Why do women’s haircuts cost more than men’s?

Women often go to the hair salon for a cut and spend a small fortune, while men spend considerably less in the barbershop, or in the same salon.

It’s a situation familiar to many women: They go to the hair salon for a cut and spend a small fortune, while their male partners, brothers, uncles, and guy friends spend considerably less in the barbershop, or in the same salon. But are women really paying more for the same service? Can any differences in price be justified? Or is this another example of a “pink tax,” where products and services targeted at women cost more than those targeted at men for no discernible reason? The available data certainly lends credence to many women’s frustrations. Last year, the average cost for a standard women’s haircut was $51.71 compared with $34.56 for a men’s haircut across the United States, according to transaction data provided exclusively to CNN by Square, a payment systems provider. The cheapest women’s haircut could be found in South Dakota for $31.43 — almost one and a half times more than the $21.59 paid by men for their cheapest haircut, also in that state. Across the pond, the data is also pretty, ahem, clear-cut. In 2020, a survey of UK consumers by YouGov found that women paid an average of £31.99 ($40.80) for a basic haircut, which may include a wash and blow dry. That’s more than twice the average £12.17 (£15.50) paid by men for the same or similar service.