I have always found getting my haircut to be profoundly intimate. Running into a former hairdresser, for me, feels almost exactly like running into an ex. In fact, I once hid behind a car so a former hairdresser would not see me. I firmly believe hair salons are rife with homoerotic subtext.
So, when I saw Battle Of The Sexes in theaters, which has not one but TWO sensual haircutting scenes, I felt extremely seen. Billie Jean King ends up secretly dating her hairdresser, bringing one of my fantasies to life! I’ve played tennis all my life, and Billie Jean King has long been a personal hero of mine, so I went to the movie expecting to have fun watching a cinematic retelling of Billie Jean King destroying a chauvinist pig. What I did not expect was that a haircutting scene would be more thrilling than the famed tennis match itself. When Marilyn first clips Billie Jean’s hair, it’s sexy, intimate, beautiful. Everyone else just sort of fades away. I didn’t blink. I didn’t want to miss a millisecond.
When a character gets their hair cut on screen in a movie, it usually signifies a major turning point. Most haircuts in movies come after trauma or as a form of punishment or as part of a makeover sequence. Cinematic haircuts are dramatic, transformative, liberating. They are not, typically, sensual. And that’s ridiculous! I demand more sensual haircuts in movies! We need better haircut representation!
In honor of Battle Of The Sexes, here are 11 other haircut scenes that acknowledge — some intentionally, but most incidentally — the sensual nature of haircuts.
11. Sliding Doors (1998)
I am convinced Anna and Helen are in love in their timeline of Sliding Doors. I’m sorry, but if your friend looks at you like this when you’re getting your hair cut, they are in love with you:
10. Co-Ed Call Girl (1996)
This is a very bad made-for-TV movie starring Tori Spelling, but I just want to reiterate my point above: If your friend goes with you to get your haircut and makes eye contact with you the entire time, they probably want to sleep with you.
9. The Game Is Over (1966)
This scene is mostly just sexy because Jane Fonda is looking hot and speaking French. There isn’t a direct shot of the hairdresser’s face, but there are several close-ups of her hands, which, gay.
8. Catwoman (2004)
Gotta love a good self-cut! And Halle Berry’s self-cut sequence in Catwoman is the best thing about 2004’s Catwoman. She also uses… two pairs of scissors? Which I can only assume is meant to be a scissoring metaphor.
7. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Was Kathy Baker told specifically to act like she was having sex in this scene?
6. Felicity season two (2000)
I realize that this is an example from television, and I realize that it’s also a very controversial scene in the Felicity fandom. But in all the thinkpieces I’ve read about the haircut that supposedly altered the course of the show, I’ve never seen anyone talk about how dang intimate the camerawork in this scene is. We only see the hairdresser in silhouette, but all the close-up shots of Felicity’s hair (and that one weirdly sexual shot of her flexing bare feet) imbue the scene with sensuality. Side note: Do… do I have a haircut kink?
5. The L Word Season One (2004)
While we’re on the television train, I’d be remiss not to mention notorious lesbian hairdresser Shane McCutcheon. When Shane cuts Cherie Jaffe’s hair for the first time, she actually asks her “what do you want?wp_posts— the same loaded, flirty question Marilyn asks Billie Jean in Battle Of The Sexes. Notably, I don’t think we ever see Shane actually cutting Cherie’s hair. She’s always just playing with it, and I’m okay with that.
4. Haircut (1995)
This is a Portuguese movie that’s literally called Haircut!!!!! The main character cuts all her hair off (to shock her husband-to-be or something?) and appears to be very close with her hairdresser!
3. Go Fish (1994)
In this black-and-white indie film, queer woman Ely gets her long hair cut into a soft butch short style, and I mostly just really love the unconventional visual style of the film.
2. Gigola (2010)
In the very beginning of this movie, the protagonist receives a haircut from her lover/school headmistress before embarking on a new life in the lesbian underground scene in 1960s Paris………… ummm I’m not making any of this up.
1. Kommt Mausi raus?! (1995)
Here it is! The only film that comes close to topping Battle Of The Sexes in the battle for most erotic haircut scene. This is a German lesbian coming-of-age film, and in it, one woman gives another woman a haircut while they’re both naked in a bathtub?! As, like, foreplay?!
I would like to add to this list when Gail cut her own hair on “Rookie Blue”, then Holly has to come in and fix it, and they end up having sex in the shower.
Ahh Kristana you just beat me to it!
Came here to second this. Loooooved that scene.
WOW I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS SCENE
So expecting this scene to be on this lit too. :)
Oops … ‘list’ … :)
Well, the scene was lit.
“C’mon, let’s wash this mess down the drain.”
Kayla, these are all excellent. Thank you for the deep dive into this very important research.
If Felicity and The L Word, while TV shows, can be included in your list, may I also offer up as evidence the haircut scene from Rookie Blue?!
OMFG. That is a really sexy hair cutting scene.
Beautiful. This is the kind of cutting edge journalism that I come to AS for.
These discussions can get really hairy, but Kayla navigated the razor’s edge so well.
She’s a sharp one!
WELL PLAYED!
Wow, this talk of homoerotic subtext and hair salons reminds me of the Mario Bellatin novella Salon de belleza. It’s dark, but the themes are very much there!
(let’s see if I managed to get the italics right…)
I got the italics, but I forgot the accent! Let’s try this again: Salón de belleza.
“I demand more sensual haircuts in movies! We need better haircut representation!” This is the best.
Wait, is this how real lesbians scissor?
I live for #GAYSMR
GAYSMR
this is an important list kayla thank u
is this a safe space to discuss that the haircut scene in “battle of the sexes” was so ridiculously intense and long that we started laughing in the theater
Oh yeah. If Harold and his companion unwittingly went to see this movie, that was the scene when she turned to inform him that they’d stumbled onto lesbians yet again.
Same, Riese. Same.
It was made worse in my case because it’s the dustiest part of harvest season and there was no background music. The entire scene was thus accompanied by a theater of congested mouth breathing and sniffles.
I’d suggest GI Jane’s buzz cut scene because I have sensual memories of rubbing a buzzed head and Demi runs her hand over her head a lot in that scene. Also the music.
in case anyone is curious…haironfilm.net is a very comprehensive database of haircut scenes ok bye!!
As one of Donna Martin’s most passionate supporters, I must say that I was instantly sold when you got to “This is a very bad made-for-TV movie starring Tori Spelling.”
Robin Tunney shaving her head in “Empire Records” is my root.
Oh yeah, I thought of that scene too.
Amazingly enough, I just found out yesterday that Daisy Ridley is dating the woman she met doing her hair on a movie!
What!!!!
Double what!!!?
Wait………..what
A few months ago Daisy was at a basketball game with a woman and they were acting very coupl-y. Holding hands and gazing into each others eyes, it got a lot of us stirred up, but I refused to let my hopes get too crazy. But then the other day her Vogue article came out and just look for yourself, it’s the most HAROLD thing ever! Now she’s not “officially on the record” but taken together I’m about as certain as I can be that she’s queer. Here’s the relevant info.
And here’s some pics.
Where’s the kiss cam when you need it?
Also, I’m a very skeptical person (I was literally voted class pessimist at my high school) so I don’t know what I believe, but I am very grateful for this information! Thanks!
One slight quibble about Go Fish: while Ely herself might have been soft butch, that haircut certainly was not.