Alright people, listen up and listen closely. Because this nugget of information, this extremely scientific piece of research I’m about to share: could change your life. Or at the very least, it could change your hair.
You see, according to legal blog The Careerist, there are women all over the world who are RUINING THEIR CAREERS because they refuse to cut their hair as they get older. That’s right, how seriously your colleagues take your opinions and advice in the workplace is directly and inversely proportionate to the length of your hair.
Put that in your curling iron and let it smoke.
Let’s look at exactly what The Careerist has to say about the relationship between your hair and your job:
An entertainment lawyer in California insists that women over 40 who sport long hair are making a mistake—professionally and personally. Most women end up with “long, stringy dark brown hair shot with a few frizzy strands of gray,” she says.
But “even if the hair is long, glossy, and well-maintained, the juxtaposition of aging or—to be politically correct—’mature’ facial features and youthful hairstyle doesn’t work.” The look is jolting and not compatible with professional comportment.
Not compatible with professional comportment? Well that’s distressing because I have to say that top of mind for me each day when I rock up at the office is my ‘professional comportment’. (I’ll be honest with you, I’m not sure whether I comport professionally or unprofessionally, this is the first time I’ve given that critically career defining factor a moment’s thought).
The lawyer/blogger/hair-ist continues:
I feel guilty about picking on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s appearance, because I think she gets picked on way too much for the way she looks. She’s a substantive person with a substantive job. And we should leave her alone.
So forgive me for pointing out that her hair has been growing like an unruly potted plant in recent months. For a while, she looked nicely put-together. But since she’s been letting her hair grow, Clinton often looks haggard and rumpled.
I just hope she’s not planning to let it grow long. I know this doesn’t sound very liberated, but I find women over 40 with very long hair unsettling—particularly if it is straight and hangs more than a few inches below the shoulder.
(And don’t get me started on straight, blond long hair on women over a certain age!) They look rather sad and dated to me—as if they’re desperately trying to rechannel Joni Mitchell in her heyday.
Unsettling? There are many things to find unsettling in the workplace: casual racism, inappropriate use of the photocopier, visitors drinking out of your favourite West Wing mug or when people put the toilet roll on the holder the wrong way. But how your colleagues chose to wear their hair should not be unsettling.
So, as much as the pronouncements of this career advisor annoy me (and her dissing of Joni Mitchell, I mean, please) As outraged as I am however, I do suspect that she might be, just a little bit right.