Nose rings, tattoos, purple hair and pants that are so large they have to be constantly pulled up. What can you do as an employer? An individual's freedom to dress or look a particular way generally ends at the workplace where the employer has the freedom and discretion on how they will operate their organization.

Courts have ruled in favor of employers who have fired employees for not covering tattoos, wearing earrings, failing to wear a tie or having hair that was too long. Employers have even been permitted to set up different appearance standards for men and women. It has been found permissible to prohibit male employees from wearing earrings while at the same time allowing female employees to do so. An employer can require its male employees to have short hair and permit female employees to have long hair.

However, the law generally forbids employers from attempting to regulate specific "immutable" characteristics such as race, national origin, color, sexual orientation, disability, medical conditions or gender. Furthermore, an employer is required to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or disability to the extent that the accommodation does not create an undue burden on the employer. Finally, an employer generally cannot regulate an employee's lawful off duty behavior or appearance.

In an effort to avoid any legal issues concerning the regulation of employee appearance:

1. Make sure that any such regulations are applied and enforced in an evenhanded and non-subjective manner.
2. Have a legitimate and specific reason for the particular regulation.
3. Avoid regulations that may disparately impact a particular group of employees.
4. Be sensitive to an employee's religious beliefs and reasonably accommodate the employee in that regard.
5. Provide clear and concise appearance standards in an employee handbook.