If you've never gagged finding a lonely hair strand in your food, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. Today we are talking food, hair, the service industry, and Reddit.
Reddit user u/throwaway7261518993 used to work for a sandwich shop where her boss would immediately blame her anytime a customer found hair in their food — even though she was not the only one with long, dark hair and she wore her hair up in a hairnet every day.
So one day she decided to dye her hair blue solely so she could not be blamed if a customer ever found hair in their food again...
Ignoring the fact that it sounds concerning how often customers found hair in their food at this sandwich shop, let's move on. In a Reddit thread at r/pettyrevenge, she continued sharing how her little stint quickly paid off because, of course, another hair was found in someone's food.
And when her boss came barging in to blame her, she got to show her boss that it was NOT her hair because her hair was BLUE.
And what you would think was the end to a nice little "take that" story is only the beginning, because other people who work in the service industry started sharing how common this is and how they have had to dye (or shave) their hair to avoid blame too!
User u/MissMurderpants said, "Yup, I got blamed for this. I had short brown hair. I worked with guys who had looong hair. So I dyed mine red. 'Nope, Chef. Mine's red.'"
"I called my bright pink hair my 'food safety hair,'" shared user u/Kintsugi-skunk.
"I worked in a majority-male restaurant, and my manager blamed me for all the hair, even though my male coworkers also had long hair and didn’t tie it up as well. So one day I buzzed my hair. I shit you not, the next time my manager found a hair in the food, he turned around and started to blame me. He was halfway through berating me and realized it couldn’t have been me and walked away without finishing his sentence," said user u/Disco-Onion.
The conversation then snowballed into how often people lie about hair being in their food to get their meal for free.
User u/hiddencamela shared their experience previously working in the food service industry, saying, "All the workers had short black hair in the kitchen, and also the waitstaff. The hair in the food was long and blonde. Some people will complain about anything to get a deal, too."
"Had this happen before in a restaurant where I worked. Lady complained about a hair in her food — all the waitstaff were blonde, all chefs were bald or with a buzz cut, and this hair was long and brown, just like hers," said user u/breveeni.
"I worked at a pizza place for a few years as a cook and delivery driver. One day when I was the only working cook, a woman called, furious, saying that there was a hair in her pizza and she demanded a refund and a new pizza. I asked her what the hair looked like. As you might imagine, she did not respond. Don't try to scam if you can't back up your bullshit," shared user u/QuantumKittydynamics.
User u/burnsy678 had a customer who complained that they didn't like their food after they ate it. "I said that wasn't a reason for a refund. Only THEN did she mention that they found a long blonde hair in the middle of the pizza. The pizza-maker was bare-head bald, the person cutting the pizza had short black hair, and I had purple hair at the time. The look on her face as I brought everyone out and took my beanie off was priceless."
Phew. Kudos to anyone who works in the food service industry. Do you have an experience related to anything in this Reddit convo?! Let us know in the comments!
Note: Some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity.