The Rise of Queer Friendly Barbershops

Being a Dominican gay man, I can’t remember ever feeling safe or comfortable inside a barbershop. Yet the barbershop, historically, is a staple of brotherhood and camaraderie among black and brown men. It’s a space where I was taught I should feel like I belonged. But that sense of a tightly knit community is often laced with toxic masculinity and perpetuates a false narrative of what being a cis-gender heterosexual man should be. My identity challenged those notions, so I always feared showing my authentic self in these spaces because I didn’t want to be a punching bag for ridicule.

I guess my fear comes from worrying about how men in a barbershop would react to my being gay. How would the barbers and other clients respond? More importantly, how would I deal with direct adversity in a space filled with people who deemed my sexual identity unacceptable? These are questions I still wonder about.

For Teen Vogue, I visited three local barbershops in the L.A. area that highlight the importance of building community and a safe space for queer people to get beautified. My hope is that the rest of the world will follow suit.