Hairdressers shouldn't be allowed to charge women more

[tingalayo]

I've just moved to a new area, looked at the price list for the local hairdresser. It's £20 for men and £38 for women! This seems pretty common. My husband has long hair and is quite particular about how he wants his layers etc to be. My hair is the same sort of length as his and I give much less of a crap about what it looks like. I have to pay nearly twice as much as him for a haircut so it's just a Woman Tax and discriminatory. Should it not be based on hair length or something?

Salons near me have stopped pricing by male/female. They charge by hair length.

It’s a different skillset, that’s why there are barbers who only cut men’s hair and hairdressers who do both. If barbers were cracked up to be hairdressers they’d change their business model and charge more for the haircuts.

You’re looking at the difference between a dentist (hairdresser) and a hygienist (barber).

you’re missing a HUGE point here... you don’t need any qualifications to be a barber. You do to be a hairdresser.

The majority of men have clippers involved in their haircut. Your husband is an outlier and if the barbers choose to not charge him more that’s their prerogative.

if you’re really unhappy have a go at home. I bet 90% + of men could get a similar effect at home if their wife/partner/ someone else cut their hair vs if someone with no training tried to cut yours...

I guess it’s easier to claim discrimination against these sorts of things than really thinking about them in detail and the people you’re offending in the process.

I didn't ask when I first went to my barber. Just went in, waited to be called, told them what I wanted. No issues and have been back six weekly since.

I agree. They should base it on hair length/time/complexity.

My salon charges on time, no split for M/F.

It depends on whether you and him are booking the exact same product at the same salon.

It's hardly the business' job to price their services based on whether one man cares more about his hair than his female partner.

A cut and blow dry costs more than a wet cut and a wet cut costs more than a dry cut.

I wonder if you're paying for a cut and blow dry, and he's paying for a men's cut so they're probably not the same product and you'd be better off booking a wet cut or a dry cut instead.

I don't get the wet/dry cut thing. I'm perfectly able to wash my own hair that morning without the pain of those awful sinks. The barber wets it with a spray bottle, it's definitely not dry when they cut it. It's blow dried at the end. All for £16.

Mine charges the same for the same cut. Having said that they have a lot of trans / non identifying people so they wouldn't want that conversation!

They've made the men's cuts more expensive rather than reducing the women's cuts iyswim.

I agree, that shorter cuts are often more complex so it never makes sense to me to have a long hair surcharge for just cutting.

It’s a tricky one. My hair takes 30+ minutes just to blow dry (thick, frizzy & tons of it) but I get charged the same as someone with naturally straight, thin hair that behaves. I don’t think (or want) a price assessment every time I go in, working off averages is surely best

It's absolutely against the law and I really hope this is challenged and changes. You absolutely cannot charge differently based on a protected characteristic, it's straight up discrimination. You equally cannot charge white people less or gay people more, in these situations people would not be defending the market 'supply and demand' bollocks. They should simply state the service and the price attached, the client is irrelevant. This really grinds my gears.

I have elbow length long hair, all one length. In my mind that would be quite a bit easier and quicker to cut that DS short back and sides. However he simply goes to the barbers, has it cut, and walks out. I have mine washed and dried as well. The cutting aspect is only a short part of it (and they use more products on my hair)

Off topic but I'd be chuffed if I found a salon that charged £38 to cut my hair. Hair salons near me charge from £55-60.
I paid £45 for a mobile hairdresser to come to my house and I washed my hair myself before she arrived!

I agree completely. Five years ago my teenage daughter was non binary. She looked and presented as masculine but was female.

I booked a haircut which was a male cut done with clippers in a unisex salon. The prices were clearly displayed.

As she'd received a clipper male cut I wanted to pay for that. But no, I was charged three times the price because she was female. When I robustly questioned this I was told it was because the female head is a different shape!!

I was cross. But I paid I the end but haven't returned. Cheeky and wrong.

Just after lockdown I wanted to get my fade back, before lockdown they charged £16 which was double what they'd charge a man for the exact same cut. After lockdown they wanted almost £40 for the same cut. Ok my hair had got rather long but still this would have been a clipper job, no hairwash. I generally had a grade 4 on top fading down to nothing on the back. Barbers next door were charging a tenner but wouldn't do my hair cos I'm a woman.

Ended up with a fabulous hairdresser that charges for the haircut not the person having the cut. Ironically I embraced the length and now spend £100 every 6 weeks getting it coloured (fab pink sections) with an undercut at the back and another at the side. If that first hairdresser hadn't upped their price (and wanted to charge me quadruple what they would have charged a man) I would never have had the cut I do now or changed my hairdresser

DHs hair, with trim, fade etc costs £10 and takes about 15-20mins
my hair takes less than 5mins as it’s a all one length dry cut. It costs £40. typically hairdressers at salons tell me they feel guilty about charging me that much and try give a discount or charge me for something else. His hair takes more time and skill. I do think it’s a charge on women.
i also find getting a dry cut almost impossible, yet DH or DBs with long hair have never had to have a wash and blow as part of the package.

yes a private company can do whatever they want but that’s a weird argument, because that doesn’t make it right, but also they actually can’t do literally whatever they want. if a private company started charging people more based on race or anything else, or discriminating groups in other ways it wouldn’t be ok. This is just one of the daily discriminations we’ve normalised so people are happy to excuse and accept it. And obviously terrible things are happening to women around the world, so even other women here are ready to tell you to be quiet, don’t make a fuss, this is a silly womens issue. So things are unlikely to change.

YANBU. My husband has short hair and his takes far longer to do than mine which is below my shoulders and I have a wet cut with half an inch off all round. In and out in 30 minutes whereas his takes about an hour.

The lack of dry cuts is very odd - my hair can't be cut wet, and I'm sure I'm not the only person in this situation.

I've had previous success with booking a trim and asking for them to "trim" about three inches off.

I've had previous success with booking a trim and asking for them to "trim" about three inches off
I started doing the same years ago when I realised (in my 20s 😳) it was possible to book a wet cut and get my ends neatened up.

For years I'd copied what I'd seen my mum do and been booking a cut and blow dry, thinking that's what a women's hair cut was called. It never crossed my mind that a hairdresser blow dry was a separate service that cost more.

That's bollocks. All heads are different shapes. Some are just right for a buzzcut (thank you, God) and some aren't.

Morally, she should have been charged the men's price. I always have been. You were right to feel hard done by 😬

Is it because of the blow dry and styling, or do you both just leave with wet hair?

I just asked for a man's cut last time I went to the hairdressers... they didn't argue.

It was similar before when men were charged more for car insurance because they were more likely to have a accident. Their price was higher but then it became illegal to charge them more because they were men. If it works for insurance why not hair cuts?

I've never had a barber refuse to clipper my hair but it's apparent to me that some men are not comfortable doing it. I believe it may be a cultural issue for some. Anyway, I'm not an arse and have absolutely no wish to make anyone feel uncomfortable.

My current hairdresser's Italian. He clippers my hair just as I like it, sings in Italian and tells me all the latest city gossip: £6. Sorted 😍

I’ve been going to a barbers-that-also-cuts-women’s-hair for ages and it’s brilliant. No small talk (“Been anywhere nice this year?”), no horrible sinks that make my neck ache, no upsell on “products”, no having to write off the best part of an afternoon, no making an appointment weeks in advance only to find it’s no longer convenient but cancelling means a long wait. Most importantly, no dreading that the stylist will refuse to listen that no, I don’t want layers or feathering or whatever technique they like to use on everyone.

Nope, I just go in armed with a book, get my hair dry trimmed for the grand sum of £16 and off I go again.

I think they charge women the same but I’ve seen men’s appointments take waaaaay longer than mine by the time they’ve shaved bits into different lengths.

My DH has owned a barbershop for over a decade and has never cut women’s hair, it’s not that he can’t because he cuts mine beautifully but it’s due to our religious beliefs. He would not feel comfortable touching and cutting women’s hair and when he has politely explained that to women who have enquired they have been very understanding. BUT there are many barbers who are more than willing to cut women’s hair OP so it’s worth asking, they usually charge half what hairdressers do!