Can Hair Color Affect Career? Woman Dyes Hair To Succeed At Work

Appearances do matter at the workplace. And some people do not mind experimenting with their looks for a successful career. A Silicon Valley CEO, Eileen Carey, who is in her 30s, admitted to dying her blonde hair to brown to be considered more seriously by her colleagues. She also ditched her contact lenses for glasses and stopped wearing heels.

Recalling how she got the idea of dying her hair, Carey, who belongs to the tech industry, said, "The first time I dyed my hair was actually due to the advice I was given by a woman in venture capital." She had learned that investors were more comfortable dealing with a brunette than a blonde woman.

"I was told for this raise [of funds], that it would be to my benefit to dye my hair brown because there was a stronger pattern recognition of brunette women CEOs," she was quoted as saying by BBC.

While interviewing candidates for her start-up Glassbreakers, Carey also came across other blonde women who colored their hair brown, reports said. She also highlighted the issue of sexual objectification of women at the workplace. "For me to be successful in this [tech industry] space, I'd like to draw as little attention as possible, especially in any sort of sexual way," she said.

Your hair color can affect your professional image. For instance, creating a serious impression can be difficult with neon colored hair. If you have a job interview scheduled, it is advisable to keep your hair and make up simple so that you can create a good first impression.

If you have extremely bright hair or an unusual shade of bright-colored hair, your potential job employer may develop an unfavorable opinion about you instantly. You could be perceived as a rebel or unprofessional, according to an article published by Career Addict, a career blog.

In June 2014, lingerie entrepreneur Michelle Mone had also said at a conference in Liverpool, United Kingdom, that blondes are not taken as seriously in business as women who don glasses and dress conservatively. “Being a glamorous blonde, you sometimes don’t get taken seriously in the way that a person wearing glasses, no makeup and a tweed suit would — but I don’t care what people think,” she said, The Telegraph reported.

In 2009, UK retailer Superdrug published a study that found 62 percent of people think brunettes look more professional at work. Around a third of the 2,500 women who participated in the poll said they had dyed their blonde hair to brown so that they were perceived as more intelligent at their workplace.

Many of them said they did so in order to convince their bosses that they were intelligent. Around 38 percent of blondes also said that they felt their hair color had been a point of a hindrance in their career at some point in time, aol.com reported.