My Green Hair Doesn’t Have a Degree, I Do.
It’s honestly a bit ridiculous that there’s still a stigma in the workplace that comes with having tattoos and hair that’s dyed an unnatural color. As I write this, my hair is two colors, black and pale blue-green, and throughout the black, there are hints of the pink and purple it was before that. Soon it’s going to be a dark purple. And, surprise! It doesn’t reflect on my ability to be a professional in the workplace.
Have you ever felt judged as soon as you enter a room or right after meeting someone? Have people ever stared at you for having dyed hair, or piercings, or tattoos, or any other thing that it’s considered to be “abnormal”? Me f*cking too.
Ever since I dyed my hair for the first time and I pierced my lower lip I’ve been constantly judged for it. People who are older than me suddenly started considering me a teenager and not the fully grown woman that I am, I was suddenly “immature” and “childish” for not having regular brown hair. By the way, there´s nothing wrong with brown hair, I just hated it on myself.
I totally believe that no style or fashion decision should make you “less professional” and that if someone judges you by how you look and not by the experience or abilities that you have, the mistake is theirs.
I have suffered a lot of labor discrimination because of having fancy colored hair, a pierced lip, and a tattoo on my right forearm. I’ve had a huge variety of fantasy hair colors in the last four years: blue, purple, pink, half purple and half pink, unicorn hair, silver hair, pastel pink hair, turquoise, blue, neon green... Here’s a picture of my current hair colour for reference:
During the time I’ve dyed my hair, I was also capable of getting a Literature degree and writing, editing and proofreading just fine. My appearance wasn’t a problem until I finished studying. Once I started applying for editing and proofreading jobs in my city (Mexico City) I realized that no matter how much someone liked my resume or how interested they were in my services through the phone, once the work interview took place they were no longer interested because of my lack of “professionalism”. I just didn’t fit into their standards.
I once had to walk into a job interview through the back door of the company because they told me that if the director of the company saw “someone like me” I would never be hired. Back then I didn’t have any tattoos and still they obviously never called me.
Some people told me that I was being stubborn and foolish for looking the way I did, that I should just dye my hair brown or black and settle for that, that I should remove my piercings and cover my tattoos.
But you know what? I refuse to. I refuse to give up on things that make me happy just because people think it’s “childish”. I refuse to let my appearance have more weight than my experience or abilities. In a world that has already taken so much from us by monetizing our anguish and our bodies. I don’t want capitalism to decide whether I can work or not based on my looks.
Dyed hair, piercings, tattoos, and alternative fashion are a huge part of my identity. I wouldn’t be myself without them and I refuse to change that. I LOVE how my hair looks every time I change its color and I love how my lips look with a ring on them, in fact, I’ve been wanting to get new piercings right after this lockdown is over. If that makes me unprofessional then I guess I'll just have to keep on trying and look for an alternative. Because my green hair is not going anywhere. I’m here, I’m a freak and I’m not going to be quiet anymore.
