(gentle music) - [Robin] Hair is definitely everything, like if my hair's not right, I'm not right, I just don't feel right.

Don't feel like myself.

- [Leo] You see yourself in a specific way, and that's how you want your haircut.

I mean, your haircut is one of the first things, people see about you.

- [Iz] As a queer hairdresser, I think about it even more, because I want to be helping the way that they feel, on the inside match, the way that they look on the outside.

(upbeat music) My name is Iz Landers, and I own Dye by the Sword in Pittsburgh.

Almost everybody who comes in and sits in my chair is a member of the queer community.

I've been doing queer haircuts since before I knew I wanted to be cutting hair professionally.

I would cut my friend's hair, just in you know, dorm bathrooms.

At my house, at their house, whatever.

Before I decided to go to beauty school, and pursue it professionally.

They were coming to me because they knew, that they would get what they wanted from me.

Stylists, and this is a generalization, even if you are asking for a very masculine haircut, and you are not somebody who they would perceive, as a masculine person, they'll try to feminize that haircut, in ways that you don't necessarily want.

So you're leaving the salon after paying money, and sometimes a lot of money, for a haircut that you're not happy with.

Especially for trans people, it can be very dysphoric to walk around, with a haircut that doesn't feel like how you feel.

So to come to me, their gay friend who has scissors, who will hack at their hair for them, and in the way that they want, that sometimes feels better.

- Oh yeah, that's good.

- Okay.

- It's not covering my ears.

- It's not.

My hair is an extension of my personality, but it's also a lot of ways, a signal to other people.

I get a lot of new clients who are seeking out a queer stylist the first time, and there's some anxiety there with that, especially if you've been in a salon, and gotten a haircut that you didn't want before and are trying to maybe be more visibly queer.

Seeing them come in and look at the pink mullet, is huge because you can almost see the relief that, okay, I'm gonna get the gay haircut of my dreams right now.

(clippers buzzing) - Don't look at the camera when I'm acting.

(Robin laughs) Don't look at the camera when I'm acting.

Now I'm gonna look at the camera.

- [Robin] My name is Robin Walker.

I am a barber stylist.

I went to barber school, but I grew up in the salon with my mother.

My mother was a cosmetologist.

Hair in the Black community is very important to us.

A Black girl can have $10 in her pocket, where her hair is gonna be done.

Black men, they typically get their haircut, every two to three weeks, you know, they like to stay groomed.

Soon as my clients walk through the door, I greet them immediately, like, "hey, how you doing?"

And it's a whole experience for me and them.

I try to make it feel like home, particularly when queer clients come in.

Had so many people had horrible experiences, you know, going into barbershops or salons.

Some people they've had experiences where they just didn't feel welcome.

They completely got disrespected.

- [Man] I think a lot of it lives in the fear of what could happen.

- [Robin] Yeah.

- I think that's the queer experience, you know?

There's enough real instances to make you go, well, that could certainly happen to me.

So it's not that I've ever been in a situation that turned out to be what my mind has conjured up, but it doesn't mean that that situation couldn't happen.

- I always try to make people feel comfortable.

It's not gonna get done with just me, but I want to help bring that to the world.

Just love and peace and kindness.

- Nice, ooh, Thank you, thank you.

- [Leo] The first time I ever got my hair cut off, whatever.

It was really long, I went to a salon, and they did not take it as short as I wanted it.

They did not listen to me, whatever I asked them, what I wanted because I did want it buzzed up on the sides, and I did want it short on the top, and they basically gave me a pixie cut.

So I started doing my own hair, and cutting my friend's hair at my apartment.

My job is like 98% listening, 2% cutting hair.

So it's more of a personal relationship.

Just taking that extra five, 10 minutes, and being able to relate to them, and talk to them about what they want.

That way they actually leave happy.

It's just a little bit more personal.

It's trying to translate what they're feeling, into their haircuts so they can actually feel their best and look their best.

Those trans clients, those queer clients have always looked in the mirror and seen something else.

You have that specific aesthetic in mind, and it's so important for queer folks, and trans folks to finally feel good in that aesthetic, because they spend so long feeling bad about it.

- [Customer] Thank you.

- Much better.

- Yeah.

- [Robin] Hair shows other people who you are right away, how you want to look, how you want to present yourself to people, definitely falls under your hair.

- [Leo] I enjoy doing these gender affirming haircuts, more than anything.

Knowing that I can make somebody feel the way that I feel good whenever I go get my hair cut.

It's like walking out that door with just a new sense of pride and a new sense of self, and just feeling 10 pounds lighter.

- [Iz] Being able to be the first affirming hair professional, that somebody sees is a wild experience.

I have people crying in my chair, because they finally feel like they look like how they've always wanted to, but it's good tears.

I mean, you've changed somebody's life doing that.

(gentle music)