Would you hide your hair to save your job? That's a decision that a French flight attendant had to make. Aboubakar Traoré, a Frenchman of Ivorian decent, was forced to hide his hair under a terrible toupee in order to remain employed.
Traoré was hired by Air France in 1999, and has been wearing dreads for quite a few years. It's only recently that his hair has caused a stir claiming that his harm was 'harming the company's image' and that he would have to wear a wig or risk losing his job. (This limitation was only placed on the men, because female flight attendants are permitted to wear braids and dreads.)
As a result, a petition was started to get the company to review and update it's policies to reflect the ethnic diversity of it's employees, and demonstrators have gathered and protested Air France's policies.
It's time to WAKE UP folks! We're living in a time were more and more people are embracing their natural hair, however, certain hairstyles are still deemed 'unprofessional' by certain companies. It's disheartening that we sometimes still have to fight for the basics.
I would love to hear your thoughts....would you ever consider altering your image to save your job? Has anyone ever done that before? What were the results of your change?
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