Is your hair unprofessional?

Last week an article from Hello! magazine stopped me mid scroll. The article was titled ‘VOTE: Is Princess Kate's hair unprofessional?’ With a subtitle ‘The Princess of Wales' hair looked longer than ever this week, but comments suggest her long hair impacts her ability to do her job’.

I’m not sure why articles like this still stun me with their absurdity, but this one did. What is the obsession with women’s hair and what does it have to do with their success in the workplace?

In the Victorian era, long hair was the ultimate symbol of femininity, respectability, social status and wealth. The longer the better.

It was also a site of control.

Young girls were allowed to wear their hair loose, but after the age of 16, women were required to wear their hair tied up at all times except for bed. An adult woman seen in public with unbound hair was considered scandalous and provocative. Loose or ‘messy’ hair in public was associated with mental illness, poverty and sexual promiscuity.

A neat, controlled updo communicated a woman’s maturity and social standing. It also indicated control of herself and her desires.

A woman’s hair carried social and moral meaning.

It may be easy to dismiss Victorian social rules and regulations as archaic, but the truth is we are still judging women by the same standards. Only the language has changed.

Respectability has become professionalism.

When I worked in fashion retail, one of the things women wanted most with their style was to look polished and ‘put together’.

They always said it in a way that made it feel just out of their reach, like they were always striving for it but never achieving it. Wistfully describing women who possessed this magical quality they didn’t have.

A style that looks polished and put together means neat, controlled, intentional and appropriate. Hair is smooth, make up is simple, clothes are coordinated, nothing too loud or too visible.

Acceptable.
Contained.
Disciplined.

Looking polished, put together and professional sits within very narrow parameters. Parameters that seek to control how a woman is perceived. Is she to be taken seriously? Is she disciplined? Is she competent? Does she have authority?

These questions are answered, in part, by her hair.

Smooth. Straight. An appropriate length. Not distracting. Contained.

The Victorian era may have ended over one hundred years ago, but its legacy of controlling women’s appearance still lives in our feeds and our lives today.

This week’s embodied style practice

This week I want you to notice how you feel when you do your hair. Are you styling it to fit a narrative of what you have been told is acceptable or are you styling it to honour yourself? You don’t have to do anything differently, just become aware of what you are doing and how you are feeling. Do you celebrate the uniqueness of your hair or does it feel like a daily battle?

When we understand the conditioning that shapes they way we see ourselves, it becomes easier to disentangle ourselves from the beauty standards that were never designed to serve us.

Hair is neutral.

It doesn’t hold inherent qualities of good or bad, beautiful or ugly, moral or immoral. Any ideas, narratives or concepts placed on a woman’s hair are attributed to it by society to suit its own agenda.

Whether you let it down or shave it off, maybe now is the time to create a scandal.

Julie x

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