Man Sues Salon After Being Charged $1 More Than Women For Manicure (VIDEO)

Norris Sydnor III will not rest until he puts the "man" in manicure.

The 43-year-old Mitchellville, Maryland resident is suing local Rich's Nail Salon for $200,000 (that's $100,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages) after being charged one dollar more to get his fingertips cleaned up last December. Note that the brochure does clearly state manicures for women costs $9 and for men, $10.

Sydnor told myfoxdc.com, "I was angry. I was humiliated....The big deal is that I feel like I'm being discriminated based on my gender. There's nothing to say that my hands or my nails are different than a woman's nails. Nobody measured my hands, no one measured my fingernails."

His lawyer, Jimmy Bell, aptly added, "Rosa Parks paid the same amount of money but was required to sit in the back of the bus. My client paid more money for less services because he didn't get polish, he didn't get clear to go over the polish."

So far, a judge issued an injunction ordering the salon not to charge men more money for its services. The case will go to trial July 21.

WATCH:

Maryland Man Files Lawsuit Against Nail Salon After Being Charged $1 More Than Women For Manicure: MyFoxDC.com

Comments

[peithecelt]

09:37 AM on 06/21/2011

And women have been paying more for a haircut (even those of us who just have one length of hair that only needs to be trimmed in a straight line) than men for years, your point is?

[TheBlondeRaven]

12:23 AM on 06/21/2011

Haha. Best laugh I got today.

[WriterInThePink]

01:13 PM on 06/20/2011

Welcome to the world of gender inequality. Women have been paying more in this consumer's market and making less money since forever. I hope this opens the guy's eyes to combating gender inequality in all areas, not just getting his one dollar back.

[acastan1]

12:18 PM on 06/20/2011

WERK!

[Connie Markley Boppre]

09:43 PM on 06/19/2011

oh brother. women have been paying more to have a blouse dry-cleaned compared to a man's dress shirt since the beginning of time

[koaltech]

10:54 AM on 06/20/2011

You may not know this, but that was struck down in court as well as being discriminatory.

John Banzhaf (a GW law professor) filed suit in 1989 and won some 50 legal settlements banning such practices in August of 1989...

[Down in FL]

07:36 PM on 06/19/2011

Rosa Parks? Really? Really?

[Assumed Name]

08:25 AM on 06/20/2011

(...that was seriously over the top, wasn't it?)

[Alice Radley]

05:30 PM on 06/19/2011

Men tend to have larger hands and thicker cuticles. The price difference makes sense to me. After all, women are charged, on average, more for a haircut, as there tends to be more involved (blow out, layering etc). Women are also charged more for their shirts at most dry cleaners. This is because mens shirts tend to have a rather rectangular shape, and can therefore be pressed far more easily. A woman's shirt tends to be cut to a woman's figure (more curves, move pleats), and therefore has to be hand ironed.

It's very simple really. More work, higher cost.

[Jodi Smith]

04:28 PM on 06/19/2011

i never understood why would you pay for a manicure if you're not getting polish. save the 10 bucks and buy a 6pack instead.

[ArChiMi]

04:06 PM on 06/19/2011

I would like to know the name of that judge. Can you please update the article with that information so we can find out who is that idiot of a judge?

[Turukano]

05:49 AM on 06/19/2011

Are you kidding me? Seriously, this guy has nothing better to do?

[TaxpayingVoter]

06:27 PM on 06/18/2011

The judge should award him $1 in addition to ordering that the salon charge the same price for both genders.

[MiBFTo]

11:52 AM on 06/21/2011

Or better yet, take gender out of it altogether and charge based on the work actually being done. If a person's cuticles are more difficult to cut, it's an extra dollar. If you're not getting polish, a dollar off. If you need a lot of shaping, tack on two dollars. Etc.

The gender bias issue is insane. Plenty of women have the rough, dry, thick cuticles most people would assume are on men. And there's no reason the much more complicated manicure of a woman should cost less than a polish-less manicure on a man. And there's definitely no reason to draw the line at gender.

[Libertarian5]

05:19 PM on 06/18/2011

So what--women pay more for haircuts. That's the way it is. What worries me the most is not that there is an idiot who will sue for that--we all know such types--but that the judge accepted the suit.

That's dereliction of duty. Judges are supposed to toss out frivolous lawsuits, and if they don't do that, should get impeached for wasting taxpayer's money and the clogging courts. That nail salon now has lawyer fees etc to bear, I hope they countersue that wannabe Rosa Parks (what chuzpah to claim that mantle) for the same amount.

[sakredkow]

07:45 AM on 06/18/2011

I don't know the right or wrong of it - some say there's a difference between men and women's nails, others say it's just discrimination.
In any case, just the fact this gentleman would say he is "angry" and "humiliated". . . well, I"m not blaming him, we've all been eagerly spoonfed on this sense of personal entitlement and importance, the outrage that anyone would dare violate our rights. A lot of us are very petty people.

[JHyatt]

07:44 AM on 06/18/2011

My husband pays $14 for a haircut and I pay $24 and his hair is almost as long as mine. Thats just the way it is, get over it.

[Jodi Smith]

04:27 PM on 06/19/2011

$24! That's a steal. I pay $75. I think the dudes at my salon pay $50. Guess that means I should sue for 2.5 million.

[jerrycomo]

07:32 PM on 06/20/2011

0$. I shave my head.

[ILoveGreatDanes]

06:17 AM on 06/18/2011

Don't people have hobbies anymore? Like building toy trains, or playing gin rummy, woodworking? I don't get it.