Nurses with dreadlocks

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I am curious if those of you with dreadlocks have faced any difficulties in finding jobs or fitting the professional image required. Do you wear a head covering while at work?

I do not have locks now but have had five sets throughout my life and would love to knot my hair up again. I am slightly concered by some comments I have recieved from my friends and family such as 'Now that youre starting nursing school you can't do that with your hair again' and 'Nurses can't have dreadlocks, it might offend someone'.

Thanks for any feedback:)

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Tidy, well kept dreads are fine. I'll be honest here - and this will may start a war... if you are white, please don't wear dreads. I say this as a white person, our hair is just not designed for it and you end up looking like a castaway from a Phish concert. It would be hard for me to focus on how excellent of a nurse you are if i'm too distracted by scraggly looking dreads. White people dreads just never look well kept to me.

This made me laugh so hard I snorted like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality.

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

i just snorted too! dreads are fine if clean and neat. the world is safe from seeing me in them though! i still have the same sad limp fine straight hair that i had when i was about two. now, however, it isn't see-through white blonde like my swedish dad's. it's graying medium brown and the brown ones are still limp and straight, while the grays are frizzy and curly, and flyaway.:icon_roll

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

If you can have dreads, I can have my mohawk back!

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Personally, I find dreadlocks lovely. I am a person with not a lot of hair!

However.. way back in the day.. when I was in nursing school..I could not wear nail polish, my hair could not touch my collar..etc.

Whatever the requirement is of you nursing school.. is what you must abide by.

You will have much bigger fish to fry along the way.

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I have locks and never had a problem gaining employment and I see a lot of locks at my hospital. MDs, nurses, RT/OT/PT PCAs SW and people in administration. I think it's more about if the hair is kept clean and held back neatly during working hours. It's not 1957 anymore....don't need a perm unless you want one but I still have had older nurses pull me to the side and tell me I should get a relaxer, weave, or slap a wig on to get ahead. Whatever...I'm doing just fine.

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I don't know what part of the country you are from; places vary in what is considerd OK.

Do you see many other people sporting locks?

If you take a walk through a local hospital, what kind of hairstyles do you see?

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.
Tidy, well kept dreads are fine. I'll be honest here - and this will may start a war... if you are white, please don't wear dreads. I say this as a white person, our hair is just not designed for it and you end up looking like a castaway from a Phish concert. It would be hard for me to focus on how excellent of a nurse you are if i'm too distracted by scraggly looking dreads. White people dreads just never look well kept to me.

Keyboard meet coffee! That brings back memories. Phish concert, in the summer, at the local venue and I was working in the ER. We got several concertgoers (including an intubated young woman wearing butterfly wings with a blood alcohol level of 5..yes 5! Where I am you are legally drunk at 0.08) The smell was horrific. We all wore isolation gowns, caps and shoe covers to try to avoid the crawly things!

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Specializes in Emergency, Occupational Health.

Hey there,

I stumbled upon this and wanted to leave a comment---

I have dreads, and I got them after I started working in the ED. I've wanted them for years, and it seemed like a good time to start. I spoke with my manager about it before putting them in, because I didn't want it to be an issue. She was fine with it, and there is nothing in our dress code in regards to dreadlocks, only keeping hair pulled back if it's long and such, which is what I do. I put them up in a dread-bun-type ponytail. No one (either patients/co-workers/management) has ever had a problem with them, and in regards to one of the comments--- they don't smell if you take care of them!

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