Gratuity Free
Why We Price The Way We Do
When we reopened in June 2020, I had a choice about what to bring back with us.
A lot of things about the world had just cracked open. People were asking harder questions about labor, about value, about who gets protected by the systems we have and who gets exploited by them. I was asking those questions too, like, how can I run a fair business in a corrupt system?
Something as routine, in the U.S., as tipping your service worker started to feel… off. It put us on uneven footing, on both sides of the exchange.
From a client perspective, it becomes a math equation after every appointment, trying to compensate for the stylist’s earnings. From a stylist’s perspective, it’s left to the whims of someone’s bias or budget. From a business owner’s perspective, it’s just something that’s always been done.
Unspoken weirdness, a little shame, and honestly, unsustainable cash flow at best.
That discomfort isn’t random. Tipping culture in the United States has a history that runs deeper than etiquette. It’s rooted in systems that were designed to undervalue labor and transfer financial responsibility onto the customer, disproportionately affecting women and people of color. When I started researching that history, something I had felt intuitively for years finally had a shape.
I didn’t want to keep running a business built on that foundation.
So we changed it.
Modeled in part from Destroy the Hairdresser’s ethos, a collective of hairstylists working to shift outdated industry standards, we moved to gratuity-free, hourly pricing that centers fairness for everyone involved.
What Hourly Pricing Actually Means
When you book with us, you are booking time, not a service from a menu.
You reserve an hour or two with your stylist. Within that time, we consult, we adjust, we create together. The appointment might include a cut, color, styling, or some combination of whatever you need. Everything is included. What you book is what you pay. There are no add-ons at checkout, no tip line, no sticker shock.
There is also flexibility built in. If you come in with a budget, we can work within it. You can tell us what you have, and we build something together from there. That conversation, which used to feel awkward under the old model, becomes the natural starting point.
What It Does For Clients
The first thing most people notice is that they can relax.
You know what you are paying before you walk in. You know what you are paying when you leave. That clarity changes the texture of the whole appointment. You are not doing math in the back of your head, you are just present. And when a client is present, the work gets better. There is room to slow down, to ask questions, to make adjustments, to actually care.
What It Does For Our Stylists
This is where the real change lives.
When you are working off tips and service-based rates, you often don't know what you are going to make week to week. That kind of uncertainty makes it hard to plan your life. Hard to think past the next few weeks. It's hard to feel like this is a career and not just a series of gigs.
With hourly pricing, that changes. Our stylists know what they are earning. They can set their own rates, save, they can plan, they can invest in themselves. Some of them are buying homes. Some are starting families. Some are just finally able to see out past the next month.
We also build structure around that. Clear cancellation policies that protect everyone's time. Access to 401k accounts with matching after a year. Education, workshops, apprenticeship programs. We are trying to build something that people can stay inside for a long time without burning out.
You can be in the arts and make a living. That should not be a radical idea, but in this industry it often still feels like one.
What It Does For The Community Around Us
One of the things I care most about is where the money goes.
It does not just sit at the top. It circulates. We are able to hire more people, train new stylists, and create genuine entry points into the industry. We partner with organizations like Comunidad Primero and participate in programs like RiseBoro’s Learn and Earn Internship for local high school students that give young people in our community real work experience. We donate services and resources where we can.
Since making this shift, we opened a second location three times the size of the first, expanded our team, brought on a marketing staff, and built out a full apprenticeship program. We run quarterly workshops for skill sharing and ongoing education.
None of that is possible without a structure that takes care of the people inside it first.
The Bigger Picture
This is not really a post about pricing. It is a post about what we believe is fair.
We believe this work, hair, care, transformation, is part of the arts. We believe artists deserve stability. We believe transparency is a form of respect. And we believe that a business can be structured so that clients, stylists, and the surrounding community all benefit from the same exchange.
When you book with us, you are stepping into that ecosystem. Your money moves through real people's lives in ways you can trace. That matters to us, and we hope it matters to you too.
To every client who has chosen Queen of Swords, who has told a friend, who has kept coming back: you make this possible. We don't take that lightly, thank you for being part of this with us!
