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I'm going to a hairstylist whose hair Instagram is pretty popular -- many variations of fohawks on men, including that razor line across one side of the head.

(A fohawk is basically short on the sides and back, keep some length on top and wear it up / spikey, using blowdrying / hair brush / hair product for more volume if desired ... )

Would getting such a haircut adversely affect my chances of landing a finance / Wall Street job? Would interviewers find such a style to be unprofessional?

I'm specifically worried about the razor line extending across the side of my head.

Thanks in advance.

Yes.

Would be lovely for the fashion industry, but finance requires more conservative apparel.

You can always find a place where they'll take you in as you are, but being rejected by even one place satisfies the condition of your question. I'm just preempting comments here.

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This is the kind of move that could get you blacklisted from the entire industry, don't do it.

Yes, it would be taken that seriously.

If you were to show up like that to a financial company, you would be the talk of the town form months.

I've worked in the financial industry, and it is VERY conservative, at least in appearances. You want people to trust your company with your money. If I were to hire you looking like that, not only would you not be taken seriously by my customers, but my judgment would be called into question.

Again, this is why networking and studying an industry before trying to break into it is so important.

I don't think there's a clear cut (no pun intended) answer here. It'll depend somewhat on the subset of "Finance Industry" you're interested in, and also on the role. Hairstyle is fairly permanent (in that you can't change it as quickly as you change the shirt you're wearing) so interviewers will pay attention in conservative environments. I would expect to get friction for it in those situations.

That said, in any industry, there will be more conservative, and more casual, subsections. Applying for jobs at fin tech startups vs applying for jobs at brokers with hundred-year histories, will be different situations. The startup may not care about your hair.

In addition, within a specific subset of an industry, there will often be variations based on role. If you're applying for a job as a system admin or something else very back-office, the culture may be much more casual that a job with a big public-facing element - if you're in loan sales, you may be expected to have a conservative and "professional" appearance, for example. Having a loud hairstyle would definitely be an impact there.

Speaking from personal experience, I'm currently in a back-office role at a fairly conservative financial industry employer. I had a hairstyle similar to what you're describing when I was hired - no one cared. The dress code is business casual, hairstyles are not a big deal.

Meanwhile, our company policy specifically mentions hairstyles for public facing roles (ie sales, branch staff, etc.), and although the language is somewhat vague, it's a strong enough policy that I wouldn't have kept such a hairstyle had I been applying for one of those positions.

That leaves the question: how do you distill this into an answer that's meaningful for you?

Back office vs front office is a pretty clear distinction. Les vs more conservative for a specific employer is a little less clear - a good way to answer that is involving third party recruiters who know your target employers well, or at least the local finance industry well.

I agree with the general mood reflected in the above answers, but would like to add more based on my experience with a fintech company.

Financial industry as a whole has been going through drastic changes for more than a decade, driven primarily by two forces

1. Financial crisis which destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars led
   to some old school companies such as UBS, DB etc. losing their clout.




2. Fintech companies which have emerged during last few years also belong to
   "finance industry", but they usually have an entirely different work
   culture when compared to old school finance corporations. First
   major global fintech company was probably Paypal which was cofounded
   by Elon Musk. Companies such as Paypal could tolerate funky haircuts
   which you mention.

But, then it all depends on a) which type of finance company you are going for b) which type of job you are applying for c) local culture, based on your location

As this would be a customer facing role dealing with business-to-business cliental in a conservative industry I would recommend a conservative appearance.

I see reasoning for this on two fronts. A hiring manager for a role of this nature would likely be conservative themselves. People will look for others that share their own qualities. If they see a conservative attitude as one of their positive qualities you are actively distancing yourself from this. You'd hope most people would easily get past appearance but psychology has proven time after time that people's perceptions are swayed by appearance.

The second side of this is if the hiring manager themselves doesn't care about your appearance because they understand your qualifications, they still may care about what assumptions clients would make about the firm based on your appearance. If one sale falls through because the hiring manager failed to pick someone who looked the part that could cost the company more than the hiring managers annual salary.

Not looking the part is a strike against you; whether that is fair or reasonable it's the pragmatic truth.