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First, let’s look at what the news say:

Hairdressers Could Face Fines for Gender Discrimination
Published 09.10.2007, 09.13 (updated 09.10.2007, 10.29)

Four hair salons in the Helsinki area could face fines because they charge women more than men, regardless of how long it takes to cut their hair. Customers have filed complaints against the shops, and they have already received warnings. Hairdressers argue that women’s hair is usually more difficult and time-consuming to handle than men’s.

If those hairdressers still charge man and woman at different price even after listed criteria (highlight in bold) as below, then I guess the charge is fairly done:

Discrimination in Pricing Should Be Eliminated in Hairdresser Services 

The Ombudsman for Equality and the Consumer Ombudsman have together called for barbers and hairdressers to stop discriminative pricing and instead base prices on the amount of time required for service as well as factors involving quality and skill. The same message was sent to the field as early as 1993.

Hairdressers and barbers can price their services freely. Prices are influenced by the amount of work required for service and also professional skill, the difficulty of the job, materials used and the location of the shop. The Ombudsman for Equality and the Consumer Ombudsman emphasize that pricing should depend on the service performed for the customer, not gender.

So my question would be… is there any observation/data collected for those hairdressing services? The customers who complaint to the authority were really sure about ceteris paribus, the hairdresser unfairly charged differently solely based on gender? It would be interesting to know, isn’t it?

Homicide rate (homicide cases per 100 000 population) trend comparison for 3 countries: US, UK and Sweden for year from 1970 to 2005.

Yoshimine 13.09.2007, originally uploaded by micpohling.

Momiji, also known as Acer palmatum, and imagine if this is red colour during autumn season…