Dyeing hair to be taken seriously at work

[moutonfou]

Sorry if there's already a thread about this...

I've just been reading this BBC article about a woman who dyes her blonde hair brown to 'be taken more seriously at work'. And also switched to glasses instead of contact lenses.

AIBU to think that hair colour and (lack of) glasses have nothing to do with how you're perceived?

I'm a blonde and have never been treated like a ditzy blonde, because I don't act ditzy. I take my work seriously and accordingly I am taken seriously. I did once work in a very male-dominated industry and found that the main obstacle to fully progressing into the 'boys club' was not being able/willing to play golf for most of the working day. My hair colour had nothing to do with it. My being a woman in general, yes.

AIBU to think that women still face so many genuine obstacles that it's a bit reductive/insulting to suggest we can/should solve them by changing our hair colour?

A female colleague once told me that to get on I should wear low cut sweaters. I thought she was nuts then and still do.

It is what is between the ears that counts, not what is tucked behind them. I'm not blonde but didn't wear glasses and did all right, and the blondes seemed to do OK if they had brains.

Can only conclude this woman is a bit dim.

What an absolute tit that woman is.

I think women are often judged on how they look at work. By best friend is blond, pretty and petite and on first impressions gets treated like someone who needs things explaining to her and needs protecting. She needs neither of those things and it drives her mad.
She does work in a male dominated profession and she is very successful but she feels like she has to prove herself over and over in a way that men do not and I don't think all women suffer from it to as great an extent as her. For example I'm tall and dark and my first impression I've been told is "firery" - when I worked with her (we met at work) people assumed i was her boss. I was not.

I used to work with a woman who had a petite frame, big boobs and light blonde ringlets. She dyed her hair brown, because it made her look slightly less like a ditzy 1950s pin-up, and people didn't take her seriously with blonde hair.

I'm ash blonde and taken very seriously in the boardroom. Rise above the hair colour stereotypes and those around you also will!

Most high profile successful women aren't brown haired bespectacled clones in flat shoes. It's not the best example but take Deborah Meaden from Dragon's Den. Hugely successful and highly respected in her field and also blonde haired, often in heels and make up.

A woman who has the confidence to dress how she wishes and rise above the blonde dizzy stereotype would be taken seriously. All this tip toeing around men who think women are blonde or wearing lipstick for their benefit is pathetic.
And if I'm at work with painted nails, it doesn't mean I'll be staring at them all day or flicking through Heat magazine. I refuse to believe there are that many narrow minded people in the workplace.

I tell you when you stop being taken so seriously - when you start to go grey. Seen as 'gravitas' on men. Just 'old' on women.