I’ve got two job interviews (for technology firms) next week and I’m going to get a haircut today (Saturday). I’m split between the thinnest buzz cut and just shaving the whole thing off at a barber.
What do you guys recommend?
I should add that it if it won’t harm my chances of getting a job, I’ll shave the head off. It’ll grow back anyways, so I won’t have to worry if I get a job post-interview.
There’s nothing wrong with shaving the hair off, but I think you should probably leave the head.
Some women look great with their head shaved. Entirely up to you.
Have you shaved your head before? If yes, and you got positive feedback from family/friends/coworkers, then go ahead. If you haven’t and don’t know if there’s a big ol knob up there that makes you look like a pinhead or something, then err on the side of leaving some cover. If you currently look like you’re wearing a 10 year old wig, then anything you do will be an improvement.
There’s a guy at one of my jobs with unruly, curly hair. He can’t seem to bother learning how to use product in it to keep it looking professional and it’s seriously holding him back. He looks homeless. His wife is clearly unable to help, and side-eye type comments from coworkers seem to go unnoticed. When he first started it was long enough for a ponytail. It was fine as long as he actually tied it back. Then he super short buzzed it, with positive feedback. And proceeded to let it grow out to the current uncombed mess that it is. Makes clients uncomfortable.
So, your question is hard to answer for your situation without more information. There’s also the risk of looking like a skinhead (if you’re an otherwise average looking white guy) if you have an otherwise clearly full head of hair. If you look like a young guy with early balding, and shaved it due to that, it can usually be pulled off just fine.
I assure you it probably doesn’t matter from an interview perspective. You can’t know what an interviewer is looking for as it is essentially arbitrary. So people often project whatever detail they are concerned about them selves onto the evaluation criteria and blow it up to be more than it is.
Like this woman I work with. She’s in her late 40s and is basically obsessed with “ageism in the workplace.” So whenever she doesn’t get called back for an interview, she assumes it’s her age. In reality, it’s because she is the most obnoxious person in the world. Of course, she would say that people only think she’s obnoxious because of her age. Which just makes her more obnoxious.
Well I’m balding, to be fair, I’m a young white male (age 22), I’d look less of a skin head if I shaved it.
I’ll shave it then. Looking at video footage from my iPhone, looks like more than 50% of my hair is missing.
Shave it. If anything, it demonstrates the willingness to take control of a situation (the situation being natural balding.
One thought; for some jobs a drug test is required, and sometimes they do the test on hair rather than urine. Would the prospective employer think you have something to hide by coming in bald? On the other hand, I’ve worked with bald guys before and generally it doesn’t make a difference.
A really bad comb-over would send the same message.
Personally, I’d be inclined to consider a head-shave to be a negative, ranking lighter but in the same category with visible tattoos or ball cap on backwards.
Here’s a suggestion. Phone any large corporation and ask for HR. Or an employment service in the yellow pages. Whomever you talk to, just briefly tell them that you are applying for a job elsewhere, but want some advice, and describe your options. See what they say.
Off the top of my head (no pun intended), I’d say pop for $30-40 for a nice professional hair stylist, and explain that its for a job interview…
No HR department is going to answer questions from random strangers. They probably won’t even answer the phone.
You’re probably right abut the second part, but it is an unfair generalization to imply that nobody would try to be helpful by listening to and giving a short answer to a civil question.
“Just shaved my head for the first time” tan lines don’t exactly exude confidence and you’ll have them either way.
If you haven’t done it yet try 3/8" and see how you like it.
No, a combover would indicate inability to face reality.
Not in the technology/IT sector, in my experience. The shaved-bald look is quite normal.
Do some research on the company and your prospective boss.
I recall a recent TV ad for, I think, a brand of razors that shows a bunch of carefully coiffed young male hopefuls wearing their interview suits and sitting in some bland corporate outer office.
One hopeful looks around and notices that all the wall-mounted portraits of company leaders show bald men. So he disappears into the bathroom, quickly shaves his head, and returns to the waiting room. The other candidates are shocked.
Just then the inner office door opens and out walks the very bald interviewer. Cue big smile from the Boss and a done deal for Mr. I keep a razor in my briefcase.
I saw it on TV. Honest. So it must be true, right?! 
When I worked for MegaCorp, the HR function was mostly outsourced. If you had a question about benefits, insurance, 401(k), and the like, you had to call a 1-800#. And give your name and employee ID #.
There was literally no way for a stranger to get a hold of someone to ask the question you proposed.
Right. Current style trend WRT balding ISTM is to show willingness to deal with it practically by either going full shave or doing a very close buzz.
Given OP’s own report of >50% balding, might as well cut to the chase. And as has been mentioned it’s not like it’s even that rare any more.
I went with a “New York City” 1 (shorter than one actually) cut instead. Next time I’ll shave it myself, but for now this will have to do. I still look sharp though.
It also depends on your hair color. If you’ve got dark skin and dark hair, or light skin and light hair, it looks fine. But if you’ve got light skin with dark hair, then you have to shave it every day, or you start getting the black-pepper look, which isn’t usually appealing.
He probably has other sources of hair on his body though; assuming they don’t mind if a sample comes from other places.
Bob