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Gender & Society
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The Well-Coiffed Man

Class, Race, and Heterosexual Masculinity in the Hair Salon

Kristen Barber

University of Southern California, kmbarber{at}usc.edu

This study explores how men make sense of their participation in the feminized practice of salon hair care. By placing white, middle-class, heterosexual men at the center of analysis, I investigate the meaning of beauty work for a population that has been overlooked in research on gender and the beauty industry. Specifically, I demonstrate that men embed their purchase of salon hair care in the need to appropriate expectations of white professional-class masculinity. Ultimately, these men reproduce raced and classed gender differences in the hair salon by resisting feminization while at the same time transgressing gender boundaries.

Key Words: beauty work • metrosexual • masculinity • doing difference • hair salon • barbershop

Gender & Society, Vol. 22, No. 4, 455-476 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0891243208321168
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