I swear this was an actual thing I saw a news story for and was actually a chain of them, but my google-fu is just showing me random one-off barbershops that have done this in the past but are now defunct.
I distinctly remember NPR running a story about a year or two ago about a new chain barbershop that would have topless women as the hair stylists and would have football on HDTV’s on the walls. Now, at some point they may have changed the topless women to women in bikinis but the idea was still the same. It was suppose to be the ultimate “man’s man” barbershop and already had dozens of locations in place.
I’ve never heard of the topless woman but Lady Jane’s always sounded like a tough guy douche bag Hooters type place. They advertised about having sports on TV and I think game counsels in the waiting area. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of the locations took it too far, but it’s advertised as a family place.
ETA, some quick googling didn’t show me any chain places, but it does seem there’s a few random topless barbers in Australia.
As I recall, there were a number of places in Japan, where a man could get his hair washed, by a topless woman. I’m really just checking in to see if the O.P. hasn’t conflated those sorts of news stories with the NPR story.
They aren’t topless but Sport Clips is a haircutting chain for men. They tend to hire attractive stylists that will also give you a scalp and neck massage. They have TV’s with nothing but sports on them and there are many locations. I asked one of the stylists why she worked there and she said it was much easier than working on women’s hair and the tips are great.
In the 1980s, I’d pass Studs, or possibly Studz Hairdressing on the way to work. One of my colleagues, who looked like Ron Burgundy went there regularly, because there were skimpy lingerie-clad women hairdressers, football on the TV and you got a beer while you were done. This was in Sydney, Australia.
I don’t know about a topless barber shop, but Portland Maine had a Topless Doughnut Shop about a decade ago
And for the ladies, did they have naked waiters who could carry a pot of coffee in each hand as well as a half dozen donuts?
Closest thing we have is Jude’s, where the stylists don’t wear anything special (usually just jeans and t shirt) but they do have a television at each chair with sports programming and the walls are all decorated with male-oriented stuff (a few pinups, sports, rock stars).
In the 80s I was at a place in Pittsburgh that was awkward as hell. No nudity, but the woman who washed my hair stood on the left side and washed the right half of my head, then switched sides and washed the other half of my head. I could barely breath. She worked for tips.
There was also a woman who gave hand/arm massages while you got your haircut, and an elderly black man with a shoeshine box. I never returned.
There was such a “hair cutting” establishment in either E. Northport or Commack, NY in the 1990’s but it got shut down quickly. I think they used a zoning violation as the reason.
Not haircuts, but MLB baseball and topless dancers: I’ve gone to 29 of the 30 MLB team ballparks (only missing ATL), and in my travels I’ve seen one and only one ballpark with topless dancers. Okay, pasties, but otherwise topless. I could not believe my eyes.
At Miami’s Marlins Park in left field is a bar called the Clevelander. There’s a cover charge, which I paid in order to sit at the seats right on the warning track — only a chain link fence separates you from the left fielder, a very cool place to sit! But to get there I had to walk past topless dancers at the bar. It was a tough journey but I made it.
Images NSFW, paste URL into address bar: goo.gl/mWCpDX
I could not believe they had topless dancers inside an MLB ballpark!
I don’t mean to suggest that attractive women can’t also be skilled, competent professionals, but any place hiring stylists who also have to be pretty is going to have a smaller pool of talent to draw from. When I get my hair cut, my first criterion in selecting someone, and by a wide margin, is “are they good at cutting hair”.
It’s distressing how far the bar for male culture has been lowered. When I think of the ultimate “man’s man” barbershop there’s mahogany paneling on the walls, hot shaving cream applied with a brush, and your choice of sandalwood or bergamot colognes.
The place I get my hair cut is none of these things. They’re a friendly shop; talkative even when I’m not. Been going to the same woman for about ten years. Sometimes I take them a batch of cookies when I go in.
Toronto has a hotel that overlooks the field in the outfield. At least once they had to tell a couple to close the curtains due to them having too much naked fun.