There are several haircuts that fit the “butch” or “dyke” image (sexual orientation need not be homosexual, btw). I wonder how women who are going for this image get their hair done, and where.
Sometimes the cuts are just manly cuts on a female head–but maybe only 10% or so of the time. Most of the time they are special “dykes only” cuts that would not look “normal” on a man.
Further, it’s not just shortness that defines such cuts. Shirley McClaine circa 1960 has a short little bob but looks as feminine as can be. A butch style can also technically be long, if it employs a mullet or other similar methods. But most of the time butch cuts are short.
Butch cuts often employ a mix of feminine and masculine traits–perhaps that’s what makes them distinctive. A buzz cut that is somehow still feminine, etc. One disctictive cut is the one that is really short in back around the neck (like a man’s) but has that kind of ridgey set of bangs.
In any case, how does a woman actually get such a haircut? I don’t suppose you can walk into any ole stylist’s and say, “Make me look butch!” Are there special barbers in boytown or wherever that know how to cater to the butch crowd?
As an interesting aside, there aren’t really any distinctive “gay” cuts for men. Or have I just not noticed them?
Well, I had a non-lesbian female friend who had a very butch haircut and she walked into the barber shop on post just to get the stubble on her neck cleaned up. She sat and sat and sat, and finally she asked when someone would give her a trim, and they told her they don’t cut women’s hair there. She said all she wanted was for someone to run a clippers over her neckline, but nothing doing. She left very angry.
So, one place they are not getting their butch haircuts is military barber shops.
I’ve never had a butch cut, but I’m convinced that if I walked into Great Clips and told them what I wanted, they would do it.
I don’t get it. Is there some reason you think they don’t get it cut at a beauty shop? It’s not like a short haircut is completely beyond the ability of the average hairdresser.
Most Air Force bases have both a “barber shop” and a “beauty shop”, so as long as the butch cut you want is in regulations, the beauty shop should be able to do it for you. Yes, the sexism of “scissors for girls, clippers for boys” still exists in the military. I think bluethree’s experience is peculiar to that post’s barbers; I can’t imagine a barber at today’s military barber shops who would turn away a customer.
Even if the military barbers or stylists won’t do it, not all is lost. Anyone who knows the clipper settings can specify a custom haircut of their own devising in any barber shop that uses clippers. Number one is a nearly skin-tight buzz; each number beyond that is (IIRC) an eighth-inch of hair. I usually get a “one all over” which draws attention away from my baldness and makes me look like Private Joker from Full Metal Jacket.
You could go into almost any men’s barber shop, sit down, and say “number one on the back and sides, three on top, leave the bangs long” and you’ll have a pretty bitchin’ butch cut. If they refuse to give you the cut, refuse to give them money, and move on until you find a place that will.
I get my butch haircut at Great Clips. I don’t say “I want a really butch hairdo.” I say, “Use 1/4# clippers on the back and sides, leave the top just long enough for little spikes, thanks.”
I usually have to add, “I understand how short that is, and I promise not to cry or yell. See- here’s a picture of me right after a good haircut.”
Yep, I go to Supercuts and say, “super-short on the sides and back, a little longer on the top, over the ear, no length along the back hairline, clean up the neck. You really can’t go too short.”
I’m not intentionally trying to butch, I just want an easycare hairstyle, so I don’t know if it has the kind of extra flair/signal you mean.
I just go to Dykes R Us, sit in the chair and say, “Give me the usual butch-eroo, with extra Dykeness, please.”
Then I proudly strut out with a flattop, shaved to the skin on the sides (with a distinct line between the shaved/buzzed portions, no blending), and the back has about a 5-inch long mullet, the very center of which extends an additional 7 inches so that I can also incorporate a rat-tail.
I think there’s some kinda special butch sign on the back of the neck, honestly.
I went into a chain haircutting place-- while wearing makeup, which I hadn’t worn for a good 3-4 years-- asked for a short haircut, took my glasses off (I’m legally blind without 'em) and hoped for the best.
Boyfriend walked in from the games store halfway through, took one look, and said “Butch enough for ya, huh?”
Even WITH makeup, somehow they know! It wasn’t short before the cut, about down to my collar or so.
IME, gay guys are more likely to have very short hair. A number of years ago my dad and I were watching (and mocking) the terrible sitcom “Suddenly Susan”, which took place in San Francisco. My family lived in SF for ten years and my parents still live in the Bay Area and we were laughing at how the fictional office’s demographics were totally unlike any real office in San Francisco. One guy - who was hitting on a woman - had very short hair, and my dad pointed out: “In real life, any guy with that haircut would be gay.”
After that, I paid more attention to male hairstyles, and realized my dad was right.
My girl shaves her head herself with a pair of clippers. When she has an Ultimate Frisbee tournament she wants to psyche her team up for, she has either one of friends or a barber give her a mohawk.
The gays (men, specifically) here in Cow Country come in two hairstyles: an absolutely normal, unremarkable men’s haircut, or an absolutely normal, unremarkable men’s haircut with the bangs grown a little longer and made to “swish” with mousse or gel or something.
The lesbians here tend to have normal women’s haircuts–they like their hair long, if anything. I have seen one with a buzz cut, and she was just faking it to spite her ex-husband. She wants him back now, and is growing her hair out.