new thread
Hi,
Well I'm in the job hunt to pay for my college tuition. I thought it was going to be paid for by my father, but he decided to divorce my mother, so no go. I was really left between a rock and a hard place because I had no way to pay for UC San Diego, but I needed to make a decision fast. Anyway, I decided to drop out for the year and reapply. In the meantime, I've got to get a job. I've been applying to hotel and food industry positions, and I've been told that I must get a haircut to be hired. My question is can I someway use a legal stance on the issue to leverage them into allowing t=me to keep my hair. I mean it seems like if they can't discriminate against color, sex,appearance, there has to be a way to claim they are discriminating against hair length. What i have been saying when asked if I'll get a cut is "If I'm hired, I will always keep my hair neat, professional, and hygenic. I hope that you will consider me for this position on my merits." I would really like to have some legal comeback, though. I don't really know what to do. On one hand I feel like I've given up so much already, and that cutting my hair will send me even deeper into depression. I've been waking up with dreams that i cut my hair for a job and I just feel sick and that I hate myself for cutting it. On the other hand, I need a job and I haven't been able to find one that'll let me keep my hair, so I may need to just do it. I need some help and encouragement.
Thanks,
Evan
Evan,
Exactly what type of job are you looking for? I know that there are many places that will hire you regardless of how long your hair is or how you style your hair. I worked at a grocery store in the meat department for 2 years while growing my hair out and it was not a problem; it was a union job, which may have helped. I also worked at Pizza Hut delivering pizzas and there was a kid there with mid-back length hair who was also a delivery driver. I also know that Target has no rules on hair. My point is there are places that will hire you without you having to compromis your hair. DON'T GET IT CUT! If you are happy with your long hair, you'll regret cutting it. For me personally, I don't feel like myself with short hair. I feel like a big part of me is missing. Hang in there and keep looking.
Chris
Dude, I can't believe that you are having that kind of a problem in San Diego?! I live in th L.A. area and used to go down there fairly often on business and have seen many a longhair down there. Maybe if you look for work in the surfer centric areas you might have better luck. Anyway, hope things work out.
It's not going to impress an employer to threaten them with legal action before you even start work. There have been lots of posts from longhairs who have found places which offer work without discrimination against long hair, so try some of the places Chris has suggested- but above all, BE YOURSELF or your years studying will be spoiled.
Good luck.
bad news: our laws give businesses considerable leeway in dictating appearance standards. good news: there are plenty of businesses that will hire you for your qualifications.
perhaps your tuition can be at least partially negotiated in divorce court?
whatever you do DO NOT cut it, i'm sad to say i don't think there are ANY laws to protect longhairs, i have been fired for refusing to cut my hair before and have nt gotten alot of jobs but there ARE jobs out there that will hire you,
i work at home depot right now and they have no problem with long hair as long as it's kept neat and out of your face, there are infact 3 longhairs working in this same place right now, if someone wants me to change ME for a job i wouldent want to work for them in the first place
one thing they CAN'T discriminate on is religion so you could always say that LONG HAIR is part of your religion and to cut it would be against your religion
but thats just an idea lol, not sure if it would actually work
Evan,
I'm a law student in California, and this very issue caused me to briefly look into discrimination of a man with long hair. Unfortunately, a cursory search turned up no law in our favor. I'm not done looking into this issue further, but I just can't do it right now because my studies are taking up almost all my time. Have you also tried Walmart, K-Mart, and other department stores? Like the others have stated, don't give up. Keep looking and make it a point to inquire into a certain amount of jobs per week. It's a statistics game in that the more you look, the more of a chance you'll find an employer willing to hire you. Best of luck to you, and I'm sorry about your parents' divorce.
PS--Have you looked into student loans? My parents were divorced when I went to college and that's mostly how I did it.
I know for a fact that in 1990, when parents became divorced, the father became LEGALLY REQUIRED to pay college expenses for his children. Of course, the law may have changed since then, because men have been fighting it. But I would check with your mother's attorney on this one, because your dad may have to pay college tuition whether he wants to or not.
This is a situation that happened to a friend of mine, so I know about the legal requirement. He was the dad, and didn't want to pay college tuition because he didn't have custody and was hardly allowed to see his children because the mom was a bitch. She should have not been awarded custody ever, but that's our legal system for you. It's jaded against men, especially long haired men.
Zapper
Hello everbody,
Thanks to everybody that responded to my post. I'v decided that I may have justt been looking in the wrong places for jobs. I'm going to start looking at the places that you recomended. I'm surprised I even considered cutting. I guess I was just dejected because i had just been offered a job on the condition of cutting my hair. I'll have my mom ask her lawyer about getting my dad to help, and I'll definetly utilize loans, it was just too late to get them this year. I was just hoping that their was some miracle document that I could hand to the employer that would compel them to let me keep my hair. Oh well. Anyway, thanks for your time, I'll let you know when and where I had success with my job.
Evan
I know you're going through some tough emotions with your financial situation, your parents' divorce, and getting a job with long hair. When I had a particularly difficult time in my live, a woman cut out a newspaper clipping and I'll never forget them, for they have provided me with encouragement to this day. Those words were:
"People are like tea bags...the longer they're in hot water, the stronger they get"
Hopefully they work for you too :)
... but the longer i'm in hot mater the more steamed i get.
Haha! How true!! :)
Do they require women in the same job to cut their hair? If not, that's sex discrimination. Pure and simple. If you're willing to tie it up and wear a hairnet or bonnet, they can't make you.
Even if prospective employers aren't allowed to discriminate, they can still choose not to employ you! Some bosses don't like beards, or women with obviously bleached hair, for example.
Perhaps you've done this, but look around for workplaces which have long-haired male emloyees, or boss even.
Cheers, rick
There's already been a lot of good responses, all of which I agree with, so I'll try to skip any repetition. It sounds like you're having trouble finding the typical college student jobs (retail, resturaunts, etc.) in order to continue college. One question I must ask: what is your intended major and career? Do you think that long hair will be more accepted in a professional, corporate environment? I was in a similar situation to yours, and I continued on with college thinking that I could lose the hair down to my butt and go on. Seven years after graduating I still miss the long hair (although it is well past my shoulders again, and I do expect some fallout someday). If I find myself leaving this job I'm sure I'll have to start it all over again. Just something to think about. If you're hair is that important to you, it may be worth weighing against your career choices. If I could do it over again, I would seriously look into other options.
Amen, brother. I studied two fields where longhairs are very sparsely represented, and I would recommend to anyone with a strong longhair identity that he at least make an effort to get an education to some extent in two of the three fields where longhairs encounter the least discrimination and are more concentrated than elsewhere:
Music.Creative Arts.Computers.
In those fields longhairs not only find other longhairs to work with, they also find little in the way of a "glass ceiling" that longhairs often encounter in other fields. I'd recommend to a guy starting out to learn skills in two of these areas so if one goes south for awhile (like computer work has this year) he can find work in the other.
Guys with long hair find work in almost any field, of course, but in those three fields I listed, longhairs don't have a tougher go at it than anyone else, and that's a nice environment to have, other things being equal.
Music.Creative Arts.
I work in a grocery store and the boss said that having a beard is forbidden. I am a six-monther. My hair is not that long yet and nobody told me to cut my hair. But if someone tell me to do it, I don't know what I will do.