Logan Parlor Salon in Chicago’s North Side neighborhood was designed to make you feel right at home, from the vintage antique furniture and salon equipment the owners’ handpicked themselves down to the inclusive ethos the business was founded upon.
Owners Jamie DiGrazia, a long-time stylist, and Tricia Serpe, her business counterpart are both LGBTQ+ activists and dreamt of creating a space that was open to people from all walks of life. “I wanted to create a space that people would feel comfortable in. It can be intimidating walking into a high-end salon or a boys club barbershop,” DiGrazia says. “I wanted to create a space where people would feel liberated by sharing their hair goals and getting the look they desired, no matter how mainstream it was or wasn’t.”
This vision was the driving force behind Logan Parlor Salon, one of the country’s first gender-neutral salons—meaning a client will never be charged based on their gender identity. “We will never assume or ask someone to state their gender to charge them for a service,” DiGrazia says. “We believe anyone can have any color, length, shape and style they want. In our consultations, we try to speak in terms that are neutral—like hard and soft, versus masculine and feminine,” she adds. “We never want to limit someone’s hair expression because they aren’t comfortable associating themselves with a gender they may not conform to.”
There is a long list of gender discrepancies in the salon industry. “Most salons have different prices—one for men and one for women,” DiGrazia says. “But, there’s a whole community of people that wouldn’t be comfortable choosing either of those options,” she adds, drawing attention to the larger issue at hand. DiGrazia, who now runs the salon on her own, is working to eliminate that antiquated way of running a salon business, and she hope others will follow suit. “I wish the industry would adopt a similar thought process when making decisions on how to price their services,” DiGrazia says. “Gender-free pricing is the way of the future—not just for the LGBTQ+ community. It celebrates individualism, and salon guests should be able to have a unique experience tailored to them rather than being put into a gender box.”