If you're a woman with short hair, you've probably wondered why you pay more than a man to the hairdresser… and you're not the only one. Professionals, too, are questioning themselves, to the point that some have decided to adapt their prices, not based on gender, but on the time spent on the heads of their clients.
Agathe is a hairdresser at home for a month in Chambéryafter several years working in Tours. Its specificity? She charges her clients not according to their gender, but according to the time she spends cutting their hair.
“It’s 5 euros for ten minutes”
This Thursday in October, the hairdresser is at Élo, who asks for a cut that is closely shaved on the sides and a little longer on top. Agathe twirls around her without wasting time.“I've been wearing my hair very short for several years, and I'm still charged the rate that is applied to women, guys in certain hairdressing centers, it's 10 to 15 euros, and I'm never below 40 euros. For twenty minutes, it's a bit much, I think”, breathes Élo without moving his head.
This time, Élo will only pay 15 euros for a stylized cutAfter around thirty minutes of work. Agathe details her pricing: “I calculate 5 euros every ten minutes, from reception to the customer's departure. It's a bit like home craftsmen where you'll pay for the labor.”. It is mainly on Instagram that she finds part of her clientele, via her account “Gazon_Maudit”, and through word of mouth. For Agathe, applying rates according to duration was not only one stage of his commitment : styling is also a way of support minoritiesfrom racialized women to autistic people. “I listen, I don't comment on the shape of the hair or what the person wants. If a client is more comfortable in peace, I don't play music… The goal is really to create an intimate and peaceful moment. ”, assures the young woman.
Leopold Picot
Salons follow the trend
Pay according to working time is not just for home hairdressers : even salons are getting into it. In Annecy for example, “La Cour par Clément” applies gender-neutral prices; and in Chambéry, there is “Roxy Coiffure”, managed by Mathilde and Tiphaine. In this salon located in the pedestrian streets with colorful decoration, the calculation method is not the same as at Agathe's. “On the reservation site, you have different sizes, like clothes, XXS, XS… For XXS, it is 30 euros, XL, around 75 euros”, explains Mathilde. When the two women took over the place, they quickly decided to implement gender-neutral rates. “It was pretty obvious. We've been in this situation before.” completes Tiphaine.
Tiphaine assures that the world of hairdressing is still too sexistand this, from school: “We learn that clippers are only for men, that it can't be done on a woman, that a woman has to be done with scissors, because it's more feminine, but it's ridiculous! Why should we implement more techniques on a woman than on a man at equal length? There is no justification for this, it is not true.”
The process also makes some losers : men with long hair. In a classic hair salon, Julien, with mid-length, curly brown hair, generally paid 20 euros. Now he goes to Roxy and pays 30 or 40 euros. “ It seems normal to me to consider the cut, and not the gender ”, he explains, very satisfied with the quality-price ratio of the show. An example which shows that the commitments of hairdressers to make the world of hairdressing more inclusive are starting to bear fruit.
