That traditional barber education also helped them learn how to cut facial hair. “When somebody comes in and says, ‘Hey, I want a haircut that more masculinizes my face.’ Taking what I learned in barber school, I can use angles and square shapes to masculinize a haircut that lends itself to folks that are just trying to figure things out.” “Employing that knowledge, I take the gender out of it,” Howell said. They continue to use that training now, though not as originally intended by their instructor. Howell recalls an instructor who specifically told the class to only give men squared off haircuts and women more rounded ones. “Being a part of that club, there was a lot of gendering about techniques and stuff. “I went to a very traditional, like, old boy’s club barber school, which was great because I learned a lot of foundational barber things…” Howell said. Howell decided that they wanted to open a barbershop that would cater to LGBTQ people and started barber school in Price in 2014. They just want the haircut that they want.” I talk to a lot of queer women that say going to the barbershop is uncomfortable because they’re getting hit on the whole time and questioned about their sexuality. “I’ve talked to a lot of gay men that talk about code-switching at the barbershop and trying to come off as straight. ![]() “If they were trans, for example, they were not comfortable talking about hormones and beyond that, they were praying that wouldn’t be outed in that type of atmosphere,” Howell said. Howell began to hear about similar experiences from their LGBTQ friends. Some barbershops barred women from service altogether, Howell said. The barbers weren’t talking to me even though they talked to other clients, so it felt like it wasn’t my space to be in.” Or I would find the barbershop that would give me the haircut I wanted, but I would kind of just sit there in silence. “I either had a hard time getting a haircut that I wanted - like people wanted to leave it longer to make it look more feminine. “As a queer person, I just could not have super comfortable experiences ,” Howell said. After they expressed slight disappointment with how feminine the cut turned out, the stylist recommended they try a barbershop instead. When Howell decided to get their hair cut short for the first time, they headed to a salon. My sister had a friend who came out as a lesbian and I was like, ‘What’s a lesbian?’ and she was like, ‘I’m girl crazy instead of boy crazy.’ And immediately I was like, ‘Oh, so that’s what I’ve been trying to ignore since second grade.’” ‘There’s just so many layers of being intimidated’ “I didn’t hear the world ‘lesbian’ until 1999 or 2000. “It’s interesting because growing up in that small town, I knew there was something up with me - that I was different - but I didn’t have a word for it,” Howell said. They grew up around feminine things, they said, but didn’t feel like a “particularly feminine person.” ![]() (His skills with a sword and unusual haircut made him a particularly good fit to associate with a barbershop, Howell said.)Ĭutting hair runs in Howell’s family - their uncle worked as a barber in Price, and their mom owned a beauty salon and worked as a Mary Kay consultant. But they instead selected Friar Tuck because of his desire to educate and compassion for the marginalized. Originally, they wanted to name the shop after Robin Hood to fit this theme of giving back to the community. They were inspired by a restaurant there that donated a portion of sales to a nonprofit organization and wanted to open a business that could also give back to the community. ![]() Howell opened the shop after graduating from barber school in their hometown of Price in 2015. (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kylee Howell owner of Friar Tuck's Barber Shop in Salt Lake City, on Wednesday, June 16, 2021.
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