While most of us agree that hair is hair, many salons continue to define haircuts as “female” or “male”. Why? More specifically, beyond the language of gender itself: why do women’s haircuts also tend to cost more than men’s? While the answer is subtle, it is rooted in part in the training and social conditioning of stylists. But it’s also a reflection of outdated thinking – and an opportunity for change.

While gender-neutral salons and non-binary cuts do exist, “if you visit most salon websites, they still refer to cuts by gender,” says Tommy Buckett, celebrity hairstylist at Mary Robinson Salon, who sees discriminatory labels as a trickle-down effect. “We’ve become much more aware and sensitive to gender fluidity, but there’s still a long way to go. Why are there still women’s and men’s sections in department stores?”

Some argue that the reason for cutting gender-based pricing is not necessarily malicious, but a product of another era. “There’s a lot of history to this discussion,” says Tatum Neill, artistic director of the Aveda Institute of Arts and Sciences. “It wasn’t until the ’90s that men going to salons really became a thing. Men went to barbershops. There were just different expectations for service and there were no blow dryers.”

Still, even though today’s salons offer the same services for all genders, why is there still a price difference?

Says Kristin Rankin, founder of the Dresscode Project, “If you ask me, it has to do with the patriarchy charging women more, and there’s no reason for that.” LGBTQ+ community in marketing and advertising. “Honestly, no one has ever given me a meaningful answer as to why we’ve always had gender haircuts in the professional beauty industry. What I do know is that we learned in beauty school that there are men’s cuts and women’s cuts.”

The answer may lie in gender training. “There are two licensing paths in New York,” Barkett says. There’s a barber’s license and a cosmetology license – and the former takes less time than the latter. “For barbering, you’re learning to use scissors and a little bit of scissors. For cosmetology, you’re also learning about color, relaxers, etc.” Blame it also on the underlying (and outdated) assumption that “male” haircuts mean less hair to cut compared to women.

Fortunately, some progress has been made in stylist training in certain salons, which may affect the price of a haircut. In fact, at the time POPSUGAR spoke with him, Neill was preparing a syllabus for a course called “Fluid Shapes” to be taught this fall at the Aveda Institute of Art and Science in Austin, Texas. “We won’t be talking about gender-we’ll be talking about technology and time.”

Time does seem to be a factor that can partially solve the problem of gendered barbering pricing. “Some of my longer haircuts are done in 10 minutes, while some of my shorter haircuts take more time to reduce volume and shape,” Barkett says.

This led to the concept of charging in increments of time: “I charge by the half-hour at the salon,” says Adam Reed of Adam Reed Salon in London and founder of Arkive Headcare. Reed’s pricing structure is influenced only by the level of stylist performing the cut. For example, a half-hour session with a senior stylist costs slightly more than a novice. Many other stylists are beginning to adopt this approach. “If a woman wants a buzz with a haircutter, I charge less than a man who has long layers and wants to blow dry,” says Nunzio Saviano of Nunzio Saviano Salon in New York City. “It’s just a matter of time.”

The same goes for Dresscode Project. “We talk about haircuts and pricing them based on time or length,” Rankin says. “So we might say short hair, medium hair or long hair, or we might say 45-minute, 60-minute or 90-minute haircuts. Because it makes sense.”

Often, awareness is key. “Sometimes a change may not happen unless someone gets your attention,” Neal says. “I’d say it’s benign in many ways. For example, salons do it all the time, and unless someone makes the owner aware of it, they probably won’t consider removing gender terms from the menu.” Especially in sparsely populated, remote areas, salon owners may not even know the difference.

Fortunately, today’s youth have a better understanding of gender than many salon owners. But until everyone evolves, please consider asking your salon owner to remove discriminatory labels from their service offerings.

“I do believe that when you get two people face-to-face – not on social media but face-to-face – when they talk about these issues, they want to do the right thing,” says Neil .