New kind of men's salon offers haircuts and a little coddling

Spanky’s in Overland Park joins small group that offers males service, camaraderie and even a little coddling.

By MIKE GLYNN

Special to The Star

Don Adams got a wash and haircut Thursday at Spanky's from stylist Emily Black.

ALLISON LONG | The Kansas City Star

Don Adams got a wash and haircut Thursday at Spanky's from stylist Emily Black.

Let’s get this clear up front: At Spanky’s, a new hair salon in Overland Park that caters to men, the shapely female stylists don’t wear lingerie and there’s not a stripper pole in sight.

Such were the rumors floating around early this month after the salon sent suggestive black coupons to 10,000 southern Overland Park homes. Prominently featured on the postcards and Spanky’s Web site (spankycuts.com) is the curvy, iconic female silhouette sometimes found on truckers’ mud flaps.

Subtle it’s not, and that’s what owner Sean Belt was shooting for. The 32-year-old entrepreneur is promoting Spanky’s, at 133rd Street and Antioch Road, as a place for guys who want more service, camaraderie and maybe even a little coddling when they get a haircut.

But ditch the scented candles and other girly accouterments. Spanky’s waiting room sports leather seats, massage chairs, men’s magazines such as Maxim and two large plasma TVs broadcasting sports. Guests get free drinks, including beer (one per guest). Each haircutting station includes its own flat-panel TV for more guy shows. Although there’s no lingerie, the stylists do wear tight-fitting tops and athletic shorts.

Prices for a haircut are about double what you’d find at a Supercuts or Great Clips. However, Belt pointed out that Spanky’s standard $21.95 haircut includes a shampoo, scalp massage and hot towel face wrap.

Customers are in the chair about 20 minutes, as stylists are encouraged to spend time chatting with customers, making them feel relaxed and being creative with their haircutting.

“I don’t want to tell guys that we pamper them, but we do treat them well,” said Belt, who’s also a firefighter and paramedic in Shawnee, a job he’s continuing. Getting a haircut “shouldn’t be a chore.”

His venture taps into a fledgling trend in hair care: men’s shops that beat their masculine chests proudly. The 12-year-old Sport Clips chain, with a dozen outlets in the Kansas City area, markets to guys, but the newer salons are upping the testosterone factor.

Consider Whiskers in Boston, which features a putting green in its waiting area. There’s a chain of salons called American Male (none in Kansas City), where guys can swig a Heineken while getting a manicure. At HairM in Portland, Ore., bachelor partiers are urged to swing by for cocktails and haircuts before hitting the town. There’s even Bikini Cuts in Salt Lake City, where stylists wear, well, use your imagination.

There are nearly 300,000 total hair salons in the country, so pegging the scope of the trend is difficult.

“It’s such a new and small niche. … It wasn’t even on our radar” during an industry survey several years ago, said Gordon Miller, executive director of the National Cosmetology Association in Chicago.

He gets lots of media calls about the shops now. Even so, he said, the movement runs counter to what most guys want from a salon: price and convenience. That’s why males account for 80 percent of Supercuts’ business.

Before opening Spanky’s, Belt, who has several relatives in the salon industry, said he spent more than two years researching the idea.

Convincing others hasn’t been so easy. To line up financing, Belt said, he pitched his idea as “kind of a Hooters for haircutting” to at least eight banks. Mission Bank eventually stepped forward with financing. Belt said he’s spent more than $100,000 on the salon.

Spanky’s logo of the mud flap girl has drawn resistance elsewhere. His landlord wouldn’t let Belt put it on the shop’s exterior sign.

Inside the shop on a Friday afternoon, several guests said that the theme and atmosphere are more edgy than demeaning.

“I’ve been to all kinds of salons on the East Coast and never seen any as cool as this,” said Sylvia Craig-Lococo as she watched her son get a haircut. “It’s nice that guys have a place to go.”

Across the aisle sat Mark Roberts, fresh from a shampoo.

“I love it,” said Roberts, who also brought his son, 5-year-old Garrett. “I like to be able to read nice magazines, watch TV and talk to someone while getting a haircut. And the beer was a nice touch.”

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