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The Open Barbers

In Trinity Term 2018 the Open Barbers, a London-based hairdressing salon which caters for LGBTQ+ people, hosted a pop-up salon in Oxford in collaboration with OU LGBTQ+ Society and Oxford SU LGBTQ+ Campaign specifically for transgender members of Oxford’s LGBTQ+ community. The Open Barbers is immensely popular amongst trans and queer people due to their inclusive and non-judgemental approach to hairdressing, and we received very positive feedback from all who attended the salon, with comments thanking the hairdressers for “being sensitive to queer people’s needs” and “giving options without making assumptions”, and requests for another visit in the future. Many trans people encounter difficulty in approaching gendered hair salons and are frequently misgendered or turned away, so the pop-up salon with Open Barbers provided an invaluable opportunity for over a dozen students to get the haircut they wanted in a safe and welcoming environment. The Open Barbers is a not-for-profit organisation which operates on a sliding scale whereby clients pay as much or as little as they are able to, and thanks to the Community Fund LGBTQ+ Society was able to compensate the Open Barbers for their time, without which the pop-up might not have been possible.

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