Anyone get away with a "questionable" hair shade?

[Little Miss Blue]

Every nursing program I know of has a "no unnatural hair colors" policy. I've heard of people doing funky things with natural colors, such as two-tone color or multi-colored highlights. Personally, I'm interested in playing with reds and going a solid plum or ruby; my skin is fair and such colors complement my skin tone nicely. However, I wonder just how strict nursing schools are. Does anyone have first-hand experience with this? What unusual hair colors have you seen in your classes, if any?

[Boog'sCRRN246, RN]

My hair is dark red on top and plum/purple-y underneath. My instructors have complimented me on it several times. The thing is...did I start my program with hair this color? No. My hair was natural when I started and I gradually added different colors. I don't know that I'd go into your program with an "unnatural" hair color. You may be more likely to get away with it if you wait until after the orientation period.

[metal_m0nk, BSN, RN]

There's a girl in the nursing program at my school who has a mohawk...

[survrgrl08]

During the month of October I put in some pink streaks to represent surviving Breast Cancer at the age of 29 :). I am going to ask before I do it! If unsure, just ask!!:)

[RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN]

No one could speak for your program, so I'd play it safe and test the waters first before jumping into it. If push comes to shove, I would just wait until after graduation.

[izzycatswimRN]

There's been a girl in my nursing school who had very large, bright pink highlights in her hair for the first semester and a half. After it mostly faded she colored her hair more normally....then colored her bangs purple. How she gets away with this when our teachers have been rather strict about hair color I don't know.

[CherryRed23]

This is just my two cents--getting into the nursing program is a BIG deal. I see all kinds of threads saying "should I get a third piercing before classes start?" should I dye my hair?" "Should I get the tattoo?"....I know your asking something different.

It's two years (or four if BSN)....just try doing something that is NOT questionable. Why take the risk or being told that you have to change it? You have the whole rest of your life to play with your hair color.

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

In my nursing program you can dye your hair whatever color your heart desires..BUT the days you have clinicals you CANNOT go to the hospital with purple, red, blue hair...it needs to be a natural color. I like natural colors--I don't want to scare anybody with any other colors. People do judge and I don't want my hair to be the topic of the day...same with piercings and tattoos. If you have them that's fine but don't try to get any more tattoos when you know it is going to be a problem. If you take nursing seriously--then you have to change a few things to be accepted.

[caliotter3]

Nursing school is not the time to be drawing attention to oneself. Many people who did nothing out of the ordinary have been targeted for "special" treatment and failure. You don't want to give anyone an easy reason to "subconsciously" target you. Stay under their radar and out of their line of sight.

[cheezwhiz]

Nursing school is not the time to be drawing attention to oneself. Many people who did nothing out of the ordinary have been targeted for "special" treatment and failure. You don't want to give anyone an easy reason to "subconsciously" target you. Stay under their radar and out of their line of sight.

^ truth!

[ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN]

i had bright orange hair the first five weeks of the last program i was in.. i just had to d ye it for clinical..

now my hair is purple, so when i went to my interview to the school i just got into, i wore a dark brown (very convincing!) wig. This school is more competitive, so i didnt want them to have any negative impressions of me because of my hair color.. I dont start there until January, so ill probably keep my purple for a little while longer..

i also wear my wig when i do my volunteer work for a hospice agency... those people are going through enough, i dont want to frighten them with my hair. lol

[Little Miss Blue]

Thank you everyone for your responses. :)

I'd like to address two of them:

CherryRed23 wrote:

"... getting into the nursing program is a BIG deal. I see all kinds of threads saying 'should I get a third piercing before classes start?', 'should I dye my hair?' 'Should I get the tattoo?'... Why take the risk or being told that you have to change it? You have the whole rest of your life to play with your hair color."

caliotter3 wrote:

"Nursing school is not the time to be drawing attention to oneself. Many people who did nothing out of the ordinary have been targeted for 'special' treatment and failure. You don't want to give anyone an easy reason to 'subconsciously' target you. Stay under their radar and out of their line of sight."

First of all, I understand that people asking about whether or not they "should" get tattoos or piercings may seem silly, but body modifications -- as non-traditional and generally unaccepted as they may be -- are often deeply personal and not done "to draw attention to one's self". I have a nose piercing that I got to symbolize reclaiming my body and femininity after suffering from childhood sexual abuse, and I plan on eventually getting a tattoo on the back of my neck that is symbolic of the identity I have created for myself to distinguish myself from my abusive, dysfunctional family. I have purchased a retainer for the piercing, and the intended tattoo size and placement are such that it should never present a problem in nursing.

What I'm bringing up in this post isn't even with respect to such "unacceptable" body modifications, but just coloring my hair a shade of red that may or may not look natural. Any shade of red rarely looks natural on women who aren't naturally red-heads, so even a "naturally occurring" shade may not "look natural" and thus be considered unacceptable because it's distracting or whatever. I imagine only the strictest programs would make a fuss about it, so I just wanted to get a feel for what is and isn't being accepted in programs across the country. I'm not even committed to a particular program yet, although all of the programs I'm looking into have the same "no unnatural hair colors" policy.

One argument I have to shoot down is the: "you have the rest of your life to play with your hair color" argument. The older you get, the higher expectations are of looking "normal" and "professional". If nursing school is strict, hospitals and other facilities can only be stricter, non? It's better to do experimenting in one's youth, I think.

And with regards to people who "didn't even do anything wrong" being singled out, mistreated, and failed? That's called discrimination, and it's illegal. No one should stand for it. Just my .