If you’re traveling for business for an extended period of time, should necessary grooming expenses, like a haircut, be covered as a business expense?

The employee in this story thought that was a reasonable request, but the company accountant disagreed.

Let’s read the whole story to see what happened.

You cannot put haircuts on travel expenses.

I’ve been traveling as deployment engineer for many years.

There was a project in Brazil and they put me in a hotel at the business central area of Sao Paulo.

After 3 months they decided my travel expenses would be reviewed by an accountant of the Brazil office, instead of my source office.

I needed a haircut badly and I decided to visit a salon next to the hotel they chose for me to stay.

They made an exception and cut my hair being a male.

He put the haircut on his expense report.

The bill for a haircut was US $50.

I thought it was expensive but what the hell, I work my butt every day and been traveling for too long.

So I put it in my report.

The accountant didn’t want to approve the expense.

That week the accountant called me to say I cannot submit a $50 haircut, that I must do any grooming from home in advance, before traveling…

–I’ve been traveling for 3 months and 2 months to go… – I responded.

She was not willing to pay it.

My boss interceded for me and at the end I got the full report paid.

Here’s what happened when he needed another haircut.

Another 2 months passed: I entered a $25 haircut + one $25 taxi to take me to a cheaper place, + another $25 taxi to come back to my hotel.

This lady said I should walk instead to a nearby place.

–“I’m sorry, I’m a foreigner in this city and for my safety, following the travel policies, I’m entitled to take taxis to any place.”

The woman had no choice than to accept my reports.

That accountant sounds like a stickler for rules, but it sounds like he has a great boss who has his back.

I’m glad he was able to get the haircut expenses approved.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person rants about business expenses.

Another person isn’t sure a haircut is a business expense.

Here’s a similar comment.

That was a pretty expensive haircut.

At least his boss had his back!

That’s a first.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.