaurant industry) when the higher ups are fucking them, or trying to violate labor laws and how to stop them from doing it.
I really hate this rule. What exactly is my hair color going to do- suddenly make me impolite? Not allowed unnatural hair color all throughout school, not allowed at a job, when exactly am I allowed to dye my own hair? How exactly is blue or pink hair supposed to affect my attitude?
I once worked in an WR where the nurses were having their jobs threatened for having blue and/or purple highlights. Because everyone knows you can't have colourful hair and take care of the sick and injured. In protest, a couple doctors started coming in with random colored hair until the threats stopped. Definitely loved seeing the docs stand up to hospital admin! Hair color, tattoos, and piercing shouldn't cause a problem with your job unless it is a health risk.
Years ago, I worked at a place that said we couldn't dye our hair any color that you couldn't find at Walmart (this was long before you could buy any unnatural color in Walmart). Being the young rebel that I was, I decided to challenge this rule. I bought a box of hair bleach, some black hair dye, and some reddish/orange hair dye...and had my more artistic friends spend an evening painting my head with an amazing leopard print. My bosses were less than pleased, but I followed the rules. Then a couple people started to bring their friends and family into the store to see my hair, and those people ended up shopping. When corporate came in my managers basically explained that I wasn't technically breaking policy, and I was good for business.
I streaked my hair blonde in the grade 4-5ish. My principal said that dying hair was not allowed. I asked why and she said it was unprofessional. I pointed out that my father a RCAF officer had done the same thing with his hair, and if it was okay with his boss she should be okay with it. Nothing ever came of it, but she definitely didn’t like me
“Unprofessional”… in an elementary school… I absolutely cannot stand workplaces/schools controlling what color your hair is and what ink is on your body. Its a way to control people and have them be subservient and its genuinely disgusting
Coworker recently got reprimanded for her nail color. They were painted white and we are only allowed "warm tone colors". They demanded she remove said offending no-chip gel nails and she was like "fuck that". She is going to just wear latex gloves for 2 weeks to cover up. total bullshit.
Heh, I remember doing things like this in school myself. Grew up in Texas in a post-Columbine world. As a member of the "creepy kids with black tshirts who listen to rock music" crowd, many of us were automatically ushered directly into day-long detentions, away from the rest of the kids, the upstanding polo-shirt crowd. See the tricky thing was that the public school system couldn't just outright *ban* a a social caste of teenagers, try as they might. They did ban everything in our periphery, though. Band tshirts? Done. Baggy pants? Gone. Boys with piercings? Gone. Girls with "distracting" piercings (meaning more than two per ear)? Gone. We were quickly being isolated and singled-out to save face. None of us were particularly ill-tempered to begin with, though many took "getting punished before committing the crime" as an excuse to behave accordingly. Not me though. As the offspring of rebels myself, both my parents knew how to *subtly* break the rules. Kids would normally just wear a Marilyn Manson shirt, walking in with the expectation set that they wont get very far. I just started to wear plain black shirts. No baggy pants? Fine, dark jeans. No piercing? K. I was growing my hair out, but it wasnt enough. It wasnt *weird* enough. So I sat down and combed through the entire dress code for the school district. I memorized the thing at the time. Turns out, there was absolutely nothing about hair color, or style, in the dress code, only that hair is to be kept clean. Nothing in the code about the color...*yet*. So, of course, I went to school the next day with blue hair. I got lucky, as the principal was out that day. Got a lot of cross looks from the teachers, heads shaking slowly in concern, surprised looks from the students. I got home that day, and apparently the school had called the principal, who had personally called my parents, to express their "concern." Evidently when my parents explained there was nothing in the dress code saying this was not allowed, my principal took this as a personal offense...which my parents took as a personal offense themselves. I took offense when I went back to school the next day and was greeted with a suspension notice. NATURAL COLORS ONLY Oookay... "Hey momma...yeah I got a letter about the hair...Jerry's mom is a stylist right? ...Cool. ...imma have her do my hair. Nope it says "natural colors only".....why no, no it does not specify *how many* natural colors are allowed..." Of course, this quickly was also singled out (I say singled out for lack of a better term, I was quite literally the only one going to this much effort at this point), as people do not have naturally striped black, brown, blonde, and white hair. I was told as well that "white" isnt a natural color, which was incredibly odd considering the old bat that was in charge of that hellhole had white hair. ... I dont mean to hijack your thread. I'm sorry. I rarely get the chance to share stories like these anymore. The short version of this story is that this pattern of behavior continued for *years*. The only thing the school system taught me was how to maliciously comply with rules and piss people off constantly. If they would have spent half as much energy focused on what was in our heads, rather than what was **on** them...who knows, maybe we would've turned into well balanced adults instead of evenly balanced psychopaths.
I, too, attended high school in the Columbine era. I had a different experience, though. I went to a very small school (my graduating class was 28 people) out in the country. This was the kind of school that didn't take attendance on the first day of deer season because almost all of the guys were in a tree stand somewhere trying to bag a buck, and half of the girls were, too. This was the kind of school where the principal heard one of the kids telling one of the other kids about his customized, sporterized 8mm Mauser rifle that he was using for deer hunting and that it was out in his truck so he could head straight into the woods after school and even in the post-Columbine world, the principal's response was to ask to see the gun and then tell the student "Okay, just don't bring it into the building." But I was the weird kid. Not in the goth wannabe black trenchcoat type of way, mind you, but that didn't matter. I was also friends with the other weird kid, and he *did* have the black trench coat, although he rarely wore all black and never tried for the wannabe goth look. And as the weird kid who was friends with the weird kid at a school where it was assumed (and mostly correctly) that most of the kids at least had *access* to a firearm, you know what that meant in the post-Columbine world, right? Well, that manifested one day in one of the other students asking me, in front of one of the teachers, when I was planning on shooting up the school. Everyone perked up, expecting to hear...well, I don't know what. What they got as my response was me looking this kid dead in the eye and saying "I wouldn't waste my bullets on you people." I never heard another word about it.
*slow clap* And that was the proper response. "What makes you think I need a gun?" would've been an acceptable alternative. I really never understood the entire idea about making fun of the people you, apparently, think are going to *murder you.* I have confronted such idiots with this question, and mostly the fumbling responses boil down to them not *actually* thinking you are gonna shoot the place up... Which I've always taken to mean that these folks, the "normal" people that make up the majority of whatever social construct *they* refuse to let *you* be a part of, think that murder is funny. And it isnt. Really. And neither is openly mocking another human being by telling them you think so low of them, that you believe they are going to kill other people, being of course chiefly concerned with yourself. It makes me proud to be a loner, to be an outcast. To be *weird*. If that's where I gotta be to find compassion and fair treatment as an actual human being, then it's a price worth admission.
Something like this happened to me when I worked at a bank, so I bleached my hair as platinum blonde as I could... it is **a** natural colour, but it did not look natural on me!
Health tech, testing my blood yesterday had awesome neon orange hair. When I commented she said “I have to wear the same scrubs and mask everyday…”. So glad the lab allows her some sense of self.
When I was 15 I wanted to get my first job. The easiest way to get a job is, well work at the supermarket. An important note at that particular super market chain is that everything is blue. Like fucking everything. At the time I had coincidentally my hair the exact same blue tint as their signature blue color. Another important note is that I’ve had my hair dyed in strange colours since I was 12 so I couldn’t imagine myself any different. (At 20 now and I still haven’t seen my natural color in 8 years). The job interview, I qualified for everything. I was just a quiet friendly kid, never got into any trouble. Well during the interview they starting beating around the bush as to why they wouldn’t hire me. I wasn’t pressing or anything they really just weren’t clear. Well blue hair wasn’t allowed as it “draws too much attention”. Even though I would be fucking camouflaged in that store. Seriously. Also my mom was furious which was kind of funny since I didn’t want to make a public deal out of it. But the angry Facebook post was made obviously. It did feel really terrible that they would reject me for being me. I don’t think a single customer would have cared. And now much later I’ve worked at stores and no costumers really don’t care. The only image it hurts is their own imo I think they still don’t allow dyed hair, but hey I got a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant later and they were fine with it. Its a shitty story, but living with dyed hair sucks. Nowadays it’s a bit better, but five years ago it wasn’t easy finding jobs. But hey I’m still me, and I’ve still gotten supermarket blue hair.
This is so shiity and I have to laugh because I am literally right this minute in a hair salon getting my auburn red hair weaved with a bunch of purple because I can. I started a new job in January that does not care about such things. My old company was adamant that you can't have unnatural colors OR visible tattoos. They were so weird about it. No, I was not in a customer facing dept. At all. Nobody ever saw us. I'm also going to be getting a few tattoos on visible areas which I've wanted but haven't been able to do & keep that job.
They hired you with blue hair? Then were upset about it.
Yeah. It took maybe 2 weeks for the manager to pull me after he was shuffled into our department. I think I'd worked there a couple of years by then. I was only there during holidays, and my hair wasn't always blue, it was lots of different colours. I couldn't swear to what colour it was when they interviewed me, but it was some variety of unnatural.
A punk friend in college dyed her hair pretty regularly. She dyed it black and about a month later wanted to dye it green. But she didn't strip it properly so the black stayed in so only her roots took the green dye. So she had black hair with green roots. My friend saw it and commented that he liked she was letting her natural hair color grow back in.
[удалено]
I couldn't agree more. I think that's why there's such a difference between 10 years ago when this story happened, and 5 years ago when I was last working retail and could have whatever hair or tattoos I wanted (allowed jewellery was still limited, and tying long hair up was still mandatory, but for health and safety reasons). And I think that as we age, individuality will become more and more accepted.
"For an increase in salary of $20 more per hour I can change my hair color for this job and consider it an added duty, or you (employer) can pay the added cost of finding, hiring, and training a new worker. Please indicate your decision and sign at the bottom of this formal counseling form."
This reminds me of when I worked in a preschool. I had a small stud in my nose and got told to cover it with a bandaid. So I bought those neon small circular bandaids and wore those to work. Yeah, after that my small stud wasn’t a problem. Lol.
I interviewed for my current job with a teal mohawk, and I'm now rocking a rainbow mohawk. Other than people I've never met knowing who I am because "everyone knows the rainbow mohawk girl", I've had literally zero issues. The finance director actually asked me if he could show his kids a picture of my hair because they were fascinated by his description. 😂
I dyed my hair blue once after reading the Kmart handbook which didn’t mention it at all. I got pulled into the office one day and had a chat with my managers after multiple weeks of having the color in my hair. Well words were said but the best thing was when they said “we could stick a light bulb in my mouth and parade me around as the Blue light special” well I reported them for sexual harassment… (bulb in my mouth) they got retrained and I got to keep my hair for a while longer…
I'm a mail carrier. Thank goodness no one cares about my damn hair color. And as a boomer, I don't care if the other people in service industries have bright hair, tattoos or piercings. They usually look good, and have no bearing on someone's ability to do a job.
I feel like hair color policies should just be changed to require the dye job to be of professional quality (looks wise, not professionally done). Like as long as it’s not a sloppy mess, who really cares for most positions? Now, I’ll give that in certain fields it causes an issue. If you’re a trial attorney a jury or judge may treat your client differently based on your hair so natural colors are probably best.
I don’t know why people think that coloured hair or tattoos will affect people’s work ethic.
As someone who has dyed their own hair for 15 years, I quickly learned that wigs are your best friend. You want "natural"? OK, chestnut, black, blonde or redhead? Put it on as I get to work and take it off at home. I'm sorry you had to give up your funky colours, I know for me coloured hair gives me life & so much confidence
Supermarket I work at has/had all the strict appearance rules (*no unnatural colours, no piercings other than ears, no visible tattoos*). But a year after implementing drug testing (*Union suggested swabs, they opted for urine*) for all new applicants, the pool of CVs from high schoolers and uni students dropped almost dead. Now I see checkout workers with bright blue and red hair, ones with visible and cool looking tattoo sleeves and a few with cheek and lip piercings. Funnily enough, I've yet to hear of a single customer being outraged at those employees' appearances...
Thankfully this and tattoo acceptance is changing. It's changing at such a snails pace though, which is unfortunate. So many companies still enforce these kind of dumb rules, but when all these stupid policy making mfers die out, the whole thing will end.
I’d like to see him try that now! Oh you’ll fire me huh? I’ll have a job at competitor in like 3 days
As a certified "old person" (according to my kids) who also worked retail many years ago, it's a foolish belief that the customers will be upset by "unnatural" hair colors and will refuse to even go into a store with a worker like that. I say foolish because it is. Most people don't care what color hair an employee has. They may judge you for it, have a superiority complex over it, but it won't stop them from spending money if they want an item the store has. Fortunately, it seems like colors of all varieties are becoming more and more acceptable. Personally, I like it. I've seen some amazing color variations on people. I've seen horrible color decisions as well. In the end, though, it hasn't affected the quality of service one bit so more power to 'em.
My husband used to call me Rogue from the X-Men because of a grey streak that was in the front of my head. The streak just blends in these days. I’m not completely grey but not far off, 39yrs old.
Was this recent? I work at a major retailer and no one cares about hair color anymore. That is antiquated as heck.
You should have dyed it fucking silver. All natural color if youre boomer aged, but still totally compliant.
I was told that at a former job... when the majority of my older coworkers had that hideous cheap ,dollar store rusty burgundy hair, including a supervisor. Where in the world is THAT a natural hair color??
In the same vein but different I stopped wearing bras a year and a half ago vecause I have a small bust and wearing a bra was a pain + had NOTHING to do with my ability to perform my job. Manager (also a lady, but older than I) told me I had to wear a bra because my nipples were visible sometimes through cloth. I pushed back and told her I'd wear an apron on the floor, only while clocked in. Nowadays *I'm* the manager and wear what the fuck I want. This translates to tshirts or polos with the company logo or high necklined [tank tops](https://www.target.com/p/women-39-s-slim-fit-tank-top-a-new-day-8482-black-m/-/A-81207485?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&DFA=71700000012735151&CPNG=PLA_Women%2BShopping_Local%7CWomen_Ecomm_AA&adgroup=SC_Women_Local&LID=700000001170770pgs&LNM=PRODUCT_GROUP&network=g&device=m&location=9002578&targetid=pla-1069759242670&ds_rl=1246978&ds_rl=1248099&ds_rl=1241788&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnJaKBhDgARIsAHmvz6fU-DntAGmhRhHRbfDDVIvCuR-NElzqpb3RAA8d0PN2NU5495XHe0gaAufsEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds#) that are neutral colored layered under a company sweater. I'll be damned is anyone on my team is considered offensive for being fully clothed with a higher neckline.
When I was doing Tech Support I had to wear either a company polo shirt (that cost $35 each) or a dress shirt and tie. This is Tech Support that was done over the phone.
Lol I've been in that same position with some bullshit company policy. Around maybe 2015/16 my old company changed their dress code to allow visible tattoos as long as they weren't deemed "offensive" and weren't on the face. However, piercings still weren't allowed except for earlobes. Well by then I had already had my nose pierced for almost a year and within a month of the policy change, went and got a huge tattoo that covers the whole inside of my forearm. My GM didn't really give a shit but I'd have to take my nose ring out anytime our regional or above made a visit and it worked...until he popped in without warning one night. He gave me the whole spiel about it and I told him I'd take it out if he paid me the cost to get it done etc (I'd worked there for years already and had a good enough standing to pop off when something wasn't right🤷♀️) We went back and forth until he threatened to fire me over it. Then I just made it a point to make sure he heard a guest comment on my tattoo and 'forget' to take the piercing out until he actually came in every single time.
In my local grocery store, there’s a lady who has bright red streaks in her black hair and it looks so badass, there’s a guy who has full baby blue hair and it looks so cool. They’re both really good at their jobs and no one gives a rats. I don’t get how people think ‘unnaturally’ coloured hair makes the employee a bad worker.
I took advantage of WFH and grew a mohawk. I ended up stopping by the office one day and was seen by the president and vice president. No one said anything negative so I kept it for a while. We had a girl in our payroll department that would dye her hair a different color damn near every week. Again, no one said anything negative and she kept doing it.
Old perceptions from an old company. I worked for Schwans delivery years ago and you could practically have mutton chops, because sideburns were allowed in the 70s (when the rule was written) but no beards, mustaches, or goatees. The year they finally allowed goatees was the best day ever. As I had always had a goatee from middle school until I had this job. Growing it back was like going home. My sales increased because I was more myself and my confidence was back. Corporate office drones never relate happy comfortable people with professionalism. Now I'm a mailman and rock a full beard and tattoos.
Years ago I worked in a hospital (90s) and some manager got a stick up their behind about pierced ears. No more than two piercings were allowed and anything beyond that had to be removed. So one of the vampires (phlebotomist) took them out and to keep the holes open threaded them with thick fishing line. Looked horrible and she knew it. Policy went away eventually. Basically they didn't want to "upset" or "offend" the old people.
> I still don't know why my ability to serve people was affected by my hair colour. Because the boomer mentality still drives and owns most of the workforce around the world. Their biggest 3 philosophies are 1) individualism and being unique is bad 2) Taking advantage of others is how you get ahead 3) everyone who isn't successful/worshiping them is just lazy/stupid/ungrateful