Pre-transition, when I used to go up to a year between haircuts, the local mens’ barber would charge me more to get a basic short cut because it was so long. And that was basically chopping it off and running a shavey buzzing thing over the remainder. I don’t know how usual it actually is in practice, but there’s nothing stopping a barber from telling a long-haired male up front that they’ll be charged the amount for a female cut and allowing them to accept or leave.
I have asked a few of my usual hair stylists about which sex is generally harder and more time-consuming to do a basic cut for and they always reply instantly that it is a women’s cut. These were all younger females themselves BTW and the places I go charge the same prices for both. I don’t know exactly why that is but clipper cutting and blending is very fast and that is what most men want plus most men just sit there and take it like a dog does to a groomer rather than chit-chatting and offering endless feedback.
From a business perspective, I can see why it would be fair to charge differently based on the overall statistics because it works the other way in many more costly ways like lady’s nights and insurance rates.
I don’t think it would get women an appreciable discount overall if you force the same prices for both. More likely, men would just have to pay more. From a marketing perspective, this an easy thing to address even if it works out disproportionately in favor of one sex over the other. You could just have a standard base rate for everyone but offer a discount if the haircut meets certain criteria such as the length, complexity of the cut, and the amount of end styling required. Other businesses do that to flip the price model around so that everyone is equal until they show they are a less demanding customer. The result works out the same way but it makes the discrimination hounds feel better and the few exceptions get to pay different prices than the norm.
I wonder if a pay-per-X minutes model would work, if salons are forced to charge the genders equally.
This I don’t understand. Why not just wash it yourself before you go in? Then you could save money.
Nope, they just insist on washing it again themselves.
My standard haircut now is a 1/4" buzzcut that takes a barber all of 15 minutes including shaving the back of my neck. Thirty-two years ago, I had long hair and wanted a shampoo followed by a layered razor cut followed by a blow-dry. That took longer and cost more- $15 then compared to $8-$12 now, after three decades of inflation.
Haircuts should be priced according to the amount of service rendered, not by sex.
It’s Denmark. They probably all have fine straight hair. Get someone in there with hard hair and see how long that policy stands.
(seriously, what california jobcase said.)
I don’t think so from a business perspective. Most of the (admittedly cheapish) salons I go to have the stylists doing double duty sometimes. They may have to walk off in the middle of a cut to answer the phone or need to to talk to a coworker about sweeping up or something. Some of the stylists are slow and some are very fast in general but they also alter their speed based on if there are a line of people waiting or not. Breaking it down like a cab ride seems like it would just piss everyone off all around. I don’t think you want to reward people for giving extra-slow haircuts when it isn’t needed.
So charge a shampoo as a separate service. (A lot of salons do this already… often a “shampoo, blow dry, & style” service.)
So charge a beard shave as a separate service… and I have a hard time believing that barber shops don’t already do that.
There IS a simple system: how about based on the complexity of the cut and how much time, on average, such a cut would take to finish?
Why not just categorize it by complexity rather than gender to begin with?
Tier 1: buzz cut, blunt cut. The 5-minute cut.
Tier 2: layering, shaping
Tier 3: razorcuts, sculpting, etc.
This works regardless of sex, and as a bonus, regardless of hair length, too.
I’d wager that her hair needs to be damp when cut because of its texture. If she shampoos herself, it’s likely to be dry by the time she gets to the salon.
Do woman pay more than men for a happy ending?
The option is available sometimes.
This hairdressing chain charges the same price for a basic hair cut whether you’re male or female.
If you don’t like how much your hairdresser charges, go to a cheaper one.
Just go to a different hairdresser isn’t an excuse for pricing policies that discriminate against one gender. It’s the same as if black people were charged more because of their race rather than hairstyle, so a black man would pay more than a white man for a buzzcut. Would you defend that?
Also, I doubt that hairdresser is much use for people in Denmark.
Exactly. What the eff does it possibly matter what your gender is? Charge for the service, not the sex. 
Will a woman’s visit usually cost more? Probably. But to base the cost purely on gender is nonsense.