What job do you do that is hair friendly?

[Dystopatica]

I work for Social Services in what used to be known as the child protection register. My job is complicated to describe, but essentially I have to attend child protection conferences with families and professional agencies involved with the children or parents (school, GP or Health Visitor, Probation, etc) so I am customer facing constantly. Our dress code is theoretically business casual, but since social workers are quite intimidating anyway we try to make people more relaxed by dressing down slightly.

I only ever wear black/white/grey dreads anyway through personal choice, but it's never been commented on by my boss or anyone higher up. I think most public sector jobs are pretty laid back, I worked with young offenders before this and I wore dreads there too. Councils seem to be a lot more accepting than private sector companies.

Also, I have to point out that if any of the companies who have refused dreads have any ethnic minority members of staff with braids or dreads then they cannot refuse it for any one else. They can draw the line at bright colours, but plain black, brown or blonde is fair game. This also applies to facial piercings, as a lot of hindi girls will have thier nose pierced for religious purposes, and they cannot request that it's removed. If anyone working for your company has braids/dreads/piercings/tattoos for cultural reasons then the company cannot impose sanctions on other staff members against them. I'm not saying that you should all kick off if they ask you to remove them, but it's something worth bearing in mind.

[sinn_ister]

I'm a stripper

[Elstaro]

I work as a cook, as Im not really insight of the customers my my managers are really cool about my randomly coming in with some off the wall colored dreads off and on. I dont think any of them have seen anything like it before, They seem fasinated by my hair its kinda funny.

[venus]

I was a full time mum up until 3 years ago, then got a job at Manchester Uni as a lab assistant. The only things I can't wear are flip flops or open toed sandals, everything else is ok. In fact my colleagues and the lecturers find my hair colours and styles interesting and appreciate me for myself. The students are much more 'normal' by comparison but thats probably cos I work in the medical school and they can't express themselves as much.

[Kodachi]

I'm the library assistant at my college's library. They've seen practically every fall I have worn, especialy the outrageous colored ones (because only one fall I own matches my hair color. I rather the mismatch). The only sucktacular part of this (for me) is when I come late because the head goes "I recognize that poof anywhere! You're late" when I can usually get away with murder ^.^

I also stop people at the desk when I am putting up books. Since I go to a college where it seems a fair bit of the White people there are terrified out of their minds of diversity and looking racist, I just say "What, you've never seen a Black person before?" and I think people get whiplash from turning their heads away so fast to pretend that they're minding their business. To the Black ones, I just go "At least you can tell my hair is fake!" and they storm off angry that I'm not the one pissed and have good eyes!

My boss calls them "pom-poms" and I'm waiting for him to call me "pom pom head". He said "Go and do a cheer! You have pom-poms!" I replied cheerfully "Sure! When you start paying me more! Gooooooo $11/hour!"

[kaned_ferret]

I work in a rescue shelter caring for/rehoming and training dogs. My manager has no problem with any sort of alternate appearance however HER boss isn't too keen - never going so far as to say anything controversial like "you can't have them" but phrasing it more in the way of "you're supposed to be working with animals and you need to come across as cuddly and approachable - that appearance isn't cuddly!" - honestly whever thought I wasn't cuddly lol. she threw an epi when I put in long red and black dreads for halloween a couple of years ago, yet the last time she saw me with short blonde dreads with bright pink and blue accents she just smiled brightly and said, "oh I DO like that.. it's very gay!" To this day I don't know how serious she was being!

I dislike the association between poor education and work ethics and alternative appearance - I went to grammar school, i'm incredibly intelligent and erudite, and work very hard and am VERY good at my job - yet it seems I still fail to prove that one doesn't outrule the other. I eventually opted to remove all my piercings - I didn't have to, but it was a "preferred" option lol. Large charities manipulate in underhand ways to get what they want without the scandal I am sure...

[Mal]

I work at K-Mart on a checkout.

I really hate it, but they do tolerate my bleached fringe and nose piercing which is great! I even had a yellow fringe (colour resembling neon yellow) and they didn't tell me to change my hair.

EDIT: BTW you all have awesome and interesting jobs

[Ice_Pick_Abortions]

Public Prosecution Service NI. i don't do any court work though as i'm HR. it's kinda civil service but not cos of the government issues here. only been there about 6 months. i've always had coloured hair since i've been there and i've worn a few sets. several people are still a bit unsure of what to make of me but i have been described as "a breath of colourful fresh air"

[Bomber]

Back at the Jobcentre in one of their call centres.

Very alternative looking friendly.. in my role. Because we have no face to face contact, we can basically look how we want, there's several people with un-naturally coloured hair and piercings. I'm the only one who ever wears dreads though.

People say I brighten the place up

[skymistress]

I'm unemployed at the moment, I model for fun, so I chose that answer.. I was a manager at a video rental store and I'm probably the only one that got away with how I dressed and how I styled my hair.. haha (well, I know that the other stores in the chain with different store managers didn't approve of even one random streak of color in someones hair)
My store manager was pretty lax, or at least didn't care how I looked because I guess I fit the personality for a manager at a video rental store being the horror and sci fi expert..

I usually wore knee high combat boots, gun belt(but not for a gun, just tactical purposes), vest, dress shirt, ascot, and pocket watch...but for the hair - I wore it half black half white (hired like that) in a pompadour for a while, then ventured into wearing my deathrock mohawk which stood about a foot and a half . I had quite the comments from customers - they thought I was interesting to say the least and loved starting conversations with me...also from my image they figured they could ask questions about certain movies they assumed I knew anything about.

I was there for about 7 months and quit (for travel reasons - too expensive to get to work at the time)

Now I'm trying to get into university studying under Engineering and hoping to change the way people view engineers - you can still be professional and alternative - just the way you do it

[Twiggy]

When i worked at best buy they normally are uptight about how there workers looked but i got away with having half pink and blonde hair bc the pink was underneath and i also had my gauged ears ^.^ working there was before the tongue ring...I do miss working there it was fun..but UGH i am now unemployed....

[CancerHybrid]

right now i work the overnight shift @ walmart stocking shelves
i've dyed my hair, have a high undercut, had all different colored dreads and 5 visible facial piericings
most of my co-workers like to see what i'll do next with my hair
and my manager doesnt give a crap what i look like as long as i show up

[Bomber]

and my manager doesnt give a crap what i look like as long as i show up

this I think is the attitude all managers should take, especially in non-customer facing roles.

As long as you show up and can do the job then what does it matter what you look like?

[Monique_marion_may]

My job is not on there but i work in the kitchens at a very posh boarding school!
They don't mind my colour or size aslong as i can fit a hat on and get it all in a hair net.
It normally takes me 3 hairnets and alot of elastic bands to fit it all in and as itgets hot its get ITCHY!!
But seen as the students arent allowed to dye their hair (not even natural colours) and arent allowed any tattoos or piercings other then ears once i dont think i can complain about the itchin seen as i have a bridge piercing, snake bites, tounge, many ears piercings, a streached lobe a tattoo on my hand and a tattoo on myother wrist i think its not bad! haha
x

[Deathwish_]

When I worked at a local music shop no-one had a problem with anything I did with my hair/clothes etc.

Now I'm working in a Bupa care home...and I'm not allowed to have a visible personality
They don't mind so much that I have stretched ears, and they will allow very very inoffensive visible tattoos, but hair HAS to be ridiculously neat and natural. I hate it...mainly because I was born with an inherent desire to stick out like a sore thumb I think when I've been there a little longer I'll try and wear them down. - I see no reason why my hair would detract anything from my working abilities.

[Goglu]

full time student and got a part time job in a ''couche tard'' wich is a ''Mac's'' for english people(well, where there is a mac's...lol) and also a full time photographer(well, still not getting paid to, i'm doing this for my portfolio these time^^)

[Lilinth]

courtesy of a uniform redesign at work it is now feasible for me to wear a dreadhawk, as long as i pull a hairnet over it

[EmsyHammer]

i work in Paperchase inside Borders, they allow bright coloured hair and some piercings but i don't think they would allow big head of synthetic dreads, although the Startbucks inside has natural dreaded ladies.

[<<Miss_Sami>>]

Ok, thought I would update mine as things have changed!
At present I don't have a job as I've just finished uni and don't start my new job until September.
So for now, anything goes
From Sept I will be a teacher, they're fine with the colour of my hair (brightish/unnatural red) but I've not asked about dreads...

[cherrygloom]

i work in Paperchase inside Borders, they allow bright coloured hair and some piercings but i don't think they would allow big head of synthetic dreads, although the Startbucks inside has natural dreaded ladies.

Starbucks don't allow unnatural coloured hair though, I worked there for 4 years and had to wear a black wig over my pink (cos I was not about to dye my real hair for the sake of a job!).

[NaturalistDesigns]

I work for Lush; my manager is actually encouraging the bright colour of hair!!

[PrettyRaveGirl]

Soon to be full time parent and I'll be starting college doing hairdressing in september, I'm assuming both will be pretty lenient professions =)

[NaturalistDesigns]

I work in retail, aka Lush, and they're actually very welcoming about mad coloured hair

[invertedcross]

I work at a hybrid antique/book store and my boss likes my hair a lot. I get mostly positive comments but some stuck-up middle age women give me the eye sometimes (I have bright purple hair, have worn extensions, etc). It's an okay job but as soon as I go to art school I'll get a better one - and I doubt they'll care about my hair either

[[[Violet.Nightmare]]]

pub
i just got a job as a bar maid
and half the people in there used to have coloured hair/piercings
or are students. so as long as i dont look too way out, i can do as i please