Poll of the Day > Why do Americans hate long hair and beards on professional environments ?

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is a congressman in Spain.. in America too many people will complain about his hair and beard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO8d2Ced5Tw
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Well to be fair, that guys hair and beard look terrible. Surely you can find a politician with long luxurious hair and a glorious beard instead of a guy who looks like a dirty hobo.

I believe it's a mix of jealousy and an obsession with what they believe men are supposed to look like.
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Because hippies and girly locks, i'm guessing, like a sense of thinking that carried from the olden days like 1950's and 60's or whatever.
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The Spanish government is something to be looked at as ideal right now?
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Because the 50's happened, and then 70's happened and long hair/beards became the exact opposite of corporate culture.
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Topic is flawed. Didn't specify men or women, just said long hair. Long hair on women is almost-always allowed and expected, even.

Regarding long hair on men, I can see long hair being discouraged in a professional environment, with the exception being if the hair is clean and stylized or in a ponytail. Most of the time, it's just adherence to 50's office culture that continues to be practiced and as a norm as men with long hair are stereotyped as being unclean, unemployed, etc.

Beards on men, however, is a trend that is subjective. I've seen plenty of men in office settings with beards, much like the picture below.

http://beardstyle.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/long-stubble-beard-styles2.jpg

As I mentioned, as long as it's groomed well and not a

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHgpklQc34I

It's usually allowed, so long as the person isn't always preparing or handling food - in that case, its a health code issue.

I always assumed it is some vestige of Puritanism and modern westernized Christianity.

America is a very strange place. I'm not a sociologist so I won't waste my time trying to understand it.
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MacrossSpecial posted...

I always assumed it is some vestige of Puritanism and modern westernized Christianity.

America is a very strange place. I'm not a sociologist so I won't waste my time trying to understand it.

America is a bit like Camelot. You always want to go there, but when you go, you find the locals are a bit silly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ghXxXyAuw

Pretty much all the doctors I worked with had big bushy beards
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I'd like to know why women in professional environments can wear a wide variety of skirts, dresses, etc... and "flats" that are basically sandals but if a guy wears shorts and/or sandals, everyone freaks the fuck out.
Even if they're "formal" shorts w/ a belt loop, zipper & button and basically everything else slacks have minus being full-length.
Really fucking bull shit in the summer especially.

It's just trend and style.
Look at presidential portraits, when was the last one with long hair or a beard?
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Because most guys look awful with long hair/beard.
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Because it doesn't look good or professional.

Cruddy_horse posted...

Because most guys look awful with long hair/beard.

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It looks sloppy
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America doesn't have one dress code. If you're working for a highly regimented and hierarchical organization like IBM, then yeah, there's strict social norms there. It is basically a military organization with efficiency and minimal room or encouragement for individual expression. However you're a staff writer for Rick and Morty, another American enterprise, then yeah, show up in a dirty bathrobe with your pickle rick sticking out, nobody gives a fuck.

Lil69Leo posted...

Because it doesn't look good or professional.

Opinion
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Because the American business world is programmed to believe any guy with long hair and a beard is a lazy person, this has spread over to popular culture. There are some professional fields where the stigma has been overcome.

In my mid-20's, I had dreadlocks while working in a cleanroom designed to protect the product from contamination via the human operator. I was the cleanest operator. I was the guy QA requested when the FDA wanted to observe someone propagating human fibroblast cells.

This product, http://intactwiki.org/wiki/NouriCel, I streamlined and implemented the first manufacturing project to produce a commercial batch. 2 process engineers created a framework but I'm the guy who made a functional process generating revenue efficiently.

EDIT: 1st post was almost at 4:20.5. I'm serious. I really did produce the first commercial batch and streamline a multi-day concentration process of the used growth media from manufacturing human collagen based on the ability to produce dermagraft and transcyte.
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that hair doesn't look professional
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Because Americans with an unkempt appearance are usually moronic communists and burned out professional protester stoners.
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It just doesn't look good on professional environments. Case in point:
https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ZnfgGcby3VWOBlvhAuQd9Q.jpeg
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Because Americans are obsessed with professionalism and it disgusts me.
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It just has to be immaculately maintained, and not some bizarre style. Then it's fine. As much as people push the fact that it's what on the inside that counts, the fact that appearances are important remains. I don't particularly like it but it's a fact of life. It displays a degree of responsibility and maturity.
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Why do you keep making this topic?
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BTB posted...

Because Americans are obsessed with professionalism and it disgusts me.

Uhh, what Americans would that be?
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jsb0714 posted...

BTB posted...

Because Americans are obsessed with professionalism and it disgusts me.

Uhh, what Americans would that be?

The people I grew up with, for starters.

Seriously, if a guy has a pony tail everybody in my clan will start whispering about how much of a hippie they are and how they should get clean cuts.

Lil69Leo posted...

Because it doesn't look good or professional.

This is a useless response since the question is basically asking why it's considered unprofessional. Circular logic.

"Why does the man want to step all over my individuality, maaaan?!"... I mean I get that, you want to stand out and be an individual. I'm not a good fit working for a company that demands uniformity in appearance. And that's exactly why I don't work for companies like that. If you're a Bob Ross hippie type and you're applying to work for GE... I mean that's obviously not going to be a good fit, even without the appearance codes. You're clearly not meant to work for a place like that so why are you even bitching about it.

Do companies like GE and IBM even have strict dress codes anymore? Even bigger, older companies are adopting a lot of the modern tech startup culture.