The gays are asking: is it wrong to get a “happy haircut?”

Another day, another question for the gay culture. Yesterday on the always informative subreddit r/AskGayMen, a user brought up a moral question that has us still scratching our heads. Namely: is it ok to pay for a haircut and end up getting more than you bargained for?

At the risk of sounding “naive,” one gentlemen recounted his experience of going to a sexy barber and getting a little something extra. “I went to a barber in the gay part of town who offers ‘happy haircuts,'” he explains, “which were advertised as the barber would be in his underwear and give a little hot towel/neck massage treatment at the end.”

But this haircut was about to get a lot more happy: just like in a Curb Your Enthusiasm bit, this poster ended up getting a hand job at the end of his touch-up, and while it wasn’t exactly unwelcome, it did come as a surprise.

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“The barber was super cool (and hot) and start to finish the whole thing was very relaxing,” the poster explained, “but I feel guilty for going through with it and guiltier for wanting to go back.”

He does mention, however, that this barber runs his own shop and is consensually engaging in sex work of his own accord. So what, precisely, are the morals of the case here?

Well, it should come as no surprise to learn that there was a wide range of reactions to this interesting situation.

“I’m shocked, shocked I tell you! Can you please provide a link to their service so I don’t make the same mistake?” wrote one commenter cheekily. Others adopted a similarly tongue-in-cheek approach to this “problem.” But for others, the question was a serious one.

“In our affection and touch-starved society, I see nothing wrong with what you did,” one poster wrote. “As long as there is consent on the part of both parties, it’s fine.”

When the original poster expressed guilt around the situation, another commenter stepped in to explain that there’s nothing shameful about sex work. It’s just a job like any other. “It’s OK,” they wrote, “just understand they’re not the same, you paid for an experience and you could’ve said No when they did. Sex work is work like any other and there’s nothing shameful about it.”

“You supported a local artist that decided to take his craft a bit further,” wrote another.

“I can’t think of any reason at all this specific service would actually harm society,” another astute commenter wrote, widening the conversation to take into account the ways that certain conventions around sex work—which is still illegal in most states—have harmed sex workers in the past. “At the most, maybe other barbers would complain that they had do it cause all men now expected a handjob after a haircut, but that’s not happening soon.”

A world in which every haircut comes with a happy ending sounds nothing short of hilarious, but as the commenter said, that world is far, far away from our current reality.

“In the end it really should come down to how each individual feels about it,” another commenter wrote. “There’s no universal right or wrong answer.”

True enough: but the consensus seems to be that as long as everything was consensual and services rendered were paid for in full, there’s nothing wrong with getting something a little extra at the barber shop, should your barber offer it.

Or, as one person put it, “just relax and enjoy the orgasm, bro.”

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