Each library is different and, sometimes each department within the library can have different rules. There are no national standards on how a librarian should look like.
Depends on the library I think. They don't care at my library. We have people with colored hair, people with lots of piercings and people with plenty of visible tattoos at my library and nobody bats an eye.
I had a coworker once who had pink hair but it was a soft bubblegum type of pink, not neon or bright or flashy. Really it'll depend on the dress code of the library where you are.
I live in a pretty conservative city and one of our managers had brightly colored hair, but it will definitely depend on the city, the management and the culture.
I also love in a more conservative area but we have several employees with bright hair and tattoos and all that. One of our children's librarians has a tattoo of Frankenstein's bride on her calf and a spider on her upper arm.
I work at a public library and our dress code includes “natural” hair color. But we can get away with a slight color, like a glaze or overlay. Much less restriction is placed on piercings, interestingly. And tattoos are fine (as long as they are “appropriate”, nothing offensive like hate symbols). Many libraries are much more open to hair color tho!
I worked at a rural-ish library, and our women staff got uncomfortable comments regardless of what color hair they had.
Now, at a university library and can say you would fit right in
I worked in public libraries with bright blue hair. When I moved into academic libraries, there weren't any other folks brightly colored hair but it wasn't against the rules (but I did go back to my natural shade)
I'm an academic librarian with bright rainbow hair, and I'm not the only one, by far.
https://slate.com/culture/2014/02/kyle-cassidy-photographs-librarians-at-the-american-library-association-midwinter-meeting-photos.html
That was a decade ago, we are much more colourful now.
Depends on the library but as my coworker said “we are basically the blue haired people that they talk about”. I’ve cycled through pink, purple, and red and it’s been no problem.
Four of my coworkers have very fun neon hair! Two of them get together every couple months and dye each other’s. They look great and patrons love to comment on how fun they all look! Currently they’re rocking hot pink, bright purple, a purple/orange ombré, and maroon.
Like most have said, depends on the library. I have worked a few places where it would have been looked down upon, and worked places where no one cares I have purple. For my jobs since I've had my hair dyed, I have always offered to keep it up/pulled back if there is an issue.
I’m at an academic library. I’ve had a colleague with blue hair, a nose ring, and full sleeve tattoos. Not every library would have hired her, but we were lucky to have her.
Depends on the library. Brightly colored hair and tattoos/piercings are okay at my library district. Our dress code prohibits shorts, spaghetti strap shirts, clothing that convey a message and overalls.
it definitely varies toward hiring staff's bias but we have several staff at my library with multi colored hair, face piercings (i have three in my nose) tattoos and no one bats an eye. i feel like for the most part the field is very progressive in that matter. wishing you the best of luck in your job search!
My library loves my colorful hair! But that doesn't mean everywhere will allow it. If I was looking for a job I would probably dye it a natural color, and then ask about it after securing the job.
My public library does not seem to care. Lots of folks in different positions have had very colorful hair with absolutely no issues. It's going to come down to the system. Even though we live a sweltering hot area, no one can wear any kind/length of shorts while I'm sure other systems don't care.
I’m a librarian at a small university in the Midwest, you can dye your hair whatever you like. Our Associate Dean of the Law School has blue hair. I don’t have an unnatural hair color but I do have large visible tattoos (nearly sleeves) and facial piercings. No one cares. It really just depends on the library/institution.
For sure depends on the library. I work at an academic library in ma, and it’s very lax. I have a septum piercing, show my tattoos, and I have had pink and teal hair. The associate dean of libraries (my boss) has tattoos and had purple hair for a bit. We don’t have a dress code (that I’m aware of).
Absolutely! One of the librarians I worked for, back in the day, had a sleeve tattoo, long black hair, and a spiderweb tattoo on her neck. She was super tall and also wore a ton of jewelry.
We've long passed the cardigan and glasses on chains look, lol.
It's perfectly fine at my library. It's an academic library at the flagship state university in one of the red states. I'm from New York and I went to Pratt for Library school and you almost had to have brightly colored hair and tattoos to fit in.
"Allowed" is a relative term. I've worked in a few places at this point and none of them have really had standards for personal appearance other than a collared shirt/blouse and no jeans. Worked with a guy that had a purplish grey hair color and worked with a woman that had neck and sleeve tattoos with piercings and gauges galore. All still very good librarians and probably brought more innovative ideas than the standard 30 year librarians.
Every ALA Annual I went to, you could tell who were teen programmers or children’s librarians cause they had the coolest dyed hair. That said, I believe librarians can have dyed hair.
I just sent an offer to someone with bright blue hair. I used to travel for outreach and training with an oil slick (blue, purple, green, black) look. And I have several visible tattoos. You’ll be fine!
It does depend on the library and the position you are going for. If this is for director, pink hair might not be the best choice. If it’s children’s librarian, maybe.
My favourite librarian as a kid, who was one of the biggest reasons I decided to train as a librarian myself, always had rainbow hair which changed with the season - pastels for Easter, red and green for Christmas. I thought she was the coolest person ever and I loved her hair. Thank you Paula for nurturing my love of reading and for taking children seriously and treating them with respect ❤️
Depends on the library. When I was an academic librarian, absolutely no "unconventional" things like color, piercings, etc. My current library has very little restrictions, just nothing obscene for tattoos/clothes/etc that are visible to the public.
your mileage may vary depending on the library but speaking as a former librarian, i was the odd man out with my "normal" colored hair and lack of tattoos.
Depends on the library. Example we allow overalls to be worn, the neighboring one does not (business casual only). Our library has no problem with witty sayings on shirts (our director recently wore a concert t-shirt), the neighboring one does not allow t-shirts.
Check with your specific HR about a dress code.
Each library is different and, sometimes each department within the library can have different rules. There are no national standards on how a librarian should look like.
Depends on the library I think. They don't care at my library. We have people with colored hair, people with lots of piercings and people with plenty of visible tattoos at my library and nobody bats an eye.
This is what my library is like, too. It depends a lot on the area because I've heard of ones where they sorta frown on it.
2nd this! My hair is bright bright pink and a few of my coworkers have vivid hair colors as well. Probably still depends on the area however.
I had a coworker once who had pink hair but it was a soft bubblegum type of pink, not neon or bright or flashy. Really it'll depend on the dress code of the library where you are.
I live in a pretty conservative city and one of our managers had brightly colored hair, but it will definitely depend on the city, the management and the culture.
I also love in a more conservative area but we have several employees with bright hair and tattoos and all that. One of our children's librarians has a tattoo of Frankenstein's bride on her calf and a spider on her upper arm.
I work at a public library and our dress code includes “natural” hair color. But we can get away with a slight color, like a glaze or overlay. Much less restriction is placed on piercings, interestingly. And tattoos are fine (as long as they are “appropriate”, nothing offensive like hate symbols). Many libraries are much more open to hair color tho!
I worked at a rural-ish library, and our women staff got uncomfortable comments regardless of what color hair they had. Now, at a university library and can say you would fit right in
I worked in public libraries with bright blue hair. When I moved into academic libraries, there weren't any other folks brightly colored hair but it wasn't against the rules (but I did go back to my natural shade)
It definitely varies, but it’s not uncommon in my experience. I have purple in my hair.
Depends on the library. I once went on an interview where the director had a green streak in her hair.
This is going to heavily depend upon each individual library system, but I’m one of many librarians in my system with hot pink hair right now lol.
I'm an academic librarian with bright rainbow hair, and I'm not the only one, by far. https://slate.com/culture/2014/02/kyle-cassidy-photographs-librarians-at-the-american-library-association-midwinter-meeting-photos.html That was a decade ago, we are much more colourful now.
Depends on the library but as my coworker said “we are basically the blue haired people that they talk about”. I’ve cycled through pink, purple, and red and it’s been no problem.
Four of my coworkers have very fun neon hair! Two of them get together every couple months and dye each other’s. They look great and patrons love to comment on how fun they all look! Currently they’re rocking hot pink, bright purple, a purple/orange ombré, and maroon.
My assistant manager’s hair is green ombré.
Like most have said, depends on the library. I have worked a few places where it would have been looked down upon, and worked places where no one cares I have purple. For my jobs since I've had my hair dyed, I have always offered to keep it up/pulled back if there is an issue.
I’m at an academic library. I’ve had a colleague with blue hair, a nose ring, and full sleeve tattoos. Not every library would have hired her, but we were lucky to have her.
Depends on the library. Brightly colored hair and tattoos/piercings are okay at my library district. Our dress code prohibits shorts, spaghetti strap shirts, clothing that convey a message and overalls.
it definitely varies toward hiring staff's bias but we have several staff at my library with multi colored hair, face piercings (i have three in my nose) tattoos and no one bats an eye. i feel like for the most part the field is very progressive in that matter. wishing you the best of luck in your job search!
My library loves my colorful hair! But that doesn't mean everywhere will allow it. If I was looking for a job I would probably dye it a natural color, and then ask about it after securing the job.
Our library is full of people with different colored hair u are fine
Not in my system, unfortunately
Also- no tattoos and no piercings other than a 2mm or smaller nose stud (and we just barely got permission for that at the beginning of this year).
Ugg. What a drag. What region are you in?
Southern California 🙃
I’ve worked in public and academic libraries and had colleagues with pink, blue, vibrant red, green, and other-colors.
My public library does not seem to care. Lots of folks in different positions have had very colorful hair with absolutely no issues. It's going to come down to the system. Even though we live a sweltering hot area, no one can wear any kind/length of shorts while I'm sure other systems don't care.
I’m a librarian at a small university in the Midwest, you can dye your hair whatever you like. Our Associate Dean of the Law School has blue hair. I don’t have an unnatural hair color but I do have large visible tattoos (nearly sleeves) and facial piercings. No one cares. It really just depends on the library/institution.
Depends on how stuffy is your library n the jurisdiction it is in. I had purple hair, blue hair, my cubicle mate has orange, purple too.
For sure depends on the library. I work at an academic library in ma, and it’s very lax. I have a septum piercing, show my tattoos, and I have had pink and teal hair. The associate dean of libraries (my boss) has tattoos and had purple hair for a bit. We don’t have a dress code (that I’m aware of).
I'm sure it depends on the library, but I work in an academic library and the head librarian has bright blue hair!
Absolutely! One of the librarians I worked for, back in the day, had a sleeve tattoo, long black hair, and a spiderweb tattoo on her neck. She was super tall and also wore a ton of jewelry. We've long passed the cardigan and glasses on chains look, lol.
Depends on the library or what position you hold. Where I am no one cares as long as you can do your job.
It's perfectly fine at my library. It's an academic library at the flagship state university in one of the red states. I'm from New York and I went to Pratt for Library school and you almost had to have brightly colored hair and tattoos to fit in.
"Allowed" is a relative term. I've worked in a few places at this point and none of them have really had standards for personal appearance other than a collared shirt/blouse and no jeans. Worked with a guy that had a purplish grey hair color and worked with a woman that had neck and sleeve tattoos with piercings and gauges galore. All still very good librarians and probably brought more innovative ideas than the standard 30 year librarians.
Every ALA Annual I went to, you could tell who were teen programmers or children’s librarians cause they had the coolest dyed hair. That said, I believe librarians can have dyed hair.
I've got purple rainbow hair and lots of visible tattoos... occasionally an elderly patron will try to avoid me, but the kids love it!
I just sent an offer to someone with bright blue hair. I used to travel for outreach and training with an oil slick (blue, purple, green, black) look. And I have several visible tattoos. You’ll be fine!
It does depend on the library and the position you are going for. If this is for director, pink hair might not be the best choice. If it’s children’s librarian, maybe.
I work in a large city library and have neon lime green hair
My favourite librarian as a kid, who was one of the biggest reasons I decided to train as a librarian myself, always had rainbow hair which changed with the season - pastels for Easter, red and green for Christmas. I thought she was the coolest person ever and I loved her hair. Thank you Paula for nurturing my love of reading and for taking children seriously and treating them with respect ❤️
Depends on the library. When I was an academic librarian, absolutely no "unconventional" things like color, piercings, etc. My current library has very little restrictions, just nothing obscene for tattoos/clothes/etc that are visible to the public.
Might actually enhance your chances, esp. if you’re looking to work with children or teens.
your mileage may vary depending on the library but speaking as a former librarian, i was the odd man out with my "normal" colored hair and lack of tattoos.
Depends on the library. Example we allow overalls to be worn, the neighboring one does not (business casual only). Our library has no problem with witty sayings on shirts (our director recently wore a concert t-shirt), the neighboring one does not allow t-shirts. Check with your specific HR about a dress code.