While tattoos, earrings and chains are still forbidden in some instances, shaped haircuts and facial hair have become more common in the workplace. And the trend is spreading, according to New York’s store merchants and office workers.
Photo: Anthony Vanger/NYC24
Olympia Shakespeare's arm tattoo.
“We’ve got a waitress with green hair,” said Beth Rogers, the general manager of Markt, a trendy eatery on Sixth Avenue in Chelsea.
Rogers, who has worked in the restaurant business for 10 years, said that as long as her staff is well groomed, she doesn’t mind what kind of hairstyles they have.
The office supply store Staples has a similar policy, but with a few more restrictions.
“You cannot show your bling-bling here,” said Aregny Vasquez, the assistant manager of a Staples store in lower Manhattan, referring to gaudy chains or earrings. “And the hair has got to be neat.”
Fashion consultants said they also are seeing a trend. Samantha von Sperling, president of Polished, an image consultancy firm in New York said that hair and fashion follow the political climate and suggested that because we are living in a much freer society, we are much more tolerant of people who are different.
Photo: Anthony Vanger/NYC24
Edgar Lugo gets a box fade.
“For anyone looking for a job in the more creative fields like advertising or graphic design having a funky haircut can actually be an advantage,” said von Sperling.
Christina Ruegg, who attended Parsons School for Design in Manhattan and now works at Trollbäck, a New York-based graphics design company, has had jet-black hair, a blond Mohawk, and a skin fade.
“It’s a statement about who you are," said Ruegg, who now wears her hair short like a tomboy. “It says you are creative and original.”
Olympia Shakespeare, a freelance clothing stylist and one of the few women who frequent Don Juan’s barbershop, believes that her image plays a key role in her success at work.
“My Mohawk is trendy, it's different," she said. "In the fashion industry, everyone wants to stand out."
As Shakespeare stood up and brushed the hair off her shoulders, more customers crammed into the 12-by-15 foot space. Someone brought out a six-pack of Coronas and passed them around. Music was blaring--hip-hop, Latino and salsa. The flat screen TV played videos and the customers mouthed the lyrics to the songs. Some danced in the corners, waiting for their turn in the barber’s chair.
Don Juan, who charges $20 for a haircut, said that he always looks at how his customers dress to determine how far to push the boundaries.
Don Juan on hairstyles
Rosado, the UPS worker, changed out of his uniform. He stood around talking to his friends, laughing and making jokes and admiring his haircut in the mirrors lining the walls.
Rosado said that his “rhino” haircut reflects the artistic side of his personality. Before he got a job working at UPS, he studied art at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and continues to be a freelance artist in his spare time, designing T-shirts and sneakers.
He also said that his haircut had another important benefit: That's how he met his girlfriend two years ago, dancing at the Copacabana, a nightclub in midtown Manhattan.
“She saw my haircut, it looked different, it looked original,” he said. “And since then she tells me, 'Don’t cut it off. Ever.'”
