question for the long-haired guys

[arcane1]

have you ever been discriminated against, when applying for a job?

Girls can feel free to join in too

[ixion]

1. I had long hair for years...

and when I decided to cut it, I was amazed at the dramatic change in the way people treated me. It's ridiculous, really, and just goes to show how shallow people can be.

[arcane1]

5. indeed

not to mention the double-standard involved

[StopTheMorans]

7. when i cut my hair, i started getting WAY more dates and people did

treat me much differently as well. i never had a problem before, but girls invariably said "you don't look as intimidating with shorter hair". fyi, i'm about as far from intimidating as they come :D

[arcane1]

8. I have seen that effect too

and same here, I'm a kitten, but many over the years have assumed I was a 'bad boy' of some kind, just on the hair alone

it's weird, women don't have that kind of issue at all :shrug:

[Amaya]

15. YOU had long hair?

I knew you were a closet hippie ;)

Peace, man:hippie:

[StopTheMorans]

22. GROSS!

yes, i had long hair, but it was never HIPPIE long hair. always well-groomed, usually wore it up, ALWAYS showered:) yes, that's the skeleton in my closet. it's the only one, I swear *crosses fingers* :evilgrin:

[John Q. Citizen]

12. I remember the first time I cut my long hair

and the response from strangers was amazing. People on the street who would have nodded hello the day before totally ignored me and people who would have ignored me nodded hello.

People are asleep for the most part....

[kick-ass-bob]

34. I cut my long hair in H.S.

to a less long length - and people didn't even know who I was.

Including a teacher.

[Roon]

28. That goes for weight too..

I lost 100 pounds once and was amazed how differently the world treated me.

[htuttle]

2. No, I just "tuck my hair up into my hat, and go in to ask them why..."

:)

Sure, having had a pony tail since high school, of course I have. It was worse the year and 1/2 I had a purple mohawk, though.

[arcane1]

6. I took off my hat and said "imagine that.."

"me, working for you!"

now I'll have that song stuck in my head all day :P

[JVS]

3. Jobs are for squares man

[StopTheMorans]

4. damn hippies

:evilgrin:

[mike_c]

9. I've worn my hair long for 35 years...

...and if I've ever been discriminated against because of it I'm not aware of it. I have cut it to varying degrees a few times when I've grown tired of dealing with it, but mostly wear it in a long pony-tail, now increasingly streaked with gray.

[arcane1]

11. I've applied for jobs where they tell you, straight-up,

that men's hair cannot be over a certain length, as part of the actual job requirement

[mike_c]

18. I should also say that I've mostly worked in blue collar jobs...

...where long hair is not an employment issue, or in academia where it's likewise not relevant (not that I agree that it's really relevant anywhere). I've never sought corporate type jobs where image is as highly regarded as performance.

[arcane1]

19. most of these were non-corporate too

indeed, I have a corporate job now and my hair is long as hell

it may just be a community-standards thing, too

but it still sucks

I tried to get a blue-collar job once at a printer, men HAD to have short hair, PERIOD, but long-haired women could work there if they tied it up :eyes:

[Placebo]

10. I have a question for the long-haired guys as well...

Why are y'all so hott???

that is all.

:spank:

[arcane1]

13. LMAO

we're still trying to figure tht one out :P

[johnnie]

14. Not when applying for a job

Just about everyone else. I am growing it long again just to get under people's skin.

[jswordy]

16. Well, you walk into a restaurant, strung out from the road,

...and you feel the eyes upon you, as you're shaking off the cold,

You pretend it doesn't bother you, but you just want to explode.

Most times you can hear 'em talk, other times you can't,

Now, the same old cliches, is that a woman or a man,

And you always seem outnumbered, you don't dare make a stand.

"Turn the Page"
Bob Segar

I have been physically threatened while on the job twice because of my long hair. Both times they backed down when I told them to go ahead and throw the first punch, I would be sure to throw the last one.

I'm a male, and my hair is long for reasons other than fashion.

[cestpaspossible]

17. Yes, in fact, that's one of the main reasons I have it.

In order to weed out the assholes. I wouldn't want to work for a boss who wouldn't hire me because of my hair, and I don't care to deal socially with people who dislike me at first glance for it.

[arcane1]

20. haha!

that's a good idea :thumbsup:

[Mr. McD]

21. I had long hair in the 70's

I was stopped from entering a bar in Oregon because my kind wasn't welcome there. I never found out what they thought my kind was. :shrug:

[tjwmason]

23. No - but

I only had long hair for a little while during uni, in my summer vacation I went back ot the place where I had worked before and so had an established reputation there. The only thing was that I had to have it tied back (which was fine by me).

[DemBones DemBones]

24. A lot of people look down on women with long hair, too.

My first job, back in the Sixties, I cut my hair after a couple of months to look "more businesslike." Every time I've ever cut my hair short, people rave over it and then I know who's uptight and who's not. ;-)

They never get it that cutting your hair doesn't change your brain.

[arcane1]

33. true, but...

I've never heard of a dress-code that required short hair for women... a woman with long hair would still qualify for any job

[WCGreen]

25. I had long hair in the 70's

The late 80's when I was in a band....

And just recently...

You know, When I have I always think I look way cool....

But then I get a haircut, actually went on a local makeover show to get the last hair cut, and I thought I really looked a lot better with the shorter hair.....

Now I keep the beard close to teh chin and the hair at ear and collar level....

I look a lot better.....

BTW, I gave my pony tail to the Wigs for Kids..... It was fifteen inches long.....

[Mike Niendorff]

26. Yes.

The reason I ended up working in the trades after high school is because, at least in this area, it was virtually impossible for a longhaired guy to get work doing anything else at that time, regardless of qualifications.

Even so, I can also say that growing my hair out is probably the single most important decision I've ever made, because it forced me to come face-to-face with a lot of unpleasant truths about how the world around me really works. It's one thing to talk about these things in theory, but it's quite another to experience them firsthand.


MDN

[Kenneth ken]

27. yes

it was for a computer-related job at one of the big five accounting/auditing companies. The interivew lasted about five minutes, and the interviewer knew they weren't going to hire me, so it was a really big waste of both our time. (edit to add: the guy spent at least half the interview time playing with his wedding ring, rather than actually asking anything about skill sets or such.) Oh well, too bad for them, they had to settle for someone less talented than me. :)

I probably wouldn't have stayed long anyway, on the drive to the interview, I started having second thoughts about having to drive it regularly; it was kind of far from home.

[last_texas_dem]

29. Not sure

I worked at a movie theatre where I ended up having to cut my hair as part of the "dress code." However, I applied for and got the job despite having fairly long hair at the time (touching the collar in the back, almost covering my ears on top; long, but not long enough to pull back- otherwise I would have done that rather than cut it) and kept it for about a month despite reading upon taking the job that it was supposed to be above the ears (ridiculously strict dresscode; above the collar is one thing but above the ears seems very regressive when you think about it.) Finally, the manager got me to get it cut because the owner (uptight jackass) was coming down for a check-up and likely would have bitched, written me up, fired me, etc. It's amazing such a regressive dress code exists; I wonder if that strict of a hair regulation (above the ears for guys!?) was actually in place during the seventies or if we've actually moved backwards in this respect just because long hair is no longer "fashionable." Pretty sad if true...

I don't know that I've been discriminated against in terms of hiring, interviewing because of my hair, though. I suppose if that happened it was a matter of the potential employer seeing my hair when I came in to apply and not calling me based on that... However, I still haven't had a "real" job so figure I may run into this in the near future, especially since I'm growing my hair out again. I can never make up my mind about hair. Some shorter haircuts are more flattering on me (although super-short hair makes me look like a preteen skinhead, and I've had some bad moderate-length haircuts that caused me to resemble a middle-aged woman, crazy as that sounds!) than the longer hair that I prefer to have, but they also make me look really young. I have a fairly long face and having longer hair tends to bring out this aspect of my appearance, for better or worse. Longer hair makes me look quite a bit older and a little more intimidating and makes me feel like more of my own person. I think people are friendlier to me when I have shorter hair as well, but like an above poster said, I like how having long hair helps you to weed out the assholes.

[arcane1]

32. above the ears is totally fucking regressive

my experiences were all in the 80's, not sure if the time-period, or my location, had any effect on that stupid-assed policy

[Longgrain]

30. Actually no.

Since I haven't had to apply for a job in 15 years.

[carpetbagger]

31. No. Get the job, then grow the hair.

That's what I did. I got as far up the ladder as I wanted to, landing in the federal government, and then grew the hair.