Getting Jobs while Alternative

Many jobs do not want their employees to have piercings, tattoos, or colored hair for various reasons.
If you want to make money but you also don't want to have to retire your piercings and whatnot, you might have to compromise.

It's okay to compromise! Sadly we live in a society where dressing outside of the norm and expressing oneself is seen as a bad thing, and we all need money to survive.

1) Hiding piercings (not applicable for new piercings- please wait until your piercing is fully healed before replacing jewelry or covering with makeup!)

 Do not remove jewelry and leave it out for extended periods of time unless you plan to retire the piercing.

To hide a septum piercing, simply get a semicircular barbell (also known as a "horseshoe") and simply flip the piercing up. You can also get a curved barbell and the piercing will be barely visible.
To hide any other kind of piercing (or a septum as well) , your best bet is to wear a clear retainer, or clear bioplast jewelry.

You can also cover the piercing with foundation or concealer, or, if you can grow facial hair to cover your piercing, go ahead.

2) Covering tattoos

Cover any tattoos you can with clothing. Wear a long sleeved shirt, long pants or a long skirt, and perhaps a scarf. If you have a tattoo that cannot be covered by clothing, find a high coverage concealer and conceal your tattoo as best you can.

Below is a quick tutorial on how to cover a tattoo with concealer.
Be sure that the concealer matches your skin tone!

 



3) Covering hair

Option one is to dye your hair a natural color - remember, auburn, black, and blonde still count as natural colors!
Flip hair over any shaven areas of your head.
Wear a hat if the job allows.

Or, you can buy wigs!
the easiest is to wear your natural hair un-dyed and un-shaven to work and then wear fun alternative wigs out when you feel like dressing up, but if you think you can manage to fool your boss into thinking a wig is your natural hair, feel free.

If you want to wear a wig to work, buy a high quality lacefront wig, with human hair. Synthetic wigs work as well, but they have a shine that natural hair does not have. Use dry shampoo or baby powder to dull the shine. (Another very good way to dull the shine is to soak the hair in a mixture of water and fabric softener for 24 hours and then when it dries to use dry shampoo or baby powder to make it less sticky and less shiny)

below is a tutorial on how to make a wig look more natural!

 

The best wig store that I know of is https://www.arda-wigs.com/, but you can try amazon, aliexpress, or ebay to find a cheap wig- know that you're taking a chance and the wig will probably need a lot of work if you buy from there. Unless a wig says so on the website, it's not heat resistant, so don't try to straighten or curl it the way you would your natural hair.

 

Personally,  I own 5 or 6 synthetic wigs, all from amazon. they're not the best quality, but I know a decent amount about wigs, so I make them look more realistic by dulling the shine and doing a lot of work to style them.

 

Never use a hairbrush or comb that you use on your natural hair on a wig- make sure to buy a new comb that's only for wigs.

 

Well, that's all I can think of.

 

Hope these helped!

 

Creep it real!

 

 

How To Get Alternative Clothes Without Breaking the Bank

So, I'm seventeen years old and I don't have a license, a car or a job. (I know, I'm a deadbeat) Sometimes I feed my neighbors' cats while they're away? That's kind of a job, right? (It's not.) But anyway, I don't have a stable source of income, so I can't really afford extravagant clothes and $50 shoes from dollskill or killstar or etsy or whichever alternative fashion websites are around these days.

So how do I dress the way I want to with the little money I have?

Image from the Garment District's website

First of all: Thrift stores. Lots and lots of thrift stores.
I go to thrift stores and I pick up anything I like and everything black, meshy, lacy, etc.
Most of my favorite clothes are from thrift shops, they're where you can find really unique and vintage clothing that isn't for sale anymore anywhere else.

If anyone lives in the Boston area, my favorite thrift shop is called The Garment District in Cambridge, and they have a huge pile of clothes that you can pick whatever you like out of, and clothes are $2 per pound, or $1 per pound on Fridays! They're also connected to Boston Costume, which also has costume clothing (read: goth year round clothing) such as fishnet sleeves, bone tights, and more. They also sell manic panic, if that floats anyone's hair dye boat.

Secondly: Online!
Ebay, Amazon, and SheIn honestly have some cool and cheap clothes, especially things meant for costumes that are available year round. Look online for wholesalers, too!

Third: Costume and Halloween stores!
Now is the perfect time of year for someone like me to get new outfit pieces.
One of my favorite necklaces (blood necklace, anyone?) is party city couture. The only problem with this is that it's seasonally based, and the clothes have that... Cheap plasticy smell. And aren't very good quality. And the jewelry will turn you green. And the earrings will probably give you an infection, so avoid that. But if your fishnets get holes in them, you'll just look edgier, so give it a shot!

Lastly: Do it yourself!
Never underestimate the power of the DIY. You can dye white clothes black or purple, cut the sleeves off things, spraypaint designs onto your clothes, the world is your oyster!
I'm currently working on a project where I'm cutting the back out of one of my t-shirts and replacing the back with lace from an old skirt my art teacher gave me. This is one of my favorite methods, it's loads of fun and you end up with a unique garment in the end! It's awesome!

There are also tons of videos on goth and punk DIY-ing on youtube including these two by one of my favorite youtubers. (Warning: videos may contain curse words, and are pretty long!)

Creep it real!

Si