In food service and similar settings, any employee who works with or around exposed, unpackaged food, food‑contact surfaces, or clean equipment is required to wear an effective hair restraint. This typically includes kitchen staff such as cooks, prep workers, dishwashers in the kitchen area, and anyone else who enters the kitchen or production area where food is prepared.

Food safety rules based on the FDA Food Code state that “food employees” must wear hair restraints (and beard restraints for facial hair) that keep hair from contacting exposed food, clean equipment, utensils, linens, and unwrapped single‑service items. Employees who only handle sealed or packaged foods or have minimal contact with food, such as most servers, host staff, or cashiers, are often not required by code to wear full hair restraints, though employers may still choose to require them.

Many local health departments interpret this to mean that everyone who goes into the kitchen or food‑production area should have their hair properly restrained to prevent contamination by hair or skin particles. Anyone with facial hair in those areas is usually required to wear a beard restraint in addition to a head covering.