We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Working on Hair.
- Authors
Lawson, Helene M.
- Abstract
This article examines the complex interactions that occur in some contemporary beauty salons and barbershops, focusing on barbers, cosmetologists and clients in a white, working- to middle-class area of rural Northwestern Pennsylvania and in two middle- to upper-class urban areas in Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, this study finds that salons and barbershops are gender and class-marked environments where barbers, cosmetologists and their clients come to “manage” gender and class identities. Most importantly this research reveals two interesting, somewhat inverse trends in this workforce. On the one hand, there is increasing class stratification in different types of hair salons from upscale to mass franchise operations. On the other hand, there is a declining level of gender segregation among both hair workers and their clients.
- Subjects
BARBERSHOPS; COSMETOLOGISTS; GENDER; GENDER identity; SOCIAL stratification; SOCIAL structure
- Publication
Qualitative Sociology, 1999, Vol 22, Issue 3, p235
- ISSN
0162-0436
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1023/A:1022957805531