Should hairdressers stop gendering their pricing? I asked three salon owners
Image via @laura.spinney.creative/Instagram
Words by Jackie Zhou
“Hair really does not have gender – a follicle is a follicle.”
Like many of my trans and non-binary friends, a trip to the salon can be a regularly dysphoric experience. Often hairdressers price their services based on gender, despite the complexity of the haircut and the tools and products used.
In the past couple of years, my winding journey through gender exploration has led me to hairdressers that ask again and again – within the same session – if I was “sure” I wanted a shorter, layered haircut. These were dysphoric and frustrating encounters. I always left the salon with a haircut I initially didn’t want, because I felt pressured not to go with a more gender-affirming option.
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Gender-neutral pricing for hair salons can be an intimidating concept – but for trans and non-binary clients, it can help to create a more affirming, positive hair experience. To find out more, I asked three salon owners why they opted for gender-neutral pricing in their services instead of the more traditional, binary ‘men’s and women’s’ cuts.
Laura Spinney, Laura Spinney Creative
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How long have you been hairdressing, and what do you specialise in?
My name is Laura Spinney, I’ve been hairdressing for nearly 17 years and I specialise in shags, wolf cuts [and] mullets. I think I’m known for pushing boundaries with normal hairdressing… I got rid of [gendered] pricing pretty early on, just because I have a lot of queer clients saying they just didn’t sit well [with it].
Can you walk me through why you opted for gender neutrality in your salon?
It’s not just about the client’s gender, it’s about the skillset, it’s about the labour, and if you look at colour, colour isn’t charged on gender… so it was those things, in my experience very early on, that made me think ‘Okay, this is up to me now, this makes people feel uncomfortable’.
… I think I realised this after getting a lot of feedback about gender-affirming haircuts. Clients [are] messaging me when they’re having really bad episodes of gender dysphoria, and I can actually help them with that. I think that’s beautiful because it’s something that I’ve never experienced and something I only hear about… so if I can help, that’s great.
Would you recommend other hairdressers do the same?
I’m happy to talk to salon owners. Nobody likes being told what to do, but as long as we keep [talking] about it – the more people who become exposed, the more normal [gender neutrality] will become… I do allow people to reach out to me via DMs if they’re thinking about doing this, I welcome the conversation and I’m happy to assist.
Julia Stevens, Respekt Your Hair
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How long have you been hairdressing, and what do you specialise in?
Hi, I’m Julia. I’ve been hairdressing for almost 25 years and started Respekt your Hair in 2010 with my partner Dylan. I love playing with hair and changing it into rainbows – I also really enjoy doing the cuts that make my clients feel 100 per cent themselves and [am] happy to give suggestions to get the best out of the hair they have.
Can you walk me through why you opted for gender neutrality in your salon?
We’ve been a gender-neutral salon since 2015. It was extremely hard to get the booking software to change – they were all set up in a binary way. Hair really does not have gender – a follicle is a follicle, it doesn’t matter what scalp it comes out of.
We pride ourselves in offering an all-inclusive gender salon – it’s so discriminating to charge more based on gender. We also don’t live in a world that has just two genders, [and] this cuts out a whole group of people. It’s time the world wakes up and treats everyone equally.
We charge on [the] length of hair and not on gender. This can be found on our website, [and we’ve] never… had any issues, as clients love the fairness of the proactive change we made.
Would you recommend other hairdressers do the same?
Yes, we would highly recommend other salons to take on this structure. When someone books a massage, you pay the same no matter what your gender is. It’s about timing and not gender. So far we have gotten another salon on board, [and] someone who rented a chair at our salon loved the idea and has taken on the model. We really need to get the message out. It’s so simple and makes such a huge difference.
Joyce Chun, Intuitive Hair
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How long have you been hairdressing, and what do you specialise in?
I’m Joyce Chun, I’ve been hairdressing for a long time… close to 20 years.
Can you walk me through why you opted for gender neutrality in your salon?
I went to work in Newtown… [where] there were already a lot of trans clientele… and your clients spend hours with you, and so I had a lot of conversations about [transitioning]… thank God I didn’t work as a receptionist, because I realised as they went to pay, the receptionist was… going by their dead name, so they [charged] you by what was on your licence.
[From 2009 to 2012], not a lot of people were allowed to change their gender, their licence or their name… it’s such a process, and in that moment they’re re-triggered from their trauma… and I’d had this conversation with them but [gendered pricing] was out of my control. So back then I just thought ‘This is shit’, but at that time I didn’t really know how to address it.
… When I got an injury I started teaching in TAFE instead. It was during that time that I simultaneously opened up my own shop. I thought that… if I was going to open my own shop, I was going to do it my way. I wanted to provide a safe space for everyone.
Would you recommend other hairdressers do the same?
In the beginning, I had to explain [myself]… when I have new clients, I still have to explain to them how [pricing] works, so it is more work. But for me, it’s worth it. I think if a salon [with pre-existing clientele] wants to be inclusive, they can add on genderless pricing as an option, I think that’s how I would recommend [transitioning across].
If hairdressers are wondering how to go about gender-neutral pricing, I’d love to share… It was so hard when I had to work it out myself, but… I’d definitely love to make time to help people [start doing it]
For more on gender-neutral haircuts, head here.
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