Woman on TikTok claiming employer wants her to change her hair color has users sounding off
Viral video has TikTok users discussing whether employers should care if workers have colorful hair, piercings and tattoos
A woman on TikTok has gone viral for calling out an employer that has reportedly asked her to change her hair color.
Morgan Curry, 24, of Dallas, Texas, a TikTok user who goes by the username Shugga.Shugga, doesn’t have any plans to dye her pink hair.
In the 23-second video posted on Wednesday, April 19, the user expressed her annoyance with various expletives and suggested that the national unemployment rate is high because employers have concerns about employee appearances.
"My hair ain’t going do the work," she said in her video, which has been viewed more than 431,300 times.
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Curry also captioned the video with: "NO IM NOT CHANGING MY HAIR."
Morgan Curry, a jobseeker with pink hair created and shared a TikTok video about how she's refusing to change her hair color despite a potential employer's request. (Morgan Curry / Fox News)
"I've worn colored hair for many years now in several different industries including hospitality, finance, as well as marketing," Curry wrote to FOX Business in a TikTok direct message.
"After just venting and posting this video, I do feel there is hope that ONE day, probably not one soon, but one day it will be changed," she continued. "I do not feel any better as I am still unemployed, but have more than the necessary skills for the jobs I’ve applied to."
The TikTok video generated over 67,800 likes and over 1,670 comments as of Tuesday.
It appears that nearly all commenters under Curry’s post are supportive of her stance.
"Be glad they showed their true colors, you don’t need to be working there anyway sis. Red flag," one commenter wrote.
Some industries (usually in the creative space) are more accepting of non-traditional hair colors. (iStock / iStock)
"It's such an odd thing, why do people think hair color has to do with work ethic?" another commenter questioned. "It's just self-expression."
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"In reality they need to be hiring people who do color their hair or have tattoos and or piercings [to be honest]," another user reasoned. "You gotta have dedication to all the things."
Many commenters under the post shared that they’ve had similar experiences, and that the companies that usually had strict appearance conditions for employment were in the service industry, including retail stores and fast food restaurants.
One TikTok user left a surprising comment claiming to have worked in multiple hair salons where professional hair stylists weren’t allowed to have "fashion colors" – a hairstyling term used to describe temporary hair dyes that are in unnatural shades.
Several TikTok users have shared stories of how they have had hard times finding jobs that accept their non-traditional hair colors. (iStock / iStock)
Other commenters noted that they’ve been asked to change their appearance for hourly jobs.
"I was told my locs r to [sic] long. Shoulder length or shorter.," one commenter wrote. "I’m not cutting my hair for minimum wage."
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"I had a McDonald’s tell me I couldn’t have red hair, tattoos, or piercings. They were paying $12 max," another commenter shared.
Some TikTok users expressed that they don’t see why they should have to change their appearance or be prohibited from pursuing a fashion-focused body modification for certain jobs.
"I had a black and red split dye and my job said I had to have an all natural color, ma'am I drug test criminals," one TikTok user wrote.
Many TikTok users have commented that they like to dye their hair in non-traditional hair colors because they view it as a form of self-expression, much like fashion. (iStock / iStock)
"We’re not allowed to have tattoos or piercings either… all I’m doing is serving popcorn," another user wrote.
"I told the hiring manager if they weren't paying for the color correction and new dyes then I wasn't doing it," another user shared. "They didn’t like that."
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A few TikTok commenters noted that they’ve successfully found employers who allow untraditional hair colors and body art.
"Thankful to have my job where I have tons of tattoos and crazy color hair and they love me because I do my job," one user wrote.
"I work for a hospital and they [don’t care] about hair color, piercings or tattoos as long as it’s not offensive," another user wrote. "I love it."
Tattoos, piercings and other forms of elective body modification aren't protected by anti-discrimination laws. (iStock / iStock)
Current hiring discrimination laws in the United States protect job applicants and employees from being discriminated against on the basis of age, race or national origin, sex or gender, disability and pregnancy, according to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
However, there are no federal discrimination laws that stop private employers from banning unnatural hair colors, visible face or body piercings, visible tattoos and other forms of visible body art.
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While some states may have expanded discrimination laws that offer additional appearance-based protections for protected classes – such as the multistate-adopted CROWN Act, which is designed to prohibit race-based hair discrimination, or New York Senate Bill S4037, which prohibits religious-based facial hair discrimination – employers are still allowed to instate and enforce grooming policies, according to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s CM-619 Grooming Standards.
A 2019 report published by the global staffing firm Accountemps found that workplaces are becoming laxer in terms of employee styling.
The staffing agency’s report included a workforce survey that consulted 2,800 senior managers at companies that had 20 or more employees in 28 major U.S. cities to see which behaviors and styles team leaders have deemed to be "acceptable."
According to a 2019 Accountemps survey, about one-third of companies see no problem with employees donning non-traditional hair colors (34%), visible tattoos (35%) and casual attire (34%). (Accountemps / Fox News)
In terms of non-traditional hair colors, 34% of senior managers say vibrant rainbow-like colors were once "problematic" but are now acceptable. Nearly a quarter of senior managers – 23% – disagreed and said non-traditional hair colors were and continue to be unacceptable.
About one-third of senior managers said non-traditional piercings (33%), visible tattoos (35%) and casual attire (34%) are acceptable in most modern workplaces.
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Less than a quarter of the surveyed senior managers disagreed on the acceptability of visible tattoos and casual attire with 22% having said visible tattoos are unacceptable in workplaces and 16% having said casual attire is unacceptable in workplaces.
Nearly three in 10 senior managers – 29% – said they find non-traditional piercings to be unacceptable at work.