At my first “real” job, I started to wear make-up because it seemed to be expected. I don’t like make-up and don’t wear it anymore, but at that job, smearing on some lipstick was the minimum I could get away with, so that is what I did.

However, to be fair, the men had to wear neck ties. Talking to men, neck ties are like a noose around their necks.

These social conventions cut both ways.

Frankly there are some jobs like programmer where as long as you are clean no one should care if you come into work with scraggly shorts and multiple tattoos or a 3 piece suit (or the female equivalent). Your productivity does not depend on what you look like.

In other jobs, where you interact with the public, the way you look can have a big impact on sales. Is this good? No, but it’s reality. A realtor who wants to finance a boat puts on the uniform that generates sales.

Thankfully as an artist and a writer no one cares that I wear birkenstocks, no make-up and star trek t-shirts.