Two Savvy Women Created an LGBTQ-Friendly Salon
If there’s one thing that most girls can agree on, it’s that a trip to the beauty salon can be the perfect way to instantly boost your mood and help you look your best — whether you’re recovering from a bad breakup or need time to vent about friendship drama. However, if you identify as gay, queer, or transgender, this positive experience isn’t necessarily what you get.
It’s not uncommon for some LGBTQ customers to feel uncomfortable in salons, mostly due to superficial gender norms that can feel oppressive during an appointment.
After seeing such experiences first hand and noticing how inaccessible many salons can be to this population, an Australian-based couple, Ruby and her partner Adelaide, started the Bachelorette Beauty Services in order to open up a safe and accepting space for the LGBTQ community to get hair, nails, waxing, and makeup done.
(Image courtesy of Facebook/Bachelorette Beauty Services)
In an interview with Vice, Adelaide explained why this new salon was necessary, saying “We’re told certain things are wrong and others are right. That’s not something I’m interested in doing, in general or in terms of beauty. It can be such a stab in the heart. I just want to help people feel nice about themselves and comfortable because that can be particularly hard for women, femmes, and queers.”
Adelaide and Ruby work their beauty salon directly out of their own Melbourne home, and have set their prices well below the typical price point for these kinds of services. They’ve also set up a fund for people to donate to so that those who can’t afford services can be provided them for free. Check out their extensive menu of services below:
(Image courtesy of Facebook/Bachelorette Beauty Services)
This isn’t the first time an LGBTQ-friendly salon has made headlines: The Seagull Salon, in New York City, is known as being a very open and accepting environment. “All of our stylists first and foremost are very, very, very specific about not imposing any specific style onto any one person… We have queer people, we have trans people,” explained co-owner Shaun Cottle in an interview with DNAinfo New York. Added co-owner Johanna Fateman, “Our next thing is to have feminist, all-gender-friendly services for hair removal, beauty treatments, skin resurfacing.”
When it comes down to it, salons are meant to be fun and support creative expression—not judgmental or discriminatory. So kudos to the Bachelorette Beauty Services and anyone like them for giving people exactly that, a salon in which everyone can feel safe and accepted.
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