Long hair unrestrained at work

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Sorry if I'm offending anyone here, but in nursing school wearing ones long hair down was a big no no, due to infection control issues we were told. Yet, I constantly see nurses with long hair at work, flowing freely. Has the no long hair past the shoulders, and loose, rule gone by the wayside? Has it been proven to not matter?

Specializes in Acute Care - Adult, Med Surg, Neuro.

I have hair almost to my butt. I always wear it up. It's just a pain in the rear end when it's down as it is, can't image dealing with it while at work, with all the bending etc it would get dipped into something gross. I also shed like crazy and wouldn't want to leave pieces of long hair anywhere.

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Specializes in Transitional Nursing.

Only took one time of wearing my long hair down (when I had it) to never do it again. ;-)

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This issue seems trivial compared to the issues I deal with in my hospital day-to-day. Calm down, and breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

I have naturally curly hair that goes down to my "vertical smile". I can't even begin to imagine working with it down.... ewwwww!!!!

It's either in a ponytail, or it's in a bun.

Because of its bushy/curly nature, the ponytail stays behind me at all times when doing patient care -- if I had silky hair that flowed easily, I would either braid or bun it to make sure the ponytail didn't fall forward. I work with spinal cord patients... the last thing I want dragging on the bed during bowel program is my hair!!!!

For those who complain about buns being heavy or using 842 hairpins to hold up a bun, I recommend looking into Spin Pins. They look scary, but once you've used them, you'll never go back to regular hairpins again! I can also put my huge head of hair up in a bun in under ten seconds with a hairstick. Total lifesaver!

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I think there are a lot of kind of silly practices in nursing that still get shoved onto nursing students as being a "by the book" rule. White scrubs and white shoes is a great example. One of the area nurse managers (from a different hospital, not the one where I'm going to work, thank god!) told me that they're strongly considering going back to making nurses wear all white so that patients can more easily identify them. Yikes! :dead:

I know it's a bit off-topic, but I gotta say it! White scrubs are a horrible idea and always will be. "Whites" were not translucent, baggy jammies. Scrubs were green or blue. When we wore whites, they were more like business clothes that were tailored and had things like collars, cuffs, buttons, zippers, and waistbands you wore with appropriate undergarments.

I cringe when I read posts from poor souls who have this inflicted on them, especially guys. The reason for white - it was a way of displaying "clean and sanitary" especially back when laundry was done less often and less thoroughly. White had a huge heyday in the '20s. There are lots of articles on the history of nursing uniforms that explain it better than I can.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Ohhhhh...The Great Gum Debate... I don't remember which thread about gum it was (there have been a few!) but it got ridiculous... and I was no innocent bystander in how ridiculous it got :laugh:

Then you weren't the person who said there was a risk that the gum-chewing nurse might drool into an open wound? :roflmao: OK I'll stop now....

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Looked up the spin pins; wish there had been a few demonstration photos to show how to use them......

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
Looked up the spin pins; wish there had been a few demonstration photos to show how to use them......

I'm sure there are tutorial videos on YouTube -- we longhairs love to share our secrets with the world!

Basically, they work like a screw -- righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. They kind of "sew" themselves into the bun -- picking up a bit of scalp hair, then a bit of bun hair, then a bit of scalp hair, then a bit of bun hair, over and over and over until they are screwed all the way in.

This allows the weight/pressure to be distributed over the entire length of the pin's two sections, compared to all of the weight/pressure being on a single point like with a regular "stick it in and flip it backwards" hairpin. This also allows for multiple "holding points" per Spin Pin, meaning one SP can really do the job of a handful of bobby pins.

As I stated, my hair is HUGE and powerful (my screen name here is based on the fact that my hair resembles a rusted out pad of steel wool!), and I can get a comfortable bun that will hold all day long with just three Spin Pins.

And at the end of the day, you just twist them in the other direction and they back right out, just like a bolt and nut. No tangling, no bending, no pulling -- righty-tighty, lefty-loosey.

Absolutely miraculous hair tool.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
I'm sure there are tutorial videos on YouTube -- we longhairs love to share our secrets with the world!

I was right: quick tutorial:

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I agree, unrestrained long hair is an infection risk, similar to acrylic nails or wearing a lot of rings. They INCREASE the risk of infection and could theoretically carry an infection to an immunocompromised person. My hair is very long, it's not common to see hair as long as mine but most at work are unaware cuz it's always back and/or up. I worked with another nurse with gorgeous flowing waist length hair that had head pain when she wore a pony tail (this was her reason for leaving it down), and every now and then she'd be huffing at the nurse's station how a patient or family member got upset when her hair swished over someone's food (I suspect it made her nervous word would get back to the manager). I can get a head ache too with putting my hair back, so I just use a long pony tail or braid at the base of my neck, anywhere else will hurt.

When I find a piece of my hair, it's not just 'a piece of hair', it is a gigantic long piece of hair. Can you imagine pulling a long, long hair out of your food? Or finding a giant long hair on your father's tray table or pill basket? Ewww. Hair has static electricity and dust and mites can cling to it and get carried all over. Keeping one's hair under control is common sense, even more so than acrylic nails or the like. Not controlling your hair ought to be pointed out as an infectious risk.

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Eh, this is not a club, a social gathering, a fashion show--it is work. And for work, hair out of eyes and off of a patient I would think would be a goal.

There are just as many really cute short haircuts that have a lot of texture and wispy-ness that end up falling into one's eyes while attempting to start an IV, doing wound care and the like. And patients get just as appalled that one's hair is going anywhere near their wounds....or their skin as leaning over a patient is pretty commonplace.

Right up there with fake nails that are 3 inches long.....Gross.

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Then you weren't the person who said there was a risk that the gum-chewing nurse might drool into an open wound? :roflmao: OK I'll stop now....

Noooooooooo... that wasn't me!!!

But no one could accuse me in taking the high road in that thread either! :roflmao:

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