Giving new meaning to gender equality and the areas to which it can reach, Denmark’s Board of Equal Treatment ruled last month that hair salons must charge the same price for men’s haircuts as they do for women’s. It ordered a particular salon that advertised women’s cuts at 528 crowns–$94—and men’s cuts at just 428 crowns to pay a 2,500-crown fine to a woman who had filed a complaint.

A Danish trade organization for hairdressers has now called the decision absurd and warned that other measures of setting customers’ prices will foster chaos.

“It takes, quite simply, longer time with women,” Connie Mikkelsen, chairwomen of the Danish organization for independent hairdressers and cosmeticians said in a Monday statement. “Measuring time will lead to a discussion of hair length—what is medium length, and what is long. It will end in a series of conflicts with customers.”

It is not uncommon for Nordic countries such as Denmark to push the envelope in terms of gender equality, although maybe not into the salon chair. In fact, Denmark ranked 7th of 135 countries in the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap index that calculates national gender gaps based on economic, political, educational and health criteria.

The Board’s decision has been appealed and it is now up to a court to determine if hairdressers must find a new way to charge for their services, such as by the hour or by the style of cut.

Samantha Lile

Samantha Lile is a 2002 Missouri State University graduate of journalism and mass media. She has served as a reporter and editor for various newspapers throughout her journalism career. She made the leap into writing full-time after working for a major financial institution since 2000.

Because of her banking background, Samantha is knowledgeable in finance reporting, but is also strong in commentaries, personal profiles, youth studies, horticulture, history and entertainment-related works.

Samantha lives in Ozark, Mo. with her husband of nine years, four dogs and two cats.

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