Cut it out!

Girls! Girls! Girls! Settle. Just settle.

Grab a cup of tea and have a good lie down.

I’m talking to those of you getting your knickers in a knot over barbers refusing to cut your hair.

The ones who stride into a barbershop, insist on a cut, and huff off screeching discrimination when the demand is rejected. While it’s not yet trending, there are enough getting stroppy to excite the extremists into action against the humble barbers who are being ghastly offensive because they only want to do what they’re trained to do. Cut men’s hair.

The latest case in point is an outraged mother taking on a Sydney barber who refused to cut her daughter’s hair. You see, the cutting skill set differs between male and female hair, with a barber’s training course spanning just six months compared with the three-year course including an apprenticeship required for hairdressing.

In the spirit of fairness, rather than taking mum’s money and attempting the challenge, barber Sam Rahim directed the pair to a hairdresser a few doors down.

End. Of. Story.

But oh no, it was only the beginning. Mum wasn’t having any of it, allegedly opting instead to create a scene before angrily storming out. She continued her rant on Facebook, peaking with a complaint to the Human Rights Commission claiming Rahim breached anti-discrimination laws and embarrassed her daughter.

Rahim embarrassed her daughter? Really? It wasn’t mum throwing a tanty in the shop? Nup, it was poor old Rahim who has since sensibly suggested the daughter would have been more embarrassed if he’d butchered her hair.

This isn’t the first case of barbershop barnies involving women. From Dublin to Darwin, from Pennsylvania to Liverpool, women have seethed over being refused service in the traditional male domain of a barbershop.

Despite the fact there are women-only clubs, women-only gyms, women-only activity holidays, women-only wellbeing centres and, yes, women-only hair salons, when it comes to invading the space of men, it’s a female right. And yes, it is a legal right. But that doesn’t make it right.

One barber, ironically a woman, in America apparently offered to pay for a woman’s haircut at another salon, but the business was fined after the law found it is illegal to discriminate based on sex.

But is that what we want? I know for damn sure when I settle into the chair for a one-on-one with my hairdresser, I don’t want a bloke listening in, just as I’m sure the blokes having their hair buzzed don’t want a teenage girl eavesdropping on their banter, albeit male chit chat is usually incredibly dull.

Yes, you have to pay more in a salon than you do in a barbershop, but women have been paying more for style for centuries. Ever tried comparing the cost of an incy, wincy bikini with a pair of boardies? It is what it is.

This barbershop biff brings to mind that old diagnosis of ‘hysteria’ often dished out to women in centuries past. Among the ridiculous symptoms cited, such as nervousness, sexual desire and insomnia, was ‘the tendency to cause trouble’.

I’m beginning to wonder about this ‘tendency’ as I observe more and more feminist extremists less focused on achieving equality than getting revenge. Just because they can.

While the #MeToo campaign champions the right for women not to be sexually harassed, and others fight for equal pay and respect, can we keep the rest of our lives in perspective please? The pendulum is swinging too far away from common sense and more and more towards irrational female hysteria, in this case a fairly accurate diagnosis.

Are women nitpicking over minor issues which have no place in court?

Why are female-only social, sport and holiday activities not seen as discriminatory?