Settlement Cuts Short Suit on Children’s Hair Trims

A lawsuit charging sexism in the pricing of children’s haircuts never got as far as a courtroom but found its resolution Friday in a Beverly Hills hairdresser’s salon.

“We reached a settlement after the lawsuit was filed and we were willing to dismiss the lawsuit,” attorney Gloria Allred said in a telephone interview.

Allred had called a press conference to announce victory on behalf of her 3-year-old client, Yael Miller, whose suit against the Yellow Balloon children’s hair salon in West Los Angeles last July charged discrimination against girls because of their sex.

The Los Angeles Superior Court suit was filed after Yael and her 4-year-old brother, Ari, had haircuts at the salon and hers cost $2 more than her brother’s, even though, it was alleged, hers took less time and skill to cut.

The children’s mother, Joni Zuckerbrow-Miller, said at the time that, “Yael is young and has a lot of obstacles facing her. . . . I want to remove as many of those obstacles as I can.”

No money will change hands in the settlement. “We didn’t wish to accept any money,” Allred said. “The Yellow Balloon has agreed to charge only by the cut, not by gender.”

Yellow Balloon operator Nadia Pidgeon said the shop “never, ever” discriminated between boys and girls.

“Why did she (Allred) pick on me?” Pidgeon asked in a telephone interview. “Our sign said, ‘boy and girl cuts, $11 and $13,’ which means the length and thickness of hair and what we have to do with it (determine which price is charged).

“The only thing we agreed to was to change the sign to read, ‘boy and girl cuts, $11 to $13’ instead of $11 and $13.