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I'm going to be sending out resumes to various companies but I have longish hair and I'm wondering if I should get a haircut. Does hair have much impact on job opportunities?

I have a picture so people have a better idea of what my hair is like, I'm the one on the right doing a really forced smile.

Would you honestly trust a scraggly and unkept gentlemen to work for you? (cant see the pic work is janky) It wont hurt you to get a trim to get it uniform or cleaned up.

I don't know about the specifics in Canada, culture may be diffrent, but I get the feeling it's not. In the UK at least, haircuts can make a diffrence, but unless your going for a job as a merchant banker or a lawyer in an old fasioned firm yours will be fine as long as it is neat when you go for an interview. If you had a Mohawk, bright pink hair or looked in someway extream then yes, it could, but long hair is not an issue unless you happen to be going in to a very stuffy old fashioned business.

Kavik_Whitescar wrote:
Would you honestly trust a scraggly and unkept gentlemen to work for you?

Not everyone who has long hair is unkempt though.

Kavik_Whitescar wrote:
Would you honestly trust a scraggly and unkept gentlemen to work for you? (cant see the pic work is janky) It wont hurt you to get a trim to get it uniform or cleaned up.

It's not unkempt, just sholder length.

 Steve steveson wrote:

Kavik_Whitescar wrote:
Would you honestly trust a scraggly and unkept gentlemen to work for you? (cant see the pic work is janky) It wont hurt you to get a trim to get it uniform or cleaned up.

It's not unkempt, just sholder length.

Then you should be fine, Like I said work is wonky and I cant see most images, but as long as you are clean about it, there is no real worry imo

There is one particular type of jobs that will not tolerate long hair extremely well – those which require clear enviroment, i.e. electronics assembly, chemical/microbiological lab, etc. So, unless you are seeking to transmute Pb into Au, you should be fine from a technical standpoint.

Doesn't seem bad to me.

If all else fails, turn up to the interviews in a dress. They will think your trans, won't want to be seen to discriminate and will have to hire you.

What type of job are you going for? One of my friends has a scruffy beard and dirty ponytail and got a job as a programmer without issues. The place he works for might be a little... organic, though.

For a "professional" or "customer facing" job, it might not help so much.

My advice is to at least make sure it's clean and square, or wait until you have the job and then grow it out. Harder to get rid of you after the fact.

Depends entirely on where you live and where you want to work. Here in Seattle, there's only a few jobs that require a particularly "clean cut" look, and most of those places aren't where you'd want to work anyway.

Depends on the job. I would never hire someone with untrimmed hair; trimmed hair suggests cleanness to the viewer i.e. you regularly get your hair cut. Long hair doesn't go along with business. Unless you're a woman.


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Dropbear Victim wrote:


If all else fails, turn up to the interviews in a dress. They will think your trans, won't want to be seen to discriminate and will have to hire you.

Though I realize that it's meant to be as a joke, it's the opposite. No bigger company would want to hire people identifying as trans.

No bigger company would want to hire people identifying as trans.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Boeing aren't big companies to you?

You must be stupid.

Microsoft, specifically, is one of the world's leaders in workforce diversity, followed by Google, Starbucks, and Amazon. I know several LGBT employees at various Boeing locations in the Pacific Northwest.

Depends on the job. I know one manager didn't want to hire anyone with a beard because he thought they were unkempt. However I work in retail and have a beard and occasionally messy hair, although that is due to the fact my hair is curly and refused to remain in a single position for more than ten minutes without curling up.

 Psienesis wrote:

No bigger company would want to hire people identifying as trans.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Boeing aren't big companies to you?

You must be stupid.

Microsoft, specifically, is one of the world's leaders in workforce diversity, followed by Google, Starbucks, and Amazon. I know several LGBT employees at various Boeing locations in the Pacific Northwest.

Did they show up to interviews wearing dresses?

Of the transexuals that I know who work for Boeing, one is F2M, and arrived in a suit and tie, but I don't know what the M2F wore. However, her job is not one that requires heels and a skirt, since she's some sort of avionics mechanic of some sort or another (which is a job field far outside my realm of expertise, so I can't even begin to describe what it is she does).

I'd put it back at a minimum. Depends what kind of job you are looking for.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Depends on the job. I would never hire someone with untrimmed hair; trimmed hair suggests cleanness to the viewer i.e. you regularly get your hair cut. Long hair doesn't go along with business. Unless you're a woman.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dropbear Victim wrote:


If all else fails, turn up to the interviews in a dress. They will think your trans, won't want to be seen to discriminate and will have to hire you.

Though I realize that it's meant to be as a joke, it's the opposite. No bigger company would want to hire people identifying as trans.

Both these views are out of line with the law, and every business I have worked for or known of. Both would fall foul of EU discrimination law and the European convention on human rights. You have said things like this before, which makes me thing you are either way out of line with the majority of people, and braking the law, or Germany has some major discrimination issues. I suspect it is the former.

 Psienesis wrote:
she's some sort of avionics mechanic of some sort or another (which is a job field far outside my realm of expertise, so I can't even begin to describe what it is she does).

As a fairy (Technical jargon for an Avionics Fitter) she puts black boxes into/out of slots on the aircraft, turns it on and checks the light goes green.........

When I had my first interview my hair was just long enough to make a ponytail. I required a lot of hairspray to make it look decent.
By now, my hair is 67cm long (2'3'') and I never had any issues because of my hair. Just make sure you don't look like some unhygienic punk.

@Sigvatr "Long hair doesn't go along with business". Yes, it does. Is "SIEMENS" big enough for you? Is "customer contact and supplier contact on a regular basis" business enough for you? I do have the longest hair within the whole business unit (300 people) and no one raises an eyebrow. Well, ok, some of the female employees envy my hair but that's rather positive feedback.

 marv335 wrote:

As a fairy (Technical jargon for an Avionics Fitter) she puts black boxes into/out of slots on the aircraft, turns it on and checks the light goes green.........

I dated a girl into that for a while.

 von Hohenstein wrote:

@Sigvatr "Long hair doesn't go along with business". Yes, it does. Is "SIEMENS" big enough for you? Is "customer contact and supplier contact on a regular basis" business enough for you? I do have the longest hair within the whole business unit (300 people) and no one raises an eyebrow. Well, ok, some of the female employees envy my hair but that's rather positive feedback.

There's nothing wrong with having long hair at all. It's just that it's being looked down upon by higher ups as it goes against the "business face". Clean shaved, clean cut. And I certainly won't displease my higher-ups.

 Steve steveson wrote:


Both these views are out of line with the law, and every business I have worked for or known of. Both would fall foul of EU discrimination law and the European convention on human rights. You have said things like this before, which makes me thing you are either way out of line with the majority of people, and braking the law, or Germany has some major discrimination issues. I suspect it is the former.

The law doesn't mean much. Its underlying purpose is good, but there are so many loopholes and vague points about it that it doesn't matter on a greater scheme / on a higher level. You could fire people for any reason you want. Chargig IPhones, badmouthing superiors, drunk photos on Facebook, pregnancy. Anything. It's breaking the law, yes, but any company frequently breaks the law on each possible level, mostly when it comes to taxes and paying employees. In the end, politics are well-aware of who has the last word on it.

 marv335 wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
she's some sort of avionics mechanic of some sort or another (which is a job field far outside my realm of expertise, so I can't even begin to describe what it is she does).

As a fairy (Technical jargon for an Avionics Fitter) she puts black boxes into/out of slots on the aircraft, turns it on and checks the light goes green.........

I will take your word for it, because I literally have no idea what it is she does. My knowledge of avionics begins and ends with "if all you can see is the ground, you're in trouble".

Always pays to make a good impression- snip it and neaten it up a bit

Your best bet is to trim it up a bit. That first impression is the most important.

Folks can cry about the injustice of it all, long hair, crazy tattoos, 2" wide holes in your ears, etc... but in the end you are asking to for someone else to give you money, so it never hurts to present them the best image that you can.

I don't think long hair is an issue, Just make sure it is clean and neatly brushed and styled.
Long hair looks nice, but it does require quite a lot of effort.

General presentability should overrule and issues with long hair.
Keep everything off the face and dress smartly, that should be enough.
But, as said, it's very dependant on the job, and the prospective employer.

Go for the best of both worlds: a mullet! Business in the front, party in the back.*








*YMMV. And by “your milage may vary”, I mean don’t do this.

My best friend has a ponytail. "You're hired if you trim your hair" is a line he hears often on job interviews.

Hair is not a protected class, neither is Tattoos or piercings.

You should know your field of work, your region of the country and your prospective employer. If there is any question, and you want a job, then error on the side of getting the job.

Many companies may not care and have a casual environment, others may care especially if you are a client-facing employee. To say it doesn't have an impact, it does. Most people make subconcious snap judgements about you based upon appearance, and in a job interview, that can be the kiss of death.

The simple fact that tall people get higher paying jobs and hired more than their shorter peers shows how nonsensical it can be, but it exists.

I would clean up to the society standard until I found a stable company I liked and then grow it out. Once you do good work, no one cares what you look like.

I would recommend a haircut.

Shorter hair is easier to maintain, doesn't get in your eyes, dries faster, etc...

I had long hair in my past, cut it short to play football, cut it shorter when I joined the military and haven't looked back even now that I am out (currently in grad school pursuing an MBA).

You will stand out when you show up to an interview/networking event and everyone else is sporting a mop on their head and scruff on their neck while you are well groomed. Look good, feel good. Look better, do best.