This Hairdresser Never Felt 'Seen' at Barbershops or Salons. So They Created a Safe Space for ‘Gender-Affirming Cuts’ (Exclusive)

• Jules Heron has worked as a hairdresser in the Portland, Ore., area since 2018.

• Heron tells PEOPLE they “didn’t really fit in” at either the barbershop or the salon when seeking more masculine haircuts.

• So, Heron created Hair for Humans in an effort to provide more gender-affirming cuts for clients.

A good haircut can make a world of difference for an individual, and for hairdresser Jules Heron, much of that success comes from the consultation process.

Heron, 35, has worked as a hairdresser in the Portland, Ore., area since 2018, and they’ve been sharing videos online of their consultations. Their content has drawn plenty of attention, bringing in more than 160,000 followers on TikTok alone.

Heron’s salon, Hair for Humans, is focused on providing gender-affirming cuts for its clients. Though the term “gender-affirming” often implies services for LGBTQ+ people, Heron pointed out that this “trigger word” doesn’t dictate who’s in their chair.

“I have a ton of cis male clients. I have a ton of cis women clients. Gender-affirming just means that it makes you feel good in the way that you wanna present to the world,” Heron tells PEOPLE. “If you're a cis man going to an ultra-masculine barbershop, you're getting a gender-affirming cut.”

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Hair for Humans was born from Heron’s own want to feel seen in a salon chair. They admit to feeling like they “didn’t really fit in” at either the barbershop or the salon when seeking more masculine haircuts, either walking out of a salon with a more feminine version of the cut they wanted or being “treated differently” in the barbershop hair.

“I just didn’t feel seen, ever,” they state simply. “So I decided to cut my own hair for 10 years. And then after I had top surgery, I felt like myself for the first time ever.”

After that, they “took the plunge” and went to beauty school. As they’ve continued to develop their process for consultations to ensure their clients walk out with the cut that feels right for them, they feel that the main issue plaguing most salons was the lack of education around the consultation.

“The whole goal of me doing hair was to not only provide my community with haircuts that feel good to them, but as I've done hair more and more throughout the years, I've noticed there's a lot of people outside of the queer community that also have a hard time getting gender-affirming cuts,” Heron says.

“There's not a lot of education for gender-affirming cuts,” they continue. “There's not a lot of education on how to do consultations. And even now with the internet and TikTok and all of the resources that we have, people still don't know how to get a haircut — people still don't know what to ask for, and people still don't know what to ask the client.”

Since they began posting online, their salon has remained pretty tightly booked, with some clients coming in from other states or even other countries to get their hair cut by Heron.

“There are tons of stylists that can do the job, however, you just can't find them because they're not doing the content piece,” Heron says. Many of these clients get the cut they really want from Heron to take back to their local stylist, asking instead only for upkeep and other maintenance.

“People have a hard time getting a haircut that feels good to them, and I think it's partially that people don't do their continued education — but even in the continued education, there's not a lot of education on how to do the consultation,” Heron says.

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Because of this gap in their industry, Heron says that although they have enjoyed getting to work with individual clients, Heron’s ultimate goal is to build a more comprehensive education for consultations.

“I want to teach people how to do the consultation and how to show what the client is getting because the reason people are coming to me so often is because they know what to expect. They know what to expect when they come in my chair because they see it every single day when I post.”

Heron has also started offering some virtual appointments to help clients cut their own hair at home. They say some of these consultations will eventually be shared as video tutorials on their page, offering specific guidance for those who don’t feel comfortable seeking a professional gender-affirming haircut in their area.

“I'm just here to show that it's really hard to get your hair cut no matter who you are, which is why I try to incorporate all people in my haircutting videos,” they continue. “I really wanna show the humanity of people, um, because we're all just people and that's it.”

Walking into Heron’s salon, clients feel confident that they’ll walk out with a cut that feels right for them and their gender identity — and Heron is insistent that those in their chair walk out with exactly what they’re looking for.

“It's not my head. I don't have to walk around with it,” they say. “I want you to feel good in your hair — I don't care what it looks like. I'm gonna do the best version of whatever you want. And that's just meeting people where they're at.”

Read the original article on People