The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines are mandatory reading for you if you are an employer covered by Title VII or an employee that follows religious prescriptions. Some examples of religious dress and grooming that are discussed in the guidelines include Christian crosses, a Muslim hijab, Sikh turbans and kirpans, uncut hair and beards, Rastafarian dreadlocks, or Jewish peyes.
In most cases employers covered by Title VII must make exceptions to their usual rules or preferences to permit applicants for jobs and employees to follow religious dress and grooming practices, unless those dress and grooming requirements pose an “undue hardship” on the employer. If these issues affect you please review the guidelines and call me if you have any issues or questions.
The publication by the EEOC makes good reading even if you don’t have religious garb and grooming issues at your workplace because it is a fascinating accommodation of religious rights and employer rights.
Additionally, the EEOC guidelines explicitly protect new and individual belief systems that are explicitly not recognized by the public at large or may not have adherents other than a particular job applicant or employee. Let your imagination run wild with that for a moment.