Shaving half of my head?

Like other posters have said, it really depends on what fields you want to go into. Some fields will care more than others. I work in healthcare, and having unusual hair styles (including unnatural hair colors) or other things like atypical piercings (of the tongue or multiple ear piercings) or even black nail polish have reactions ranging from frowned upon to against the rules. I don’t work with anyone who who has had a hairstyle like this, but I have worked with students who have changed their appearances for the institution–including taking out nose and tongue piercings, covering tattoos, refraining from painting their nails certain colors, and dying their hair back to a natural color.

So it really depends. If this is a concern of yours, then I would air on the side of not doing it. People can judge you on all sorts of things, and there’s not a lot of reason to give a potential employer another reason not to hire you. On the other hand, as a freshman, it’s likely that you won’t be doing many internships in the very beginning anyway (just because you don’t have very much experience or coursework yet) so by the time you’re seriously pursuing these things your hair may have grown back. But keep in mind that if you want to volunteer or work in settings like a hospital or the like, there may be a certain dress code (including comments about hairstyles and such) that you have to abide by.