Hooters Dress Code Policy Is Under Fire (Again) After Employee Refuses to Dye Her Hair, Risks Firing
Jun. 14 2023, Updated 1:22 p.m. ET
The long-lived restaurant chain Hooters is best known for two things: waitresses and wings. However, the company is facing backlash on social media for its hair color policy.
It’s not uncommon for companies to have a dress code, but has Hooters taken things too far? A viral video posted by TikTok’s Chelsea Ponsell (@chelseaponsell) reignited the years-old controversy when she refused to dye her hair, putting herself at being fired.
This Hooters employee is at risk of being fired after she refused to dye her hair — the controversy, explained.
Chelsea is on a mission to get rich, but she won’t dye trying.
Although her job has a strict hair policy, she’s seemingly found a way around it. “Me putting [eyeshadow] on my money pieces because I’m fired from Hooters if I don’t,” Chelsea captioned a video, which saw her applying brown makeup to her blonde bangs.
She went on to add: “I refuse to dye my hair for a job I work 3 days a week for — not to mention I was hired two years ago with the same hair I have now.”
Of all places, we’re pretty shocked that Hooters is the company that has beef with creativity. So, what exactly is the company’s hair color policy? Read on for details!
Can you have colored hair at Hooters? What you should know about Hooters’ hair color policy.
Along with piercings, “outrageous” accessories, and bright-colored bras, Hooters’ dress code policy also forbids employees from having an unnatural hair color.
In the comment section of Chelsea’s viral post, several other Hooters employees, past and present, shared their grievances with the company.
“Girl, the way I used to slap on entire wigs and use hair chalk because I refused to dye my hair for Hooters and Twin [Peaks],” TikTok user @outlawxbarbie said. “There [are] ways to get around it.”
But this wouldn’t be the first time Hooters has found itself in hot water due to its dress code policy.
Hooters’ company-wide hair color policy has come under fire in the past.
Many people have challenged Hooters’ hair color policy in the past, but few have been victorious in their battle. This all changed in 2013 when one woman — Farryn Johnson — sued the company for what she described as racial discrimination and won.
“They specifically said black women don’t have blonde in their hair so you need to take it out,” she told a local news outlet.
Per her lawsuit against Hooters, Farryn, who was 25 at the time, was told “that she could not have blonde highlights" because it did not look ”natural” on Black women. Soon after, she was given her first warning.
Weeks later, she was barred from working and subsequently fired. With this, she took her complaints to court.
“According to the report, Hooters terminated Ms. Johnson because of her ‘improper image,’” her complaint read (according to the Baltimore Sun.)
Farryn’s suit also provided evidence that her non-Black co-workers had seemingly been exempt from the hair color policy while she, on the other hand, was terminated. In the end, a judge ordered Hooters to pay Farryn a total of $250,000 and that's what I call a major win for the gworls.
