A job applicant who lost her hair when she had cancer says interviewers called her headpiece not 'professional' enough

• A job applicant says interviewers didn't realize she was still on the call when they berated her.
• Krystal Garmon said the interviewers called the headpiece she wore not "professional" enough.

A job hunter who lost her hair when she had cancer says interviewers didn't realize she was still on a call when they berated her and said a headpiece she was wearing wasn't "professional" enough.

Krystal Garmon told Insider that she wore her headcap during a video interview for a project management role at an online health and beauty company on January 31. The company's name is known to Insider.

She said that since having cancer treatment twice, her hair had never grown back fully and she always keeps her head covered.

The interview was "really great," Garmon told Insider. The two interviewers told her what the job entails, asked her questions, and came across as "really kind," she said. Based on the feedback from the interviewers, Garmon expected another call with the company to follow.

But after they finished talking to Garmon, the two interviewers started talking among themselves without realizing that she was still on the call.

Garmon detailed her experiences in a LinkedIn post.

"Today, I had an interview with a company that did not end their Zoom meeting before they began to talk with each other," Garmon wrote.

"'She had a head cap on, did she know she was in an interview?'" Garmon wrote, quoting the interviewers. "'She would look more professional if she showed her hair. I can't tell what color her hair is.'"

"Do you know my hair is uneven?" Garmon continued in her post. "Do you know I have bald spots? Do you know I am embarrassed to show anyone what I've gone through? Do you know my hair looks less professional if I don't wear a head cap?"

Garmon told Insider that after she heard what the interviewers said she hung up the call and "broke down crying." She took the rest of the day off from job hunting — something she's been doing since November — to focus on herself.

Garmon hasn't contacted the company about her experience because she doesn't want to ruin her chance of getting a job there. She told Insider she didn't blame the company for the two interviewers' behavior – maybe they're just "shitty people" and likely aren't representative of the whole company, she said.

Garmon was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2013 and cervical cancer in 2017, she said. Her hair used to be a big part of her identity and she chooses not to wear a wig. The headpiece she wore during the interview was "not inappropriate," she said.

"Today is the last day I will wear anything to hide my history," Garmon wrote in her LinkedIn post. "I will wear my history with appreciation."

Garmon was "amazed" about the support she received after posting on LinkedIn, she told Insider. Hundreds of people messaged her and she has two job interviews lined up with people who saw her post, she said. As of Monday morning, the post had almost 39,000 likes and had been shared nearly 780 times.

"I got messages of love and connection from cancer survivors, those who are still going through it, and those affected by this horrible disease. I got messages of support from folks who bonded over shared experiences through the hiring process and the humiliation they've also experienced," Garmon wrote in a follow-up LinkedIn post.

"I hope something that I shared within my post gave someone strength," she wrote.