Viewpoint: Gender-neutral haircuts are just the beginning

By Rosa Saba

The news that Centretown salon Hair Junkie is no longer charging customers according to gender has made many people, including myself, very happy. But we should be asking: Why only now? And why not at every salon?

It’s 2017. For a long time now, some women have sported short haircuts and some men have grown their hair long. People of different genders style their hair in myriad ways. The idea that the short and easy cut belongs to men and the long, complicated hairstyle belongs to women is outdated.

The idea of gendered pricing is not just passé in terms of the concept of men’s and women’s hairstyles. It’s also based on a heteronormative structure —a simplistic male-female view of the world — that is hostile to anyone who does not identify as either of those two genders.

For transgender, non-binary, and other non-cisgender people, this either-or pricing structure is restrictive and disrespectful. Much like the heated debate about gender-neutral washrooms that has been sweeping North America, this is yet another old-fashioned aspect of everyday life that has come to the forefront of conversation today — and rightly so.

Think about it. If a man wants a short haircut, he can walk into a salon and get one, often for around $20. But if a woman wants the same haircut, she’ll be charged closer to $50. All arguments about gender identity aside, this just doesn’t make sense.

And yet the majority of salons charge people according to their perceived gender. As a woman who had very short hair for several years, this pricing never made sense to me. Why should I pay twice as much for the same hairstyle as the man sitting next to me? Why should anyone be charged more because of their perceived gender, instead of the work that goes into their haircut?

It’s only fair that the price of a haircut reflects the effort put into it, as Hair Junkie’s salon coordinator Jessie Stevens has stated. The concept of gender-neutral pricing for haircuts has been gaining popularity, and all I can say is: it’s about time. Let’s hope that salons that don’t follow suit will soon be outpaced by those businesses that have learned to respond to what consumers — and modern principles of equality — are demanding.