Well, I am an attorney who practice law in very very conservative environments for over the last 12 years.
First, at a vary large, very conservative, international law firm with offices thruout major US cities as well as in london, brussels, hong kong, johannesburg, etc. and I worked the a very very conservative department -- municipal and corporate bond counsel work doing multi-million dollar transactions world-wide and my clients included international corporations (walmart, starbucks, gate gourmet, etc.) and major underwriters (bear sterns, morgan stanley, dean witter, etc.) -- basically, folks with the millions to invest. I gave these details to illustrate my work environment was very conservative with interactions with even more conseravative clients. I was recruited from law school by a white woman, a partner in the firm, and on my interviews with her and the hiring team, I wore cornrows. I got hired. I worked for the firm as an associate for over 2 years, making much money but not having a life with my DH and DS (putting in 80+ billable hours a week can kinda put a damper on family life) and so I decided I didn't want to "make partner" -- so I got a less demanding gig with . . .
in corporate america as inhouse counsel for a major oil company with offices worldwide, a little bit less conservative than the firm, but not much. I was hired by a 3-man team of all male white lawyers and again I wore braids throughout the interviewing process and again, I got hired and worked there for over 10 years.
I work mostly with men, frequently being the only black and the only female at the table and I never had problems because of my hair. Ummm, I had OTHER issues occasionally, but never about my hair in braids. Half the battle is being comfortable within your own skin and I never even thought about whether my braids would fit in or not -- I was always concerned about my ability to produce -- I produce, I get paid. If my braids bothered anyone, then I just weeded them out at the interview stage and never had to worry bout them . . .
At the oil company, there was another black woman pretty high up in the geologist department, she was the head there and she wore locks -- very thick, long and always looking good.
Whew, this is longer than I intended but really just wanted to say that, in general, if your braids or locks, or fro, or twists, etc. are clean, neat and well groomed, they can't say nothing even if they don't like it . . .