December 22, 2025 at 12:35 pm

Mechanic Starts Wearing Makeup To Work, But Then A Customer Complains That It Looks Unprofessional

by Ashley Ashbee

Woman applying mascara on herself

Pexels/Reddit

If a mechanic were working on your car, would you be annoyed if they were wearing makeup?

A customer in this story sure seemed to be, and as ridiculous as that sounds, the mechanic is wondering if it really is unprofessional to wear makeup to work.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for wearing makeup as a mechanic?

I am a mechanic at a fairly large workshop and recently I started to use makeup as I found it was boosting my confidence. I started with something to cover my eye bags but later on also tried mascara and a few other subtle things.

Surprisingly I didn’t get any comments from the other mechanics and since everything seemed fine, my confidence was skyrocketing.

The good vibes were short lived.

Because of how large the workshop is, we mechanics have little to no contact with customers. Customers are handled by two ladies working the front desk and we just go out to pick up the cars.

Very rarely we have to talk to customers to figure out the problem.

I also have not much contact to the front desk ladies as we have different break times and our system is automated so we don’t have to talk in person.

Yesterday I was approached by both of them which is very unusual and they both laid into me, that my makeup is highly unprofessional. Seems like a customer who had seen me had made a comment about me.

Their comments had come out of left field.

They were both quite rude, telling me I needed to skip out on the makeup as it was so unprofessional and they had to deal with the customers all the time so they were affected by it.

I was stunned as we are usually on friendly terms and them going off at me left me speechless.

I apologized in the moment but later on I thought about it and I don’t want to stop wearing makeup. I feel confident with it and I feel like I should be able to put it on.

On the other hand they are right that they have to deal with the customers and I don’t want to make it harder for them.

Whether or not someone wears makeup doesn’t impact how well they do their job.

Here is what folks are saying on Reddit.

Exactly. Hypocrisy is always at the heart of these things.

Screenshot 2025 11 10 at 10.04.24 PM Mechanic Starts Wearing Makeup To Work, But Then A Customer Complains That It Looks Unprofessional

Good question. Unless it violates a dress code, what is the problem?

Screenshot 2025 11 10 at 10.05.16 PM Mechanic Starts Wearing Makeup To Work, But Then A Customer Complains That It Looks Unprofessional

True! Wow. I hadn’t even thought of it like that.

Screenshot 2025 11 10 at 10.05.54 PM Mechanic Starts Wearing Makeup To Work, But Then A Customer Complains That It Looks Unprofessional

Ridiculous and jealous.

Screenshot 2025 11 10 at 10.06.22 PM Mechanic Starts Wearing Makeup To Work, But Then A Customer Complains That It Looks Unprofessional

I like this exercise. Good makeup often isn’t obvious.

Screenshot 2025 11 10 at 10.07.40 PM Mechanic Starts Wearing Makeup To Work, But Then A Customer Complains That It Looks Unprofessional

If your superiors won’t have your back for this, when will they?

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