Long hair and job career.

[foerland]

At my job I always keep my hair in a ponytail (trying to not look like a cave man :D ).

Anyway, I have a feeling that I am not always taken seriously by executives and colleagues. I think it may have to do with my non confirm hair length. Very often ,when I speak with the company CEO, he asks "when are you going to cut your hair?".
I do not mind what people say, my hair will not be cut :p
I think that long hair can be a career stopper,especially for a man. What do you think about this? Can it be true or is it just my imagination :confused:

[eadwine]

True indeed. Expectations ESPECIALLY in the higher up work field are that males do not have long hair. Unfortunately so.

[rapunzhell13]

It can be true, unfortunately. :mad: How do you wear your hair to work? If you put it up in a sleek bun (or a similar style) it might help, but what really needs to change is THEIR attitude. Seriously, if it isn't a safety risk... it's just plain unfair. Their attitude towards you is more unprofessional than your hair. As long as you do your job and do it well, your hair should not be a concern of theirs IMHO.

[LongForLife]

I agree. It is an issue with some places, but certainly should not be so. :(

[Phalaenopsis]

I also agree. Actually, I think it's not always a problem for a man, but also for a woman, just because, well, you don't see it often. A woman should have a bob or not longer than BSL hair, a man should have it cropped or something... :rolleyes:

[DecafJane]

It probably depends on your workplace culture and the area you are working in. Good luck!

[Nat242]

Discrimination in this area certainly exists. If you're determined to keep your long locks despite professional hurdles, I would recommend keeping it in a low, slick, neat bun, and make sure that the rest of your person is as 'professional' looking as possible.

Best of luck,

Natalie

[n3m3sis42]

I think that this is most definitely true for men. My now-husband used to have beautiful long hair that was somewhere around midback when we were first dating. He was laid off from his job and was working temp IT positions while trying to find a new permanent one. One of the temp positions let him go after the first day and actually said something about his long hair being an issue. In an IT position, no less (it's not that uncommon to see IT guys with longer hair).

He cut his hair after that. I have to say I encouraged him to do so, although I loved his long hair. We were young and couldn't afford to live off what I made, and hair grows back (even if it takes a long time).

I do think that women experience discrimination in at least some workplaces due to long hair as well. I keep my hair up in a bun most of the time when I'm at the office. I don't want to draw attention to the fact that it's starting to be on the long side, because I don't intend to cut it if I can possibly avoid it.

[biggeorge]

I think that long hair can be a career stopper,especially for a man. What do you think about this? Can it be true or is it just my imagination :confused:

Most definitely true, although I'm not familiar with the situation in Norway.

Stereotypes abound. Many times in the business world long hair (or other displays of non-conformity) are seen as an indication of one who will not follow procedures or cause upheaval. The fact that guys that grow their hair long in the first place somewhat supports this; they are willing to buck the system and are not worried about what others think; and independence is not always welcome in the business world.

As I've said before, life is a series of value judgments that we are constantly making. You have to determine your priorities and at what point you are willing to change the order of those priorities.

You also may want to look at other options. If you are in business for yourself you are not restricted by the upper management. But what if you then can't get work in your chosen field?

Hopefully after a period of time with a company they will be able to see past the obvious and base their evaluation on the ability and the performance you exhibit.

[Pierre]

What sort of job do you work in?

I draw land surveys and program computers. I wear my hair depending on the weather: in winter it's generally loose, on very hot summer days I make two braids or ponytails, on markcool or lukewarm days I put it in a bun or one of a few other styles. I don't use the plotter, except at school, and it's not long enough to get caught in the plotter.

I know a Linux sysadmin who has hair down to waist or hip. I don't know how he wears it at work; I've seen him only at Logfest/Philcon.

[LaurelSpring]

Someone on a post mentioned how nice her husband looked at a formal event in a french braid and got alot of compliments. Maybe if you had it nicely coifed in some way. Maybe a low braid tucked up some way. When I was surfing one day I saw a men's long hair site. Maybe they have some ideas:

Men's Long Hair Hyperboard (http://www.mlhh.org/)

[EdG]

It depends on the job and the company.

I'm an engineer at a large semiconductor company and long hair has never been a problem for me at work.

I think technology companies tend to be very longhair-friendly. These companies care about skills, not appearance. They recognize that a good workforce will be diverse.

Good luck! :)
Ed

[tomm]

...Anyway, I have a feeling that I am not always taken seriously by executives and colleagues. I think it may have to do with my non confirm hair length. Very often ,when I speak with the company CEO, he asks "when are you going to cut your hair?" ... I think that long hair can be a career stopper,especially for a man. What do you think about this? Can it be true or is it just my imagination :confused:
I'm not sure what you mean by "taken seriously". It is my experience that long hair (or any other deviation from standard business-appearance norms - facial hair, piercings, tattoos, etc.) would be a barrier for most jobs involving face-to-face customer contact (and almost all upper-management jobs do).

On the other hand, if you feel that your colleagues/management are discounting your professional expertise or abilities in your current position, that - again - in my experience usually is transient. As you prove to them that you are good at what you do, the length of your hair should become a non-factor.

I hope this helps.

[foerland]

Like Ed, I also work at a semiconductor company. I think I have the longest hair among all 110 employees (including the 10 ladies :-) ). It is not like I feel discrimination on a daily basis, but in some subtle way I can sense people have a negative attitude from time to time.

[EdG]

Like Ed, I also work at a semiconductor company. I think I have the longest hair among all 110 employees (including the 10 ladies :-) ). It is not like I feel discrimination on a daily basis, but in some subtle way I can sense people have a negative attitude from time to time.Interesting. I've seen all kinds of attitudes at work, but people are generally positive towards me. I'm probably one of the most highly-respected people in the groups I've been in.

Your case may be that of a smaller company that may not be used to having a diverse workforce. I work in Silicon Valley which is very culturally diverse. :)
Ed

[Alun]

I ama patent agent. I work in a law firm and wear my waist length hair loose at work. I have no problems in this firm related to my hair. Of course, in patent law the clients are technology firms, so it still falls within what Ed said about that sector being long hair friendly.

There are also some general practice law firms with IP departments, and they may not be atall long hair friendly, but there are other reasons for not wanting to work in such places, like they expect us to bill too many hours, for example!

The last firm I was in I had the longest hair of anyone of either gender, but here we sub;let parts of our offices to other small law firms, and two of them have women with very long hair, one a secretary and the other a lawyer.

I doubt if the particular hair style makes very much difference if you are dealing with someone who dislikes any departure from being conventional.

I agree that a lot of things other than long hair can affect one's career. In one small firm where I once worked in London there was a guy who was very conventional, but refused to wear a suit and would only wear non-matching sports jacket and trousers. I was told that he was promoted to manager despite that, but that if he had agreed to wear a suit he would have been made a director instead of a manager, same job, same salary, but because he wouldn't wear a suit he didn't get a seat on the board that ran the firm, so his department didn't get any input into decisions of the board. That's pretty much the definition of pettiness.

In the UK, if you are on the board your title is director, unless you are something more specific like the managing director (= US CEO), the chairman, the company secretary or the controller (= CFO), etc. This makes it a lot easier to work out who is who than in the US, where vice president can mean member of the board or assistant janitor. So, for example, the director of widget making in one firm might do the same thing as the manager of the widget making department in another, but he is a member of his firm's board and the mere manager is not.

So, of course, similar things no doubt happen over long hair when similar twits are running the show, but this says a lot more about bad management than it does about their employees. Naturally, if your appearance frightens off twits it can increase the number of interviews you have to attend.

[hurricane_gia]

If you work in the kind of industry where playing golf with your boss could advance your career, then yes, I guess long hair would be a barrier to promotions. Same thing if part of your job is to take clients out for dinner, impress a jury, or appear in public as a representative of your company. In the first case (golf), it is important that your boss feels that you are "his kind of man", that is to say, a mini-me. In the other cases, your personal appearance is like the picture on the front of a cereal box -- your physical appearance works as a walking advertisement for the company.

But if you work in the kind of industry where your promotions are based on actual job performance, then long hair shouldn't be a problem.

And if you work in the computer industry, it might be a bonus. In the US, men in the computer industry are expected to be eccentric, geeky, and playful. They are expected to have either long hair, or hair that is a strange color. Piercings are acceptable, wearing a Hawaiian shirt to work is acceptable, and shooting your co-workers with a Nerf gun is perfectly normal. So in this industry, long hair is just part of the general culture of weirdness.

[akurah]

And if you work in the computer industry, it might be a bonus. In the US, men in the computer industry are expected to be eccentric, geeky, and playful. They are expected to have either long hair, or hair that is a strange color. Piercings are acceptable, wearing a Hawaiian shirt to work is acceptable, and shooting your co-workers with a Nerf gun is perfectly normal. So in this industry, long hair is just part of the general culture of weirdness.

Yep. At work there is one guy with hair longer than mine (waist/tailbone), there's a guy with hair that's about shoulder length, and... actually, I think that's it for the longhairs at work.

Then my boss (QA director) has a mohawk. Tattoos up and down both arms.

I, a girl, have no *visible* tattoos, but I have one, plus two facial piercings, a tongue piercing, and stretched ears. I've got the longest hair of all the girls at my work ever since they laid off the girl with waist length hair. My hair is about BSL, give or take a bit.

[Darkhorse1]

It's a sterotype---men with long hair are typified as 'bad, motorbikers gone wild'. When, in reality, long hair is just a preference. Just like a beard, mustache, goatee, etc.

If I saw a man with long hair in a job defined as professional, as long as it was clean and kept, what would I care? However, not everyone is like this. They see long hair on a man, and they automatically think 'what's his problem'. Isn't that horrid???

I prefer guys with short hair, but I'd NEVER tell a man with long hair to cut it! And what about Native Americans? Or, in my area, east Indian men are not forced to cut their hair/get rid of their turbans because it's a religious thing. So, why should any man be forced to lose a job/cut their hair for a job?

Welcome to society double standards.

ANd, it's deemed a 'girl' thing if put into a braid/ponytail etc. So, I sometimes wonder if it goes back to the homophobic society. Sigh. Why can't people accept individuality?

Cheers for all the men here!

[Flying Betty]

I'm an engineer at a large defense contractor, and while you'd expect this place to be more conservative than the stereotypical computer company, they are a little more relaxed about appearance than some other places. I think scientists and engineers do have a little more freedom in their appearance for one reason or another. (One thing I've noticed is that the engineering managers dress just like the regular engineers except that they wear better shoes)

But we're still expected to dress business casual. Granted, that can translate to a button down shirt with a nice pair of jeans, but it isn't a funky hair and Hawaiian shirt place. You can certainly get away with some not quite mainstream things, provided you're clean and prompt and do good work. There's one guy with tattoos on his elbow, easily visible when he wears a short sleeved shirt. My hair is just about classic length and there are a few other women with at lease waist length hair who wear it down and no one has said anything. I haven't seen guys with hair longer than about shoulder length, but I wouldn't expect that it would be an issue as long as they kept it neat. There's even one guy with a mullet.

Still, that's just in engineering. I haven't seen any of the upper levels of management looking anything but traditional and conservative. I'm not saying they should, but different jobs do have different standards of appearance and the culture hasn't yet shifted for the more business/management positions like it has in some ways for engineers.

[hurricane_gia]

Still, that's just in engineering. I haven't seen any of the upper levels of management looking anything but traditional and conservative. I'm not saying they should, but different jobs do have different standards of appearance and the culture hasn't yet shifted for the more business/management positions like it has in some ways for engineers.

Do you think that long hair would be a barrier to an engineer who wanted to move up into a higher level of management?

[Medvssa]

Their attitude towards you is more unprofessional than your hair.
Very well said! were I a man, that is what I would say when receiving a negative comment about my hair.

[flapjack]

I wear my hair down in the lab sometimes and I never hear anything.

One time I shed a hair into the salt solution I was making and had to make a new solution. Everyone thought it was funny and that's the only reaction I've gotten at work at all.


I've been very lucky in this area, to be honest. I've had people make negative comments about my hair length, sure... but NEVER at work. Ever.

[Hypnotica]

I'm working as an IT-tech in my company, but I'm not employed by the IT Department. I'm employed by the outsourcing department ( I was a recpetionist when I first started). I *should* oblige by the dressing code that Outscoursing have (which are rather strict due to renting people out to external customers) but white blouse/black suit isn't really suitable for an IT-tech that sometimes crawls in dusty spaces.....

I still take out my lip piercing in the morning thought...


In general, Sweden is relaxed when it comes to hair length. Not even people in the army are required to cut, but they do need to wear a hair net if they have long hair.

[burns_erin]

Discrimiation is an unfortunate fact of life and it is not just offices. My father is a contractor, and you would think that people would think nothing of it but since he was the boss, clients would sometimes be uncomfortable, so until a person got to know him, he would make certain he made other aspects of his appearance more "business like" than his contemporary. So instead of wearing jeans, workboots and a t-shirts with a baseball cap (or a John Deere hat), which would be considered very typical dress for General Contractors in my area. He would wear nicely polished cowboy boots, still jeans but pressed and starched, with a button down and a stetson. Then he would braid his hair and tuck it under his shirt down his back. Then once people were more appreciative and respected him and his abilities he would revert back to more comfortable clothing and options.

So maybe for at least a while you might try overconforming in some other possible apects. Take your clothing a step up from the norm, keep your hair under your clothes. that sort of thing.

[Fee]

It's true :( My BF has longer hair, when he was supposed to get a job in a bank he had to chop it, he now works in his family's firm so he can keep his hair.

[redcelticcurls]

I wear my hair down in the lab sometimes and I never hear anything.

One time I shed a hair into the salt solution I was making and had to make a new solution. Everyone thought it was funny and that's the only reaction I've gotten at work at all.


I've been very lucky in this area, to be honest. I've had people make negative comments about my hair length, sure... but NEVER at work. Ever.

That's interesting. I had thought that people in a lab would have to keep hair back/up. This surprised me somewhat. I'm not saying it's bad or good, just that I had different expectations.

[hairymonster]

Yes, I'm surprised too. When it comes to laboratory work, I am more concerned about personal safety rather than expectations, so my hair was always up or braided.

At my new workplace here though, I keep getting comments on how my hair is too long and that I should cut it, but I just laugh it off. Long hair doesn't get in the way when all I do is sit in the office all day. I'll just wear an updo if I have to attend a meeting with outside people :)

[Flying Betty]

Do you think that long hair would be a barrier to an engineer who wanted to move up into a higher level of management?

Honestly, yes, a bit. More so for men than women. Women have the option of wearing a bun which is completely professional, if seen as a bit stodgy. I think men have it a lot harder with long hair and promotions. It's also a bit hard to say because I don't come in contact with that level of management very much, and there really aren't many women. The engineering VP where I work is female, and her hair is about chin length. I met the woman who manages some of the engineering sections across several sites once, and her hair was probably shoulderblade length and down.

And I'm also talking business management roles here, the kind where you wear a suit and travel to meetings all the time. Being the manager directly in charge of the engineers, or being a project manager, are very different stories.


Disclaimer: this is all from my very limited point of view, also as someone who has always had beyond waistlength hair and has never seen any of the cattiness that so many people seem to experience, and thinks (hopes?) that acting professional and doing a good job will get you pretty far.

[trolleypup]

Heh. Technically, I am in violation of the Rulebook, on the subject of hair (head and facial)...it still has sections regarding both, although they have not been enforced in decades, and the only supervisor who ever says anything has a waist length ponytail...so not so serious. The company is far more interested in that I am at work on time, in most of the uniform, than my appearance.

I receive a great deal of respect for my competence, and no disrespect for my long hair (whether up or down).