What is "Gender-Neutral Pricing"??
Written by: Melissa Megan
I started using a gender neutral pricing system a few years ago, but I still get questions both from other stylists and from clients about why I choose that system, and about how it works. Let's break it down!
How does it work?
How it works is actually very easy and fair! Prices are based on the time and product the chosen service takes to complete. So, if you have short hair and want a haircut that can be achieved in 30 minutes (no matter what gender you may or not identify with), you will be charged for 30 minutes of service. Chroma stylits all have an hourly rate that prices are calculated from. If you have medium length hair and want a simple haircut, but enjoy having iron waves and lots of texture added to your style, that may take 60 minutes to achieve.
If you have very curly hair and your style requires dry cutting, shampooing and hydrating the hair, then re-styling with a diffuser (which is very slow drying), then you will probably pay for an hour and a half of time.
This pricing system helps stylists more accurately book services according to the time they will actually take to complete, both avoiding downtime on their schedules and keeping them on time throughout the day! It also assures that prices are fair and based on the labor, product and skill that your look requires, so you and your stylist can make style choices that fit your budget best!
Why use gender-neutral pricing?
Because equality and creating an inclusive environment for everyone is very important to me. Hair has no gender; it's either short, medium or long. A client's gender has nothing to do with the style they choose to wear, and it's not my place to enforce specific style rules on anyone based on gender. Men wear long hair, women wear short hair. I also do not feel that it's necessary or appropriate to expect a client to identify their gender in order to get hair services.
Stylists do many short haircuts that require a bit more time and careful skill, because of the complexity of the style or sometimes just because of the challenge of a client's texture or density. Some can also do a long, one-length haircut fairly quickly if the hair isn't dense and the cut is done dry, without additional styling. Some of these things are adjustable by your stylist, to help make services work for someone's budget or time constraints, and some of these things are just what's necessary to do the best work that they can do.
I never rush or do less than my best, for anyone. But there are many ways to cut and style, and color hair, many of which I can use to achieve the appropriate service. Part of what makes how we work at Chroma fresh and unique is that we really value the collaboration between ourselves and our clients, and to do that we must have many tools, techniques and skills to use to make the service something genuinely customized.