Comments by Mike Densham

Mike Densham
Member - 2 posts

I’ve never commented on one of these discussion boards before but feel compelled to do so on this occasion.
I wonder if Martin Brewer can recall any occasion in his life that his hair was cut at a hairdressers by someone with their hair covered. I certainly can’t! (I’m 42 years old, not saying that I remember every haircut I’ve ever had, but of the ones I do remember, I don’t ever recall a hairdresser wearing headgear).
On Martin Brewer’s other points:

1. ‘Politically correct’, rightly or wrongly, is considered by some to be an insult because it means you are taking being fair-minded to an unsustainable extreme, and you are plainly not seeing that (e.g.: what if I want to cut hair stark naked because wearing clothes offends my religious beliefs)
2. If all employers have a right to specify a dress code and standard of appearance (as you state), then logically that right CANNOT be questioned. Otherwise they have no such right.
3. As to the business argument, even if the hairdresser in question were commercially misjudging her industry by specifying the dress code that she does, a tribunal or court of law is not qualified to determine that. It has neither the legal right nor duty (nor experience) to pass judgement on purely commercial decisions.
Surely there is only one basis on which Ms. Noah should conceivably win her case – if the hairdresser simply dreamed this ‘dress code’ up to exclude certain religion(s). If the hairdresser has in the past employed other people who habitually wore other types of headgear, that would be evidence to that effect. As would evidence showing it is common practice in the industry that headgear (religious or not) is worn by people who want to. Which brings me back to my first question – have you ever had your hair cut by someone with their hair covered?