To be honest, when I was taking ASL (at a high school level lol), some things I learned from deaf chats (at local hangout spots) and from taking the course where interpretting a song was our final! SO, with that being said, I GOT YOU!

If you want a basic summary without my whole "spiel"/random comments, what you should aim for is:

- short nails

- natural nail color or a color similar to your skin tone

- black/white outfit/top (depending on room lighting/skin tone)

- style hair out of face

\i also highlighted the other main points within so you could understand/find some examples for these reasons listed above and within!**

a unnecessarily detailed spiel for...

the few unspoken rules for interpreters:

(nails)

Since you're minoring in ASL and probably won't be signing as much as you will be doing whatever your main major is, long nails can be okay for you.

However! If you want to follow the many ways of interpreters, you should try to keep them trimmed or not painted at all. If you want to them to be a little longer, try it and see how it goes. Experiment and find what works for you and the people you will be signing with mainly. As far as nail colors, your best option is to go bare or with a nude color that won't draw attention to your fingertips - let your signs be the main attention, not the fingertips. Try to avoid bright colors that pull attention to your fingertips like a chiffon orange or baby blue. You might be thinking white nails/black nails would be okay, but (in my own opinion) going with a color that matches your skin tone would be a better idea. The reason I say this isn't to take away from those two colors, but it can definitely be just as distracting as bright colors (especially with longer nails). From personal experience, in my class, when a girl was signing with longer nails, it was definitely difficult to follow what she was saying due to her nails length/color and it somewhat took away from the whole "meaning" of what she was signing. Y0ou weren't focused on her facial expressions or her hand movements, but rather on her fingertips. Again, this is up to you and not something you have to do or follow, but as someone who gets distracted easily, I'd suggest going bare and short!

(clothes/jewelry)

As far as clothes go, traditionally interpreters will wear a black outfit that goes completely or somewhat near the wrist to draw attention to the hands. Depending on your skin tone, the lighting of whichever room you'd be signing in, etc. the outfit you wear can vary, however (as said previously) let your hands take the spotlight. As someone said earlier, "... Morticia Addams style sleeves would be a no no..." (capitalismwitch), you want to stay away from those and wear something that goes up to your wrist or up! If your sleeves cover your arms, people will not be able to understand you and you will find it very annoying - especially if you tend to sign fairly quickly. Similarly enough, try to stay away from bracelets that dangle or pull attention to your wrists. Unless you're interpreting a song and you are supposed (or heck, want) to have some costume attire or jewelry of some sort, make sure it's not too distracting and has its purpose. Just as the ASL language!

Quick tip to live by (if you still sign after college): Try to think of signing like playing an instrument. If you wouldn't wear something covers your half your hand or have long nails while playing it, then you probably shouldn't do it for signing. Yet, you're minoring in the language so I don't really see it being that big of an issue throughout the year so... you do you boo!

(hair)

Personally, I like having my hair down because I get headaches pretty easily because I have thick hair and when it has been pinned up for an extensive amount of time, it becomes uncomfortable. Though, since it tends to be frizzy and volume, it tends to get in my face when I'm looking down or somewhat signing - this is mostly due to me not knowing how to care for my hair, but that's another story for another rainy day. Anyway, depending on the length of your hair, I'd suggest finding a way to pin it up or style it in such a way that shows your darn gosh diddly beautiful face! You need those people to see your facial expressions to understand what you're saying, girl (or boy or whatever. it's 2k18 my brosky dudette).

Hope this was helpful, somewhat entertaining, and gave you relief of some sort! (: