You should let me

I am a 27 F but this took place closer to 7-8 years ago during my second ever job as midnight cleaning staff at my local super store. My home town is big enough to sport a few similar stores, a mall, and a large bridge that brings tourist dollars but still small enough that everything pretty much closes at 9pm with no clubs and very few bars to occupy people. Seeing as my store was 24/7, it normally meant we got our share of bored, drunk, and sleepless shoppers. I'm a night person anyway and the extra money for midnights helped as I was just starting college.

So one of the first things I found out with my new job was they weren't going to enforce dress code when it came to hair color (something my food service job did with an iron first). So the first paycheck I get I go to my stylist and tell her my dream: half blonde, half dark hair (I'm naturally dark haired) split down the middle. She loved weird styles so was all for it. Two hours later and I leave with the hair style I've kept up until only recently (as I'm not risking my/someone else's health over hair).

The style is a hit at work and I even get compliments from customers which is a nice confidence boost. Now as I mentioned I used to work as cleaning staff and as I'm not overly sensitive to gross stuff but luckily I worked with a retired school janitor who always volunteered to do the bathrooms/trash duty (we all tried to split work duties as evenly as possible). Being as I was on smaller floor cleaning duty it meant I would get done sooner and be working up front anyway, so I volunteered to get the trash in front of the store so he wouldn't need to. Grabbed a big trash bin, gloves, and some bags before heading to the front.

I'm not gonna explain what changing the trash entails (cuz duh) but when I started I didn't really give customers coming in/out of the doors much attention as no one really wanted to talk to someone hauling trash smelly away. Then I remember hearing a man's voice saying "hello!" before looking up. This guy was easily 60's, white hair, thin, clean shaven, wearing jeans and a button up/t-shirt combo (I have this thing where I remember hyper details after something dealing with high emotions). Chat goes something like this:

Me: Hello sir. You need any help, am I in your way? *wasn't but wanted to make sure*

Creepy Old Guy: Oh no, I'm fine I just got done shopping. I just wanted to get a better look at your hair, it's really cool looking.

Me: *polite smile* Oh thanks.

*COG then proceeds to talk about hair styles, how HIS WIFE does her hair different styles a lot, how she told him certain styles/methods are really bad for your hair. I only chime in here and there as I'm focused on trying to do my job, something he then proceeds to interrupt as "he knows a better way to tie up the bag"*

COG: Lemme show you how to tie that. *takes charge before I can object and now I'm worried I'll get in trouble for a customer handling trash without gloves* You know your hair is really pretty. You should let me braid it sometime.

Full stop in my brain cuz this guy is A) a stranger, B) old enough to be my dad, and C) has started using my name as my stupid tag has it full on display. Technically what he said isn't SUPER inappropriate but something about it weirded me out as moments before he had mentioned his wife. I can't remember how I got outta there so fast (I think I told him I had to head back or manager would be irritated I was taking so long) but I do remember making a be-line for my manager and reporting the customer. My manager wasn't impressed and basically brushed my concerns aside, even asking me if I would go outside and do the parking lot trash ALONE.

At this point I got mad and told him I wouldn't go without someone else as I didn't want to deal with this going further. His "compromise" is to offer me a walkie talkie that barely works (when my female manager found all this out, she was livid and ripped into him as I was barely into my 20's when this happened and obviously uncomfortable)

Lucky for me my coworker who was on trash offered to go outside so I wouldn't need to as it was his area anyway and I was obviously nervous. Everyone on my team was pretty mad at my manager because I was the only girl on the team and they were all pretty cool about helping me out.

I never saw COG again but I found out a few months later from my direct supervisor (also an older guy who was super laid back and fun who stood up for me/my team) that COG was a known issue in the two stores and local Denny's (where my supervisor worked part time day shifts). He would go to one place, harass/creep out female workers, get tossed out, move on to the next place, repeat without ever getting banned cuz crappy managers. It finally came to ahead when he followed a waitress he had been targeting home and the woman called her boyfriend (a cop) to be ready for her when she pulled up. OCG got a shotgun pulled on him and arrested for stalking, harassment, the works. As far as I'm aware he went to jail and was perma-banned from all the locations he had been reported harassing women.