The Board of Equal Treatment in Denmark has recently ordered a hair salon to pay 2,500 crowns (approx £281) to a woman after she filed a complaint about the cost of her haircut.
The salon in question advertises womens haircuts as 100 crowns (approx £11) more expensive than mens. On top of this, an extra charge is instigated depending on hair length.
It may make perfect sense to some – after all, shorter hair does take less time to cut than longer styles. That being said, are we stereotyping men and women by presuming that men only have short hair and women only have long hair? These days it is more than normal to see men with long flowing locks, just as it is perfectly normal to see women with short pixie-style cuts.
The complaint in Denmark was made by a woman with short hair who took offense at being charged the higher cost just because she was a woman. Is it simply a case of hair length though? Not according to Adam Reed, co-owner of London’s Percy & Reed salon.
“Firstly we charge men less because it doesn’t take as long to cut their hair, but also they’re in the salon more regularly – it’s more like every four weeks, rather than six to eight for women. And there’s less time taken and fewer products used on the finish – for a man it’s four to five minutes, whereas women’s blow-dries can take a long time. If you added up what each spend over the course of a year I think it would be pretty even.”
The decision made by the board in Denmark has been appealed and a court will now decide if the hairdressing industry needs to re-think their service charges.
What do you think, should pricing be made equal?
Take a look at the original article over at Vogue.
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