How to Hide Colored Hair for an Interview? Unconventional Ideas

JAN 04, 2023 AT 08:29 AM

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Over the festive period, many people like to embrace the season by decorating their homes and themselves with festive cheer. Why not? Most people are on leave as businesses shut down, and those that are open have decorations and lights adorning their homes and workplaces. Many employers encourage their staff to wear Santa hats or other accessories to celebrate the season. What better time to color your hair?

Whether it is the traditional red and green, or that bright cerise pink or multicolored streaks that you have been eyeing for the last six months. You take yourself off to the hairdresser or call your bestie over to help you with box color, and within an hour you look like a Christmas tree. Too late you remember that the dye is permanent, but you will worry about that at a future date.

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After a fabulous period of celebration, where your friends and family and even strangers in the supermarket, have complimented your hair, the new year arrives. Within a week or so, while businesses open up and everyone comes down back to earth and the working world wakes up, it is time to start thinking about finding a new job. The future date has arrived.

Now, what are you going to do? If you work in the corporate world, many companies keep to a dress code that does not include brightly colored hair. Even if this does burn your butt a bit, unfortunately, if you are wanting to make a good impression, you will need to tone it down a bit. 

The bright colors in your hair, have faded a little, after repeated washes, but it is still perfectly obvious that you went all out in celebrating the festive season. Considering that you are applying for a serious adult job, you will need to hide your mop before going for an interview.

Dyeing (again!)

The most obvious method will be to go back to the hairdresser, or call on your long-suffering friend again, and have your hair colored back to its original, or at least a more professionally acceptable color. This feels like a real buzz kill and is a last resort, but probably the most practical solution.

Cut It

If you had planned an updated hairstyle for the new year anyway, this is the perfect solution. Choose a sexy short hairstyle that cuts out most of the color. If need be, have some highlights or boring brown touch-ups, and voila! Your hairstyle matches your business suit.

If you don't want to go that drastic, here are a few less conventional ways of making your hair socially acceptable, in the corporate world anyway.

Subtle Coloring

When you have your hair colored, it may be worth planning for the following year's activities ahead of time without ruining the fun, especially if you know that you will not be able to wait for a rainbow hairdo to grow out. Consider a color that will compliment your natural hair color such as purple or mauve in black hair, or orange or yellow if you are naturally blonde.

Shades of Grey

From gunmetal to granny white, grey can be a wonderful highlight to dark brown or black hair if done correctly. Instead of bright colors, having streaks of permanent grey will give your hair color a lift. Not only that, but if you want to add some color during the holiday season, you can use temporary sprays which will show up more on the grey streaks than your naturally darker hair.

Spray Colors

Instead of using temporary spray colors for holiday hair, try the other way around. Spray your hair with brown, black, or dark blonde, which will hide the color, but it is temporary and will wash out leaving your blue, pink, or multicolor mane intact. Other options are hair wax, normally in a tub, or hair wands, which are like mascara for your hair. Both can be applied to the colored sections and will wash out.

Updo

If you have long hair, it is possible to hide most of the color in an updo style. Tying your hair up can be done in a way to hide streaks of color among the strands of your natural hair. A pony with a twist, to bring the colored strands underneath to the top, and then twirled around in a neat bun, should hide most of the color.

If you have thought about it at the beginning of the holidays, it may be wise to color the hair underneath, in hairdressing circles, called peekaboo highlights, so it will show up when your hair is tied up. Another option is to only have the ends colored, which can easily be trimmed off after the holidays, or if not, won't detract much from your natural hair color.

Bobby Pins and other Hair Accessories

If your hair is too short for the updo with twist and twirl, enough bobby pins, hair slides, and clips in strategic places, can hide colored streaks. The important thing is to make sure your hair is off your face, which naturally gives you a more professional look.

Wigs

If your hair is all one bright color, and you don't want to go the permanent dyeing route, you will have to hide your whole head of hair. Before you start imagining your granddad's toupee or hair piece or the wigs of old that looked like you had a styled bird's nest balancing on your head, remember most wigs these days are made from real hair. Good quality wigs are indistinguishable from your real hair.

Hats, Scarves, and Headbands

Hats are generally an outdoor head accessory, so one can't really wear them at an interview unless you are applying for a job as a field ranger or garden maintenance manager, or a construction worker where a safety hat is essential. Scarves can be worn in many different ways to hide hair. In some cultures and religions, women and even some men routinely wear a scarf or other head covering, and in a pinch, you may be able to pass yourself off as wearing a scarf for cultural or religious reasons.

Interviewers Preferences

Even if you are feeling a little rebellious about your colored hair, or you have a personal reason for having color streaks in your hair, it is worth considering the impact it will have on your suitability as a candidate for a new job.

Lux Luminous.com has an article, dated June 27, 2022, which suggests that once you have successfully been offered the job, you should talk to the Human Resources department and check what the dress code is, and if it is acceptable to sport your colored hair at work.

The good news and probably one of the very few advantageous consequences of the Covid epidemic is that many more people are working from home now. If your interview is over Zoom, you can use the 'beauty filter' to blur out colored hair to an extent. Check the 'touch up my appearance' box in video settings to turn your monitor to soft focus mode, and the way to go. Your interviewer will be none the wiser.

Last Thoughts

A friend of mine once had bright pink streaks in her dark hair, as a way to emotionally support her friend with cancer. In a circumstance such as this, one does not want to or should not have to hide their hair color.

Even if your reason is not due to a life-or-death situation, but simply to have some fun or make you feel unique in a world of normality, your hair color is something that makes you, you. It's the only part of your personality that you can elaborately change as you wish without there being lifelong consequences to it.

As we grow and age, our hair changes color and texture. Even the smallest town has a hairdresser, and hair products are a multimillion-dollar business. And just as well. Who are we if we cannot express ourselves by enhancing our crowning glory?