Do you care what colour hair your midwife has?

[Purplekaz08]

I have seen on the news that a midwife is Lincoln has been told not to go to work and may lose her job because her hair is dyed red? AIBU to think this trust is out of touch with the modern world? I really would not care if a midwife or nurse had rainbow coloured hair as long as they were kind and competent?

Aged Uniform policy makes me laugh. Some procurement idiots buy uniforms that can only be washed at low temps.

Why am I not surprised?

Very, very pregnant and couldn’t give a shiny shit what colour my midwifes hair is.

My terminally ill FiL was cared for beautifully by a nurse with blue hair. It was her care that was important, not her choice of hair colour.

Valentino in that case it would be interesting to see this through to an employment tribunal NMC conclusion (not for the poor MW admittedly).

I doubt the trust would let it go that far though

Is her union backing her?

Nope, the union aren't backing her. They're a shower of shit.

Not surprised to hear that the change in uniform policy is just a kneejerk reaction to a much bigger problem. Schools are notorious for it as well, taking drastic measures in an entirely unrelated area, which is going to make absolutely no improvement on the actual service being provided.

Agree!!

The people who are saying it's against the trust dress code......well it wasn't for the last 12/14 years.

She had an interview with bright red hair, has worked there for a decade with bright red hair. Trust brought in a new uniform policy which said hair must be professional. She got pulled up on it. But it's been like it for years!

Whether I personally would care (I wouldn't) or not isn't the point. There is a contract and a uniform policy, and you sign to agree to that policy. The colour is not the issue. The issue is that you are breaking your workplaces code of dress conduct, which you agreed to when you took on the job. Dont like the uniform policy, work elsewhere. Not all trusts would enforce something like this. If the one you work for does, either comply or leave.

Bright coloured hair is just as unprofessional as visible tattoos.

Whoops, and here I am with many, many large tattoos in a professional, customer-facing role! I once shaved half of my hair off and dyed the rest blue - nobody cared. That was in a professional, private sector, front of house job too.

My hair, my septum piercing, my tattoos, etc do not make me any less capable or good at my job. Thankfully my employers recognise that.

No there should be no issue for this as a midwife. I could understand more if they were working in geriatrics and her appearance could look scary to very elderly people.

Could not care less. Employees need to get with the times. People have unusual hair styles and colours and tattoos and piercings, doesn't effect their performance or intelligence.

Fwiw I gave birth last week and I couldn't pick the midwives out of a line up let alone tell you their hair colour. I was too busy pushing a human out of me to pay attention, then I was paying to much attention to aforementioned human.

Oh, don't be so pompous, SD, and read the bloody thread or article. She interviewed with coloured hair, was appointed with coloured hair, signed her contract with coloured hair, and has been working with coloured hair for over a decade.

It's the Trust that has unilaterally changed the terms of her employment, rather than her going against the terms.

It makes her look unprofessional

Why?

She didnt agree to it when she took the job. They changed the policy.

Midwife here with dyed red hair. If that’s what you judge me on it says more about your priorities x

@NicoAndTheNiners
The people who are saying it's against the trust dress code......well it wasn't for the last 12/14 years.

Exactly! It's the policy that's changed, not the employee, so no, she didn't 'sign up for it did she?

The policy bit I read says about hair being professional, I too am at a loss to understand how red hair is unprofessional? What's the reasoning behind it?
It's just madness when the NHS is falling to pieces and we need every good and qualified person in their field out there with patients, and they suspend someone for not being professional because they have red hair?

I'd be interested to hear the reasons, and not just 'it's unprofessional' I'd like someone to explain why it's unprofessional.

As long as they knew what they were doing, who gives a f* what colour hair they have? That goes for any job role. Like wise with tattoos and piercings. It makes no difference to me as long as some was qualified!

They were qualified not some! Lol

I couldn't tell you what colour any of the midwives hair was that looked after me!! I really was not focusing on anyone's appearance at the time. So If you wanted to put purple stripes and pink spots in your hair so long as you can do your job I couldn't care less, go for it!

I think the only time I might give a shit about a midwife's hair would be if she insisted on styling it like Vivian in the Young Ones...I genuinely think a hairstyle like that could be awkward in close quarters, but even then I'd probably just shrug it off and hope none of it spiked me

Hair colour does not make someone more/less professional. That's a ridiculous notion. Can you imagine if we stopped men with bald heads from holding professional roles because they didn't have perfectly coiffed hair?

The last Trust I worked for had this bonkers policy about "natural coloured" hair. Personally it would cheer me up no end if my nurse or midwife had pink/blue/red/rainbow hair. You wouldn't think the NHS was short of 40k nurses, would you?

The trust haven't been able to say why it's unprofessional.

And not that long ago they had a life sized cardboard cutout of a man who on the lefte side was in a paramedic uniform and the right side was scruffily dressed with red hair. Said something about not making judgements about people. They've removed that now.

Of course not but it’s the uniform policy of the NHS and a lot of Trusts seem to actually act on it.

I don’t agree with it btw. I’d dearly love to dye my hair pastel colours but it’s not worth the stress where works concerned.