As a man, is it acceptable for me to wear black nail polish to work?
I'm a senior manager at a small-ish IT company in the South of Brazil. The company has no official dress code, and most people dress up very casually. This includes the board of directors.
While I wouldn't think twice before wearing a Mario T-shirt to the office, black nail polish is a bit more extreme than that. No other male employee wears nail polish of any sort, so I don't have any frame of reference for it.
There is no ban for nail polish on women, nor anything of the sort on beards, piercings and so on. I have waist-length hair myself, so that hasn't been an issue. One of the directors has a septum ring, so I would guess that's not an issue either.
The reason for wearing the black polish is to identify with my sub-culture and to prevent biting my nails.
1 YEAR LATER UPDATE
Since I asked the above question, I've started using black nail polish more often than not. When I showed up with the black nails, the reception went far better than what I was expecting - except by one co-worker that mentioned it, most people didn't seem to care at all. So pretty neat there!
I had issues with my freelance work, however. Some of my prospective clients turned up their noses or made mean comments here and there. If you depend heavily on freelance work, that's one thing to keep in mind if you're going for non-usual fashion choices, specially if you're male-presenting.
Overall, I don't have any regrets with this, and I plan on keeping using it. Thanks all for the input!
