Hair?

[BrandyBSN]

The hospitals in the area here have a policy for all clinical staff and Docs...

Hair must not be long enough to fall past the chin when leaning forward, or must be pulled back.

While I completely understand the need for this, as hair in a wound site would be really dangerous to the patient, I was wondering, do you put your hair in a pony tail every day? or did you just cut your hair short?

I just wondered how others manage this infection control measure :)

BrandyBSN

[GreytNurse]

Hi Brandy......keep your hair the way YOU want. Mine is rather long....past my bra in the back. I have about 50-60 different scrunchies, banana clips, etc....plus about 100 different ribbons. I also 'spruce it up' with the different holidays, wearing the right color ribbon with the color of the holiday. My patients and other staff members always comment

If your allowed to wear colored scrubs...which I'm not/can only wear all white....you can find alot of matching hair access. that are really cute.

I make my own barretts too....add cute little 'do-dads' and themes. When we were campaigning for the union, I wore union colors and made a hair clippie out of a union pin!

Keep your hair the way you want..........AND ENJOY IT!!!!!!

[TracyB,RN, RN]

I just had mine cut, chin length. It was to the middle of my back. It was always up, twisted around the scrunchie, or up in a giant claw clip. I was getting so many "hair headaches" whenever I tried to wear it down.

Since I can't do a pony anymore,I keep it out of my face with funky headbands, or those mini claw clips.

[live4today, RN]

My hair has gone from long to short to medium to long; back to medium, and now short! I have never cut my hair for a job, but do believe in keeping it neatly pulled away from the face...except for bangs at times...while doing patient care. Just because I may like my hairstyle, doesn't mean the patients appreciate it, so I think of them always when I have to bathe them, perform wound care, listen to their heart and lungs with my stethoscope, etc. I know I wouldn't want some nurse hanging her hair over me, so I try to be mindful of that when I'm doing patient care.

[NurseDennie, BSN, RN]

Oooh Hair!! I have "bad" hair. I go from "bad" hair day to "malignant" hair day! When I was a teenager, I had the long, straight, parted in the middle hair. Not too easy when your hair is actually wavy/curly. But it's THIN and it's FINE, so it looks horrible when it's long. It's misty looking around my shoulders, and if I pull it back, it looks like I'd scraped it back when it was wet. It's too thin to wear a head-band (remember those?) or clips or anything like that. I can't keep a nursey cap on, either. I guess it's partially my thin, fine, slippery hair, and partly an unfortunate shape to my head, who knows? I actually have found a couple of baby clippies and baby barrettes that I can wear. *sigh*

My hair is pretty short. As soon as I got a job in research and didn't have to worry about codes and pooop and stuff like that, it grew out a bit. Just because every time I made noises about cutting my hair, my daughter begged me not to, saying it looked better long. WRONG.

When I cut it, my office-partner was just visibly relieved, it looked so much better. Covered up my little bald places. Heh heh

I personally think that people who have good hair owe it to the rest of society to have long, luxurious hair! My daughters both have beautiful beautiful hair... Neither have long hair!!!!!

Love

Dennie

[danny]

We haven't been wearing caps for several years, but the docs in our hospital insist on us wearing one, whatever the length of our hair! Do you think it's right? I don't...!

[CATHYW]

When I did direct patient care, my hair was so short I didn't have to comb it-just towel-dried it in the direction I wanted it to go. When I was doing Occ Med, i grew it out and used banana clips.

Moved up here and started ER again, and off came the hair! It is difficult to rush around, working up a "glow," doing compressions, etc., with long hair in your face.

When I came back to Occ Med, the hair grew quite long, but it was always pulled back from my face. In summer, it was always in a claw clip. I cut it a couple of months ago, and have enjoyed being able to sleep later. When it grows out, though, there is no way of hiding it, and I am behind on getting a trim. Maybe tomorrow, when I'm off, I'll have a chance to get one.

In the words of an old song, Brandy, "do yore thang." Wear your hair how you want it, just keep it away from patients and machinery!

[panda_181]

Well...

People have always commented on how I do my hair. I have some clips and claws and I also use ponytails. I think that my hair is about the same length as yours, Brandy. My trick...lots of hairspray will make your hair do anything! I have very fine hair but I can usually manage to make it look presentable. I also own many bobby pins. Put your hair in a ponytail, apply a generous amount of hairspray, and start pinning! You can do a nice look, or the messy yet sophisticated look. A zig-zag part in the front spices it up a little. Hope this helps...

Amanda :)

[kids]

I hadn't (note past tense) had short hair since I was 5... the first week of January I went from spiral permed Q90 days for 20 years waist length hair to having some neck...anyway I got it all cut off and a medium curl perm.

It used to take 2 1/2 hours QOD to wash and condition it...then pick it out...then finger wrap it into spirals-and it was never down. It now takes me 2 minutes to towel dry it and rake it where I want it.

I wish I had done it a very long time ago! I gave away most of my 100+ scrunchies and clips-and threw away the ones I couldn't give away. I will NEVER have long hair again!

[raiderron]

I am a male nurse with long blond hair. I agree with SICU about having something to tie it back with for the "special" jobs that come up. Works for me!

[aus nurse]

Ah I love my long hair....so changeable. Have had it every length over the years and like long the best. Had a very short cut in my training coz in those days we wore caps and was too much trouble to try and keep it all up.

These days our hospital is pretty casual... anything goes. I usually wear it in a plait down to my waist and for those really icky jobs it tucks neatly inside the back of my top. For the really bad hair days up it goes in a bun out of sight...too easy!!

Takes me no time to wash and put up... and the benefit is people don't recognise you in off-duty hours!

Oh , and the other advantage?....saves hairdressing costs!!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Our hospital rules just state your hair has to be out of the way in pt care settings. As an ER nurse, mine is about chin length now, very, very straight. I occasionally pull it back with barrettes, but otherwise just flip it behind my ears.

[semstr]

I have short hair, because I am not blessed with thick curls, but with blond almost white babyhair.

I always wonder, why the long-haired people don't get the creeps, when their hair is hanging in a pooped-in bed or in the tub with the incontinent patient and so on.

What I really, really hate, is when I sit in the metro or bus, and a long-haired person, throws her/ his hair back and it is all over my face!! Yuk!!

Or on the market, when they have to pull their hair out of their eyes, while cutting my meat or bread!! Bigger YUK!

Guess I am just jealous of them!LOL

Take care, Renee