United Airlines Relaxes Its Makeup and Tattoo Rules

United Airlines is keeping up with changing times. The next time you board a United Airlines flight, don’t be surprised to see different-looking flight attendants than what you were used to. United relaxed its makeup and tattoo rules allowing flight attendants to express themselves while on the job.

The updated makeup and tattoo rules will give flight attendants the freedom to have better gender expression.  In United’s statement, this will “empower our employees to represent themselves in the way they feel most confident”.

Updated Makeup and Tattoo Rules

In its new policies, flight attendants, regardless of gender, can now wear nail polish, “natural-looking” makeup, and even have tattoos. In its older policy, makes are not allowed to wear nail polish or makeup. But now, even male flight attendants can have long hair.

The airline made the changes in its appearance standards after doing employee feedback. These new rules will take effect starting September 1. This will also apply to other customer-facing employees. The changes in the makeup and tattoo rules will also include pilots and other workgroups in the future according to the airline.

According to Kate Gebo, executive vice president of United’s department of human resources and labor relations, “As the face of United, our customer-facing teammates can provide an even better experience for our customers when they look and feel their best”. She added that “We’ve spent the last several years listening to the feedback we’ve received from our employees”

Changing the Industry’s Gender Binary Perspective

Two months ago, American Civil Liberties Union said that Alaska Airlines’ uniform policy violates the state and federal law on sex discrimination.

United’s move to change its uniform policy is an attempt to neutralize the gender binary perspective of the airline industry. Nowadays, major airlines added a non-binary gender option in their booing systems. Some airlines even took out terms such as “ladies and gentlemen” in their announcement.

And also, the Department of State announced that passport applicants will now have the option to self-select gender minus the medical paperwork.