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Before you speak, before you perform, before your résumé even matters, your hair can be interpreted as a signal of credibility, professionalism, and belonging.

In this episode of A Mixed Executive Perspective, Grace Fooden Correy unpacks how hair and appearance function as workplace power, not personal preference. She breaks down the “risk range” professionals calculate in real time, how the same hair can be read as “bold” in one room and “unprofessional” in another, especially in conservative markets, commission environments, and high-stakes business settings.

Grace connects lived executive experience across fashion, sales, and global cultures to the hidden cost of appearance policing, the time, money, emotional energy, and constant commentary that quietly taxes mixed professionals and women of color. The point is not to pretend the system is fair. The point is agency, seeing the rules clearly so you can choose a strategy with your eyes open.

What You Will Learn

• How hair becomes a credibility test before competence is evaluated

• What “risk range” looks like across industries and cultures

• The hidden cost of appearance policing: money, time, and emotional burden

• Why cultural context changes meaning, even when your intention does not

• How to lead with agency while navigating power and belonging

00:00: Hair as a workplace signal, power, and credibility

02:00: Risk range, conservative rooms, and closing deals

04:00: The hair tax, time, money, emotional burden

06:00: Global context shift, when meaning changes by culture

09:00: Agency, strategy, and choosing with your eyes open

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