‫Another thing that doesn't cost a lot but can make a big difference is hygiene and grooming.
‫Hygiene and grooming are always noticed when neglected. Poor hygiene or perceived poor hygiene can immediately
‫influence people's impressions about you and will hold your social and business interactions back.
‫Hygiene includes anything to do with cleanliness such as body odor, teeth, breath, skin condition, dandruff,
‫etc..
‫Nobody wants to be around somebody who looks dirty or smells bad. Grooming
‫on the other hand are the finishing touches that complete your look and when done wrong they can look
‫either inappropriate or sloppy.
‫So let's go through a few examples. In the business world
‫anything that is perceived to be built for comfort, or if it looks like you just don't care,
‫it would be considered too sloppy for most business environments.
‫So one example of that is men's shirts. Men's shirts in the business world should always be tucked into
‫pants.
‫Now I know it sounds unfair.
‫But it's true.
‫So always make sure that you have your shirt tucked into your pants unless it is permitted in the
‫company dress policy not to. Women,
‫We have a little bit more flexibility in that area.
‫If the top is style to be worn untucked and if it fits your body properly it can be worn untucked.
‫Always consider the condition of your clothing and accessories as well.
‫If it's worn out, in poor condition, needs repair, or if it's wrinkled, stained, or dirty it will appear
‫sloppy, unprofessional and it may reflect your personality.
‫Hair should never look like you just rolled out of bed.
‫It should always be neat.
‫It should always be clean and it should be in a current but understated hairstyle.
‫Unless of course you are in a fashion forward industry.
‫In other words you want to avoid extreme colors and dramatic designs.
‫Men: if you have facial hair,
‫it should always be neat.
‫It should be clean and it should always be well-groomed.
‫OK, one of my favorite topics. Makeup: in my opinion women should always wear makeup when they're doing
‫business and the reason for that is because it draws attention to the face and it also completes the
‫overall look.
‫But makeup for business should always be subtle and understated.
‫OK, let's talk about hands and nails. Hands and nails should always be clean and they should be well-groomed.
‫For men that means the nails should be short, in one length. And women,
‫it's not so much how long or how short they are, but they should be of one length and they need to be
‫functional as well.
‫When choosing nail enamel, you want to choose colors that are either neutral or traditional colors. So
‫neutral colors would be things like clear, or light frosted colors.
‫You may also want to consider French manicures as well.
‫When it comes to traditional colors, anything in the red family would be considered a traditional
‫color.
‫So when the super bright colors or that crack nails come into fashion they will be best reserved for
‫those social occasions instead.
‫When it comes to nail decals, you want to probably avoid nail decals for most work environments and
‫the other thing about nail enamel that you need to take into consideration is that - you know when you
‫get that little chip on your nail and you think oh you know what,
‫nobody's going to notice that.
‫Well chances are it will not only be notice, but you're going to walk around all day kind of subconsciously
‫hiding your hands.
‫So it's always better to just remove the nail polish right away
‫when you first noticed the problem, rather than trying to make your way through the day with chipped
‫nail polish which, is more than likely going to end up worse and worse throughout the day.
‫Fragrance is an interesting one because the rules have changed so dramatically over the years.
‫It used to be, up until around the early 1990s, that everybody wore fragrance. It was just part
‫of getting dressed in the morning.
‫And you would not only apply your fragrance in the morning, but, you would reapply it when you had your
‫breaks at work, after work, before you went out in the evening, and even sometimes you would go to the
‫washroom when you were out in the evening, and reapply it again.
‫But what happened was in the I'd say the early 1990s was that people started to realize that a lot of
‫people were allergic to fragrance, some people didn't like fragrance, and some people were just very sensitive
‫to fragrance.
‫So what's happened since then, is in North America and many other parts of the world a lot of companies
‫and buildings, have adopted a fragrance free policy.
‫So what I always recommend to my clients, is that if you are applying for a job I would suggest
‫not worry a fragrance, because you never know who you're going to be meeting with,
‫and if they're going to be sensitive to fragrance or not.
‫And secondly, if you are somebody that does like fragrance and it is permitted.
‫Always be considerate to the people around you.
‫So instead of applying you know the spray everywhere all over.
‫Just be more sensitive. So you can do a couple of squirts and walk through it to get some on you. You can
‫use the fragrance body lotion instead which would be a little bit more subtle. Or just a little bit on
‫your pulse points first thing in the morning.
‫The other thing to consider about fragrance is that if you can still smell it on yourself 20 minutes
‫after you've applied it, you have way too much.
‫So always be really sensitive to other people when it comes to fragrance.
‫Now when it comes to deodorant I always recommend wearing deodorant.
‫There is nothing worse. And we already talked about hygiene and there is nothing worse than body odor.
‫And even though you may not be sensitive to your own body odor other people will be.
‫So always make sure when you're working, you know anywhere close quarters with other people, that you
‫are wearing deodorant or anti-perspirant. For yourself and also for the people around you.