Abolish Hair Bias in the Workplace

I am a young Mexican American girl in the White and Asian male dominated tech industry. My first day as an Integration Engineer I was quick to learn that I was viewed as an outsider. I was one of 1 of 6 women in the entire building and I was 1 of 2 Latinos in the entire building- my Latino counterpart being male, light skinned, and 6 feet tall. I felt as if I was in the spotlight. I sat at the cafeteria and two males approached me. They sat in front of me and interrogated my background, my family, and even my marital status. As the interrogation came to an end, they stood, and remarked in a superior tone, “Sorry we asked so many questions, you just don’t look like an engineer. You look like you work in apparel or social media.”

I ran to the restroom, red faced. I looked in the mirror and wondered why my appearance was so misleading to them. Was it my brown skin? My make up? My clothes? My heels? My nails? My thick long curly brown hair? As the months went by, I kept receiving hurtful feedback about my looks. My hair was a constant topic. The men gawked at my curly hair and asked how I could work with hair that comes down to my waist. I couldn’t take the comments anymore and so I eliminated my makeup routine, I removed my acrylic nails, I stored my heels away, I wore loose fitting clothes, and I kept my naturally curly hair straightened and in a bun. I felt as grey as my appearance. I felt oppressed at the inability to express my normally joyous self. I felt hurt that I had been judged and questioned so much on appearance instead of being respected for my educational and professional merits.

Over the years, I learned that there is a great deal of stigma against certain types of hair and hair styles in the workplace. I strive to abolish the four major stigmas that exist against hair: texture, length, color, and style.

Hair texture is openly judged in the workplace because discrimination against natural hair only recently became ilegal in January of 2020 when the CROWN Act became enforced in Califonia. With the CROWN Act, California updated the definition of “race” in the California Fair Employment and Housing Act[5] and the California Education Code[6] to be “inclusive of traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles.”[7] The California CROWN Act prevents enforcement of grooming policies that claim to be race neutral, but in reality have a disproportionate negative impact on people of color.
Unfortunately this law was only passed in three states. This means that the fight continues in 47 other states in which people are still not protected against hair discrimintation.

Hair length stereotyping is a topic that is often forgotten about that I’d like to shed light on. In today’s American society, hair length can carry certain connotations. Long hair on men is often perceived as un-kept. Long hair on women can often be over sexualized while short hair is perceived as rigid. I find that these stereotypes are immensely invalid and unacceptable.
Women and men should feel comfortable in whichever hair length they choose and they should feel free to express themselves with extensions and wigs as they see fit. Furthermore, hair lengths are often intricate parts of certain cultures which should be respected.


Hair coloring also brings heavy judgment in the workplace. People are muted in the workplace when it comes to hair color. Any color straying too far from the norm is ostrichsized. I ask managers to ponder what makes silver, pink, or blue hair less professional than blonde? Society has trained us to distrust people who look different than us when in reality all hair colors should be treated equally.

Finally, there are many hairstyles that seem to have been deemed wrongly inappropriate at the workplace. Hair styles such as pigtails, mohawks, and afros just to name a few are frowned upon. What these judgments fail to acknowledge is the beautiful influence of different cultures, music, and art. Hair doesn’t have to be mainstream to be deemed appropriate. Once again, how we twist and tie and cut our hair should not be wrongfully judged, instead it should be rightfully celebrated.


In the end, hair is an expression of oneself not a limitation of oneself. How your hair is textured, lengthened, colored, and styled should not have an impact on your professional appraisal.
Besides, embracing all types of hair can open doors to new conversations and perspectives in the workplace. It can improve inclusiveness leading to higher team cohesiveness and team morale.

Through my educational and professional journey, I plan on being an ambassador for this change by expressing myself freely with my hair while maintaining a professional persona. I want to show the tech community that you can be a trailblazer in the industry while wearing heels, lipstick, and extensions. You don’t have to pretend to be somebody you’re not. We all have a different perspective to contribute. For this reason, I stopped muting myself. I ditched the usual tech uniform consisting of t-shirt and jeans and dressed for the success I wanted. I encouraged people to ask me questions about things they are curious about and my career continued to rise. Other women that are in my building have told me they feel more comfortable since my arrival. One felt brave enough to dye her hair pink and the other stopped chemically relaxing her hair in order to rock a natural afro that was beautifully adorned with one of her favorite bows. I feel a sense of peace and understanding growing in our company and that is why I am certain other companies can do the same too! This is why I strive to grow a community of positive minded people who will work with me to break down workplace biases across America.