barred from barbers
It’s normally at least 4 times more expensive to get a haircut in a unisex salon compared to a barbers. Barbers tend to turn women away. Not because women’s hair is different, because they are women. This has happened to me on several occassions – I went in with a short ‘boyish’ cut and asked for them for a trim to my short back and sides with number 2 clipper. A cut they can easily do
After some negotiation one UK barber on the south coast took on regularly cutting my hair as long as I kept quiet so that the other customers wouldn’t be ‘disturbed’ by the presence of a woman. Seriously! This was in 1999
This clear discrimination for haircutting pricing and access rights has always struck me as being blatantly against the ethos of equality. It feels rather sad that the practice continues today and everyone tolerates it, complicitly accepts it. I use a Unisex Salon because I am welcomed and treated well – aswell as getting a good haircut – the extra price makes it worthwhile. But I resent being explicitly excluded, treated badly because I am a woman and having to pay more because I am a woman. Hurumpppfff
January 21st, 2012
The barber pole origin goes back to the medieval times. In those days the barbers also used to perform surgery and tooth extractions on their customers. At that time the barber pole was designed with a brass basin at the top. This brass basin represented a vessel that keeps the leeches. At the base there was another brass basin that represented the vessel to keep the blood. The barber shop pole represented the staff gripped by the patient to encourage the blood flow.
The red and white color represented the bandages used during the surgical procedure. The red color represented the blood stained bandages and the white stood for clean bandages.
Perhaps women were not allowed to have surgeries or tooth extractions at barbers and so this is a carry over from long ago? Hey, I don’t know, I’m just thinking…
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Hi Kay, my mumsie told me the same thing about the pole’s symbolism, she also included that red represents arterial blood and blue is venous blood. Many poles don’t have the blue. In the UK the phrase ‘blue blood’ is a way to refer to aristocracy – which is probably because they had fair skin (not tanned by working outdoors) through which you could see their veins. Some barbers here still have an actual pole outside, I’ll look out for them and take a picture when I see one
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January 21st, 2012
n.b. – Grumps is male.
Men only barbers are a wonderous thing, as are those women only hair dressers/nail polishers/beaury saloons.
I don’t see why you shouldn’t be made unwelcome in them just as I get funny looks and ‘no stylists available this week’ at Bettys Beauty Box.
Agreed you shouldn’t be charged more unless the hairdresser is actually providing additional services (ambience could count I suppose). But if you allow yourself to pay more than the barbers next door is charging that’s your choice.
I use a women’s hairdresser because Rod (raving poof) does my hair just as I like it, for which he overcharges – twice what Rob (tattoes, talks about his girlfriend a lot) charges at The Stripey Pole. I do get funny looks, some sniffs, and even tuts at Rod’s but I also get coffee. On the other hand I get GQ and Loaded at Rob’s and can fart without getting glared at.
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Grumps – give me Betty’s beauty box’s address and I’ll go around and sort them out, they shouldn’t be denying you the manicure of your dreams – that’s atrocious
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Wendy – how kind:I would expect no less from you.
In fact, being male, I get the manicure of my dreams using my incisors.
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Obsequious, Oh, I mean Grumps, I use clippers, but apparantly, this is wrong. I’m so often wrong that I need to work on my ass-kicking skills.January 21st, 2012
My local hairdresser is notionally unisex, though with almost entirely female clients. These days, perhaps it would be fairer to change a price based on the actual complexity of the job, rather than gender – presumably the pricing is based on a now-outdated assumption about the strength of the correlation between the two. My dentist is similar in fact: very expensive, fancy coffee machine in the waiting room and a largely female clientele – though at least the charges there are gender-independent.
I recall my father suggesting in jest that he should pay a smaller fee for his haircuts as his hairline receded; as I recall, the reply was that it would be offset by the search fee for finding the ever-decreasing target.
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James, like your local hairdresser, I’m notionally unisex
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January 22nd, 2012
One thing about barbers – at least the ones near us – is that they are always PACKED with guys waiting for their £9 haircuts. The barbers must be exhausted at the end of the day, never a break!
Having said that, there is at least one £9 cutter that has equal numbers of men and women. I don’t know if that makes our area unusual.
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Hi Jenny, hooray for the £9 cutter! I’m toying with the idea of trying a barbers again – need a bit more pluck first through….
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