-It's dismantling those norms
and allowing people the freedom to expression.
You don't have to be defined by how you were assigned at birth
to express yourself in the way that you deserve to.
My names Alex, I use they/them pronouns
and today I'm getting a gender affirming haircut.
I identify as transmasculine non-binary.
I started a gender transition in 2019.
With getting a gender affirming haircut today
it continues to play into my identity
because I find that fluidity helps me a lot,
especially with my mental health journey.
Gender dysphoria is a real thing,
especially within the transgender
non-conforming community. Affirming your gender for me,
I don't see it as like there's a checklist to it
and I don't see that I will ever stop evolving
in that way where it's like, I just look at myself
and just see this interesting, adoptable being.
Allowing myself this opportunity and this freedom
to just be like, you know what? You are not boxed in
by what's growing out of your head right now.
So I'm really excited to see what the results are today.
-I'm Sara, I use she/her pronouns
and I'm a gender neutral barber.
Hairrari is a gender neutral barbershop
and we specialize in gender affirming haircuts,
it's an all-inclusive space where everyone is welcomed,
regardless of their gender or background.
-Hey, how are you?
-Hey, good to see you.
-Good to see you. What are you thinking today?
-I'm thinking of doing something short on the sides
and then just leaving some of this longness on the top.
-Okay, that sounds great. Let's do it.
-Cool, alright.
-So, first we will start by just cutting off you know,
the chunk that we don't really need anymore.
Then we are going to shampoo it.
After that I'm going to section it.
And then dry the sides just to see how it lays.
And after that, I'll be buzzing it
and going you know, longer to shorter,
doing a nice fade.
A fade means that you go from gradually shorter to longer.
Today we're going to do one fade
which means taught shortest clipper guard
is going to be a number one
and then you gradually from there go one
and a half, two, three.
I'm going to split it down the middle,
see how it falls and then cut some length off,
cut some more depending on how it looks.
And after that I'm going to dry it
and then texturize it a lot.
Alex has a lot of hair so we want to texturize that,
take some weight off
so that it can feel flowy, easy to style.
The styling products that I will be using is our dust,
which is a texturizing powder.
And then after that I'm going to put in the Dream Cream,
which is just a cream with a little bit of hold
to bring out the texture.
Alright, you ready to see your new look?
-Whoa! Wow!
-There you are.
-Man, there is my face.
-Now you can, you know,
you're wearing it kind of like volume up
but you can also do like a wet look for example, you know?
And just kind of have it fall naturally
and then the growing out process will be fun as well,
because as this gets a little longer
then maybe you can play with the texture
and this will come down more.
-Thank you! I'm so grateful, this is incredible.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing
how this hairstyle evolves for me.
I love the new style.
I'm surprised to see my face again after so long.
I really like exploring between the binaries,
masculinity, femininity,
finding that sweet spot of androgyny and gender neutrality.
I'm playing with the term non-binary, masculinity,
and femininity is wearing things that would have been defined
as feminine and masculine
and finding a way to marry the two.
It's cool to kind of define my own presentation.
I know that that young Alex would be absolutely in awe
and very, very proud of this person
sitting in this chair right now.
It's like, beyond a dream come true for me
that I get to look, feel, sound, exist freely
as I wanted to for my whole life.
And I'm grateful for every step that I've taken to get here
and that there are supportive places like this
where there are people who welcome you with open arms
and just accept you and love you right then
and there for who you are.
♪♪