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I'm going to college soon and I need to know of any jobs that allow long hair so I can study the courses. I live in California, and I think they are less strict but I'm not sure. I would like to get a goverment job involving criminal justice or something science related( not chemistry though). I'm up for any ideas of other subjects I could major in instead of those. I also have a back up plan: crime scene clean-up. It doesn't require college but you must take blood pathogens training course (around $1500), have a clean DMV record and be physically fit, and on call 24hours. It pays well starting $15 an hour, yearly salary around $30,000 -$50,000. I would rather go to college though. Any help would be very thankful.
I was in the Army for six years, and I'd say about 10-20% of the contractors I worked with were long hairs. I also met good many of full-time federal government employees (non-contractors) who had long hair. I'm off to graduate school in mathematics next year, and plenty of professors have long-hair (my grad school adviser has terminal length). Outside of being a military service member or law enforcement officer, many places have style guidelines but not necessarily length requirements.
However, it will be at least three years minimum before you graduate. That is, I don't think you have to worry about finding employment just yet. You should study what you enjoy. From what you posted, a strong biology and organic chemistry (I know you said no chemistry, but you're going to have to suck it up if you really want to understand the human body.) background will provide you with the tools that you need. Here is the link to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics outlook, required education, and median salary for forensic science technicians: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes194092.htm
Good luck!
Thanks for the help, it Is greatly appreciated. I was going to pick criminology and forensic science as a major but wasn't sure if male forensic scientists could have long hair. I'm okay with cutting it shorter probably about half length. My hair is about 20 or so inches long. I'm okay with taking chemistry because I took it in highschool and it was quite interesting. I hate the math part of it though and having to convert joules and kilo joules. It's so confusing! Anyways thanks for the help and raising my self esteem about finding a great job.
Science is generally long hair friendly.
As for criminal justice, well being a police officer would be problematic. Plain clothes officers can have long hair, but there are a few snags to that. Firstly, the route into plain clothes is usually via uniform and short hair. Secondly, only large police departments generally have anyone in plain clothes. And thirdly, long haired plain clothes officers are generally deployed in anti-drug operations, which many long haired guys don't even endorse on principle.
There again, there are a few lawyers with long hair, many of them in criminal defence. As long as you wear a jacket and tie in court you can get away with it, and being a lawyer is something where you can be self-employed. Actually, you have to wear a jacket and tie in court anyway, even if you have short hair.
Law is a postgraduate profession in the US, but in California (and nowhere else) there are some unacreditted law schools that will accept law students who only have a 2-year degree (in anything), as long as you don't mind that those law degrees are not valid outside the state and not considered to be worth much beyond offering the opportunity to take the state bar, making self employment probably the only option.
Crime scene cleanup sounds grisly to me, but at least that means the competition for those jobs is probably not too fierce. A lot of people wouldn't want to do that. Me, for one!
BTW, you should read the book (or see the movie) 'Serpico'. It's about a long haired plain clothes officer who had to carry out drug busts and became disillusioned. AFAIK it's a real life story.
Thank you all for the help. I was getting worried that I might have to cut my hair completely off. I am now feeling more confident that I could get a good job that will allow long hair. The crime scene clean up is just a back up plan if the college thing goes bad or something. I already get a free semester so it shouldn't. I didn't realize they had a forum for long hairs but fortunately there is one. My father suggested the crime scene clean up thing because when he was an m.p. Investigator, he had seen some pretty gruesome suicides involving shotguns, and it wasn't that hard to stomach. Well, trying to stay on topic. Anyways thank you greatly for your help and thank you to whom ever created this site.
All the mental health professions tolerate long hair because they affirm self expression and individuality, though the training path is long and rigorous.
Psychology usually 5 yrs after BA, Psychiatry about same, SW about 2 years,
but more and more situations accept long hair and many employers are empathetic even envious. Some doors will close, others open.
A dress shirt and tie is a meta-comment on long hair which says, "I am responsible." thus countering the stereotype.
Caledonian, long hair psychologist in Asheville, NC
Thank you for the info. I took psychology in high school and found it to be a very interesting subject. I now have a while to think on what would be a great career for me. Thank you for your help and this site being a great confidence booster!
Computer Science! Esp. in open source, there is a lot of hair and facial hair (see Richard Stallman, Alan Cox). The Unix Beard in particular is well documented, and research suggests that it is a critical factor in the success of a programming language (see Kernighan & Ritchie vs. Alan Kay).
Anyway... I have shoulder-length, rather unkempt hair, and I just got a job (my first out of college) in software development in WI with 55k base salary.