HR people...hiring?

Times have not changed that much - it depends on the role and the company.

I work in the financial sector and it is still not acceptable to turn up to a meeting with bright green hair (for example). Certainly not as a new hire. 

To me, if you want to have a little of the 'individual' about you, that needs to be on your resume and then in your accessories. That's only because you say "any type of job in the corporate world", many would be different and seek out individuality. 

My company had a pretty open dress code and tattoos, piercings and off the wall colored hair is not an issue. But that is not true for every company. A candidate needs to research the company's culture to see what is accepted, and in turn, see if that culture is acceptable to them.

I can list 6 companies off the top of my head that have policies that hair can only be colors that occur naturally on people - not necessarily *your* natural color but a color that 'could' be natural.

Off the top of my head- without trying too hard, let alone googling

It IS changed from my twenties, but it depends on who/what/where it's not common business practice quite yet. Many people loose opportunities due to appearance

It would completely depend on who is doing the hiring, the company culture, and the visibility of the job. A better tact would be to interview with a traditional hair color, get the job, prove herself invaluable, and then approach the idea of different colored hair.

Agree that it depends on corporate culture, but in most large corporations (especially outside of the tech industry), I would generally say it can have a very big effect. It's an automatic drawback immediately before the interviewer can even start to ask questions. Should it be? Who can say? But a lot of times it is. She doesn't know the personality of the person that will interview her, so she is taking a big chance of not getting past the first question just due to her hair color.

not in HR, but I can tell you that sadly, hair color is often a factor. I know this from the tons of "my new job won't allow my alternative color" posts every week on a rainbow hair color forum I belong to. i'm happy I work in a lab where it doesn't matter, but i also started going rainbow after I got the job.

I work for a large corporation (60K employees). I don't see anyone in our NYC corporate office with colored hair. A subtle streak might not impact hiring, but a full head of colored hair would.

Tell your dd that "mom knows best."

I would add that location probably has a role, as well. What might fly in Austin may not fly in Chicago, for example. And even in Austin, I wouldn't show up with anything more than a couple of subtle colored streaks for most interviews. Some industries would likely be more accepting, but even so, I'd err on the conservative side. For example, DH works in game development, where standards of dress and appearance are generally pretty lenient. He wouldn't care about hair color if he was hiring, but some of the people he works with would.

The company I work for (corporate culture) requires natural hair color only.  Dying your hair to blond, brown, black, etc. is acceptable.  Dying hair purple, blue, pink, etc. is not acceptable.  We had a part-timer come in with pink streaks for breast cancer awareness and was told to remove it. She came in the next day with all traces of pink gone.

IMO it would be much smarter to go to an interview with natural hair color and inquire if fun hair colors are acceptable there.  If they say no and they offer her a job, she can decide then if it's a deal breaker.

My employee handbook states only natural colors.

I work in banking and it is conservative still, even on the west coast where things are not as rigid in banking as back east. Natural colored hair only, no gauges in the ears, concealed tattoos, business casual clothing.

Someone with non-traditional hair coloring would NEVER get hired and I have yet to see a single person in this very large company try to buck the dress code with colored hair. It just isn't done. You can get away with tattoos by covering them up, but that is about as risqué as people get.

Melissa

My boy has his first 'big boy interview' today. Before he left yesterday to go back to school we had a conversation that revolved around only what he is planning on wearing. The job itself is an OPS student job in a town that has a significant student population but it is in a fairly conservative industry. While they are used to students, and used to working around a student's odd schedules, they will not work around a student's whimsical purple streaks, eyebrow rings or neck tattoos. My boy does have a tattoo, but it will be hidden by his interview outfit, and typically dresses like 1985 prepster, so he will be okay.

The last job I had was to help with job seeker skills including interview prep-which includes how to dress and how to present yourself for an interview. A big no-no is doing anything that falls outside the norm of the most conservative person you know. You can wear...say...an interesting pin on your interview jacket, but not interesting dangling earrings. And hair? Neat and tidy, natural colors only. I used to have my clients come in for mock interviews, which included having them dress for the interview to ensure that it was appropriate for the interview. 

I don't personally care what color somebody's hair is. And I don't know what (if anything) our employee handbook says. But if somebody came to an interview on my team with pink hair, it would be a quick interview, and there's 0% chance I would consider them, no matter how qualified.

Our clients are very conservative and would never accept it. And if you came to a first impression interview that way, I would assume that you (a) don't understand our clients or (b) do not want to step in line to corporate culture.

I'd be your friend...I wouldn't hire you.