Montreal hair salon ordered to pay non-binary customer $500 after booking form had only 'male' and 'female' haircut options

A Montreal hair salon has been ordered to pay $500 to a person who identifies as non-binary after the customer claimed that their booking system was discriminatory. The processing system only allowed for the individual to get a men's or women's haircut.

Alexe Frédéric Migneault, who identifies as non-binary, was asked in an email to select either male or female when in the process of arranging for a haircut in 2023. The salon, Station 10, charges by the minute, and since women’s hair appointments tend to take longer for them, it was part of their processing system, per CTV.

"The concept seemed great because they charge based on the time that it takes to do the cut and not based on the gender of the person,” Migneault said. However, during the process, Migneault was disappointed that the booking only allowed for a men’s or a women’s haircut.

"It is not fair, and it’s not legal to tell me no, since you don’t fit into my worldview, I don’t want to do anything with you, and I don’t want you as my customer,” Migneault said about the situation.

Station 10’s co-owner, Alexis Labrecque, said that the business is a low-cost-high-volume model, and that bookings, since they are only done online, ask for the gender of customers to help with timing the appointments.

“It takes typically takes longer for a woman’s haircut than a man’s haircut,” he said. “So we optimize our agendas accordingly. We also get statistics for marketing.”

Migneault, however, claimed that reading the only two options of “male” and “female” led to “falling to complete disability" mentally. "I was already spiraling into a huge mental health crisis, and it precipitated my, falling to complete disability. I was unable to work for a year and a half."

Migneault filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, which recommended the $500 settlement. Labrecque refused to pay the settlement, so Migneault sued for $12,000.

"We fought back because we didn’t agree with the prejudice that we might have caused,” Lebrecque added. After the incident took place, the salon also updated its website to include a “gender-neutral” booking option.

The court, however, agreed that the only damages the salon had to pay were $500.

“It was discrimination, and non-binary people should not be forced to pick between men and women if they don’t want to identify as such,” Migneault said, seeing the $500 legal battle as a win.