A controversial hair salon has taken its lighten-up attitude in clothing to its radio commercials.

Bikini Cuts, the salon that moved manicured, pedicured and well-coiffed men from the gay vague scene of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" to the streets of the Beehive State, is using laughter to get attention.

The company has been hawking its wares in light-hearted radio spots for a while, and the latest ad takes dead-aim at Utah County, where they plan to expand soon.

"We had all that hubbub about opening down there, and we just decided to poke fun at it," said Bikini Cuts CEO Mike Fuller.

The ad, airing on four local radio stations for the past few weeks, tells Utahns tired of fighting gay marriage and blaming teen violence on video games and rock music that they have a new cause -- banning Bikini Cuts.

"Bikini Cuts could be coming to your quiet little neighborhood real soon," the ad says. "Lock up your impressionable young. Start making punch and cookies for your city council meetings and prepare your sexual deviancy and maintaining morality speeches, because we're coming."

The ads seem to have worked, with people calling and e-mailing Fuller to tell him how much they like them.

In another ad, the company thanks the protesters who've taken time "day after day" to let the company know what they think. In return, Bikini Cuts has decided to give something back.

"We want to save you guys gas money," the ad says. "We're going to soon be opening three new Bikini Cuts locations. So now you guys won't have to drive as far to tell us how you feel."

Those protesters have been working overtime, company officials say, threatening potential Bikini Cuts landlords in Provo and Orem.

"We're talking 25 different phone calls at each location," Fuller said, adding that most callers threatened that if the landlord allowed Bikini Cuts to set up shop, they would boycott all other businesses operating on the landlord's property.

The tactic scared off a couple of landlords, he said, and delayed the signing of a lease agreement. But he said he still has four possible locations -- two in Provo and two in Orem -- and that he favors the Provo locations most. He said that because of past problems, he would not announce the new location until the deal had been inked.

Provo Municipal Councilman Paul Warner said Bikini Cuts is a poor fit for Provo.

"I'd hate to see that kind of business come to any community, let alone the town where I live and I'm involved in," he said. "It's disappointing that that's the way people want to make a living."

Warner said he'd received several calls and e-mails regarding Bikini Cuts, all of which opposed the business. "They just don't want it to come," he said. "I haven't had anybody say, 'lighten up, let's let 'em come, it's not a problem, it's no big deal.' "

Lisa Parkinson, a stylist at the Bikini Cuts in West Jordan, said she didn't understand why the business was so controversial. For one thing, she said, stylists always wear a sarong wrapped around the waist or shorts.

"I go to the swimming pool in less than I do here at work," she said.

Aurora Neff, who manages the Bikini Cuts in Sandy, said the bikini was simply a gimmick to attract new customers but that a quality haircut is what keeps them coming back.

"It's a good way to get people in the door but once you become a customer it becomes very secondary to service," she said. "I come from a conservative family and my parents were very concerned when I started working here, but now my parents love this place."

Fuller said staffing a Utah County salon wouldn't be a problem. Plenty of young women in the Provo-Orem area have been willing to shed a stylist's traditional garb to work at the new location.

Though he was reluctant to provide a date for the opening of the new salon, Fuller said he'd like to have things up and running by the end of August.

The company might also be moving into the reality TV arena.

"A company approached me about doing what they said would be a 10-part reality TV show about the trials and tribulations of getting a Bikini Cuts open in Orem or Provo," Fuller said. He said the production company would then pitch the show to several networks.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.

close

When the daily newspapers reported last week that a Salt Lake City hair salon named Bikini Cuts is looking for a location in Orem or Provo, it presented an opportunity for some first person reporting.

Bikini Cuts opened two stores in Salt Lake a couple of years ago with the idea of using a little sex to sell a lot of haircuts. The gimmick is that the stylists all wear bikinis while they work. The idea caused some protests in Salt Lake County and there will probably be more if a Utah County location is opened.

So it seemed only fair to find out if the fuss is justified.

The news couldn't have come at a better time. It had been about three months since my last visit to a stylist, and I figured the $7 difference between my regular American Fork salon (sorry, Trish) and the price at Bikini Cuts would be worth it, if I could get a story. So I made an appointment for Saturday morning.

Let me point out right here that my wife, Sharon, who is also a journalist, was aware of my actions at all times. She understands the importance of going to the source to get the facts, and takes particular delight in seeing me placed in uncomfortable situations.

I went to the Sandy location, although Bikini Cuts has another shop in West Jordan. I dropped Sharon off at the Southtowne Mall with the promise that the sooner I got back, the sooner she would stop spending money, and then drove to the salon.

The Sandy Bikini Cuts is located in a nondescript mall along 1300 East. There is a large grocery story and several smaller store fronts. The business is sandwiched between a tanning salon and a dollar store that had gone out of business the week before. About three doors down is a Super Cuts.

I arrived about 10 minutes early for my 11 a.m. appointment and took a seat in one of several massage chairs while I waited for Tina, my stylist, to arrive. When I arrived there was one other man getting his hair cut while his wife and two kids waited. Two more customers came in while I was there.

I turned on the chair to full massage and picked up a copy of Salt Lake City Weekly. There were several men's magazines available, none of them pornographic. "Matrix Reloaded" was playing with the sound turned down on the high definition TV. The Beach Boys were playing on the sound system.

Tina came in just before my appointment fully dressed, then stepped into the back room and came back in a bikini with a wraparound. What followed can only be described as a haircut.

I mean, we had a nice talk -- about her business and the controversy it created when it opened. She said the salons have made money since they opened, and that stylists that didn't feel comfortable in a bikini didn't last long. She also said that how well the girls cut hair and their personality were the most important qualifications to work there. Some guys might come once out of curiosity, but good haircuts generate repeat customers.

The bottom line was that for stylists who like cutting men's hair, who don't mind the dress code, and who enjoy bigger-than-average tips, the job is a good one.

Tina said the main attraction to the business was not the bikinis, but the salon experience geared to male clients instead of female ones.

Keep in mind, most of this conversation took place with Tina behind me -- and my glasses on a shelf so anything farther away than 12 inches was just a blur.

But I found the experience mostly positive. The conversation was friendly and comfortable, I liked the haircut -- although Sharon says Tina left it too long in back -- and no one made a big deal about the three women dressed in swim wear.

I found I wasn't uncomfortable, but then again, I was in Sandy. And we all know that what happens in Sandy, stays in Sandy.

Would I go back? Probably not. It's a little pricey, and I'm not sure my partner would react well to a Bikini Cuts habit. But I saw no evidence of immoral activity and no swim suits that would scandalize the patrons at local swimming pools on a hot summer day.

Would a Bikini Cuts survive in Orem. Maybe. If enough guys from Sandy are willing to make the drive so they can get their hair cut without being seen by anyone who knows them.

After all, what happens in Orem ....

close

PROVO — Provo City Councilman Paul Warner asked city police officers Tuesday night if there was anything they could do when a Bikini Cuts employee took off a coat and stood in the lobby of City Hall in a bikini. The answer was no. And the exchange might prove to be a preview of how powerless city leaders might be if they try to keep the controversial hair salon out of their conservative city.

"Our thing is we'll do nothing more than PG," Bikini Cuts owner Mike Fuller said after addressing the City Council on Tuesday.

The manager of his Sandy location, Desiree Foster, posed for television cameras with a wrap over the bottom half of her bikini. When the interviews were over, she put on an overcoat.

Fuller told the council he might have a signed lease by the end of the week and could open the doors of a Provo Bikini Cuts within 30 days.

"The Provo location is an actual finished salon," he said, so that would accelerate the opening. However, Fuller also said the salon still could end up in Orem and that he was being purposefully vague.

"We were going to open a store in Murray, but the location was sabotaged because people threatened the landlord. Now we wait to announce a location until everything is completely wrapped up."

Two Provo residents urged the council to pass ordinances that would keep Bikini Cuts out of the city.

"Provo is a place people move to for a good environment for their children," said Jackie DeGaston, a Utah Valley attorney and neighborhood activist. "This is a place with religious standards. We need to come up with ordinances to prevent any erosion of that image."

"I would suggest an ordinance in Provo that workers in any business that includes kids and teenagers in its clientele be appropriately dressed," said Kim Hawley, a mother and family law paralegal.

Outside the meeting, Hawley added, "I hate to see Provo become like the rest of the world. We need to keep it a place where children don't need to hide their eyes in a shopping mall."

Provo's code allows sexually oriented businesses in a portion of the city's East Bay area or in the Ironton development, spokeswoman Raylene Ireland said.

Bikini Cuts will have to apply for a business license and operate in parts of the city that allow businesses like Bikini Cuts.

However, Fuller said Bikini Cuts doesn't fit the definition of a sexually oriented business.

"Our girls are cutting hair in the same type of outfit you see girls in at the swimming pool or the gym," he said.

Bikini Cuts has two locations, Sandy and West Jordan, but Fuller said he is expanding to two new locations, one in Provo or Orem and another in downtown Salt Lake City.

Warner said council members felt Foster intended to unveil her bikini in council chambers during Tuesday night's meeting. Council chairwoman Cynthia Dayton tried to pre-empt such a display by pointing out that children were present and asking Foster not to disrobe in the meeting.

Fuller said he brought Foster and five other employees — wearing jeans and Bikini Cuts T-shirts — to the meeting to counter what he thought would be a "hullabaloo."

He claimed said his stores were deluged by phone calls from Provoans saying that he would open a store in the city "over their dead bodies."

Fuller's public-relations firm sent messages to news organizations Tuesday morning saying the business was having trouble landing an audience with city officials and getting on the council agenda.

He admitted the Foster's appearance was probably "good press."

Warner said the Bikini Cuts group was "pretty brazen." He did thank Foster for not disrobing in the meeting.

close

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Bikini Cuts owner and CEO Mike Fuller told the Provo City Council that his hair salon business is not sexually oriented.

Bikini Cuts, at which the stylists wear bikinis, has one operation in Sandy and is planning to open another in Provo or Orem within the next two months.

"We're not here to try to offend anyone or bother anyone," Fuller told the council Tuesday night. "It's just a bunch of good girls trying to make a living."

There were muffled sounds of disapproval throughout the chambers as Fuller spoke, but none spoke out from their seats.

Council Chairwoman Cynthia Dayton advised the public that cheering, booing or clapping after comments was inappropriate.

She also discouraged any public presenters from removing clothing in front of the crowd. However, the manager of Sandy Bikini Cuts, DesirÄee Foster, did just that later outside the chamber. She wore a bikini with a wrap around the bikini bottom.

Fuller said he's getting calls from people saying "over their dead body" would a Bikini Cuts open in Utah County.

"We just wanted to show them it's not that big of a deal," Fuller said. "We knew that it was going to cause a big fuss."

Resident Kim Holley suggested the city pass an ordinance that would require employees of any business involving children or teenagers as clients to be properly clothed.

"It just seems like we need to look at community standards," said Jacqueline DeGaston, the assistant chair of the Little Rock Canyon neighborhood. "We should put a freeze on such business approvals until we get thorough citizen input."

The controversial business already has shops in Sandy and West Jordan, and Fuller plans to open one in downtown Salt Lake City the same week the Utah County salon opens.

Miki Grant, a Provo marriage and family therapist, said the salon poses a risk of putting sexual thoughts in the minds of children at a young age.

City Council members did not comment during the meeting, but Councilman Paul Warner said outside the chambers, "I just think it's totally inappropriate for our community. It's a sad commentary on what people think they need to do to make a splash."

close

OGDEN, Utah (AP) Bikini Cuts, where the hairstylists wear bikini tops, plans to expand to Ogden.

Bethany Prince, company president and one of three owners, said the company is looking for a site downtown and plans to open shop within a year.

The company has salons in Sandy and West Jordan and also plans to open stores in downtown Salt Lake City and in either Provo or Orem within three to five months.

Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey declined to comment on Bikini Cuts' plans to expand to the city.

The company employs 14 stylists and five receptionists at its two salons. They range in age from 18 to 40.

Hairstylists are paid 40 percent of the $25 haircut charge and never less than $6 an hour. Prince said she only had to pay the hourly rate once, when business was slow.

"The most important thing to us is the quality of the haircut," said Mike Fuller, Bikini Cuts business manager and part-owner.

The 27-year-old Sandy resident is also boyfriend to Prince.

"This kind of started with her cutting my hair and we were over at my mom's pool," Fuller said.

"And he said, 'I'm going to give you a really good tip,' " Prince said.

A few days later, in September 2003, they opened the Sandy salon.

"It was kind of a dumb joke that became a good idea," Prince said.

The West Jordan salon opened in October 2004.

It costs from $50,000 to $110,000 to open a salon, Prince said.

The company has been approached by a couple of hotels in Las Vegas to open salons there, Fuller said. Bikini Cuts plans to open eight or 10 salons in Utah before expanding out of state, he said.

Fuller appeared before the Provo City Council and a hostile audience last week and said the salons are not sexually oriented businesses.

He said he was getting calls from people saying "over their dead body" would a Bikini Cuts open in Utah County.

"We just wanted to show them it's not that big of a deal," Fuller said. "We knew that it was going to cause a big fuss."

Resident Kim Holley suggested the city pass an ordinance that would require employees of any business involving children or teenagers as clients to be properly clothed.

Miki Grant, a Provo marriage and family therapist, said the salon poses a risk of putting sexual thoughts in the minds of children at a young age.

close

Bikini Cuts, where hairstylists give patrons a hairstyle while dressed in normal beach attire for the price of $25 a head, is setting its sights on Utah County sites.

The salons’ dress code has turned heads since opening in 2003 and has been successful enough in its two existing Utah locations, West Jordan and Sandy, to double in expansion, with plans for Salt Lake City as well as Provo/Orem.

Dave Politis, president of Politis Communications who is representing Bikini Cuts, said the salon is doing everything it possibly can to make the transition into the valley easily.

“Because of the experience they’d have in the past, they know that if they can smooth things over with the city in the beginning, they can remove some of the opposition,” he said before the meeting Tuesday night.

If efforts to do some “smoothing over,” after the mayor’s office remained unresponsive, Politis and Bikini Cuts employees brought their case to the Provo City Council meeting. While their attire in the salon may be a bit risqué, the four hairstylists wore T-shirts, and were modestly dressed during the presentation to the council.

The presentation was made during the public comment portion of the meeting, and was not a regular agenda item.

During last night’s Provo City Municipal Council meeting, Bikini Cuts brought their message of fun-loving and professional haircutting direct to the Provo City Mayor and the city’s Municipal Council members.

Although the local media and the city council expected a horde of protesters at the meeting, they instead got simple solemn pleas for and against.

Mike Fuller, cofounder of Bikini Cuts, said he came to let the city know what they are all about.

“We are not here to offend anyone or to bother anyone,” Fuller said. “We just want a good transition.”

A mother also addressed the city council pleading for them to prevent Bikini Cuts coming to Provo or to at least limit Bikini Cuts’ activities.

“I request that Bikini Cuts provide their services fully clothed in order to preserve, maintain and protect the innocence of our children and teenagers,” she said said.

Micki Grant was also against Bikini Cuts. Grant said the council should respect the community standard and protect the children.

“Children should be protected to over explicit media,” Grant said.

As Fuller made his plea on behalf of Bikini Cuts, the council gave no indication hear it at the next scheduled meeting. The only responses from the city council were a thank you and a blank stare.

The salon faced controversy and negative public outcry when it opened its doors in Sandy, causing the city to tighten business ordinances. The same response is expected in the Provo/Orem area.

“People have already called to voice their concern,” said Aaron Lyman, a business license specialist in Orem. “But if they (Bikini Cuts) apply and abide by the ordinances, legally than no one can deny them.”

While the city cannot deny a business operating within legal boundaries, landlords have the authority to deny a request for a location. For this reason, Bikini Cuts has not revealed the possible spot for their newest salon to avoid threats directed toward potential landlords.

The threats have been severe enough, since the first store opened in 2003, for landlords to give a no-go on expansion plans in both Sugar House and Murray.

Bethany Prince, Bikini Cuts’ president, expects more debate as she goes forward with her plans.

"In spite of some initial controversy about our fun and relaxing format, décor and uniform style, we are convinced it's time to move forward with our expansion plans," said Prince. "Salt Lake City is an obvious choice for a new Bikini Cuts salon. And although we've had some reservations about moving into the Orem/Provo area, we're also convinced we can be quite successful with a location based in the heart of what is affectionately known in Utah as 'Happy Valley.'"

close

Bikini Cuts won't open for two months and has yet to announce a location, but it is already generating naked controversy in Utah County.

The hair salon featuring bikini-clad stylists is looking to open a shop in either Orem or Provo. The chain already has a salon in Sandy.

Mike Fuller, the owner, made a presentation to the Provo Municipal Council this week, saying that it's no big deal. But opponents are lining up, warning that buxom beauticians will drag down Provo's morals. "It robs innocence. It leads to beliefs and thoughts we would like to avoid," said Miki Grant, a Provo resident. Municipal Councilman Paul Warner said, after the meeting, that he thought Bikini Cuts would be "totally inappropriate for our community."

Provo has been down a somewhat similar road before. City residents went ballistic when LeMar's offered dancers in pasties and G-strings. Residents protested outside the Center Street Club and the council quickly passed an ordinance exiling such acts to the East Bay business park. The council had approved the dancers shortly before the controversy erupted.

But Bikini Cuts is not in the same league as nightclub strippers. In fact, the two are barely comparable. Stylists at Bikini Cuts wear swimsuits and sarongs while they give customers hair cuts and shaves. The business is PG-rated and that there is nothing sexually explicit about it, Fuller says. We're inclined to take his word for it. A customer isn't going to be thinking about getting fresh with a woman who's wielding scissors and razor blades. This is just a hair salon offering an unusual twist to get customers.

Provo residents have seen more skin down at the city pool or at Seven Peaks Water Park. Those who object to Bikini Cuts have yet to speak out against those venues, or demand that swimmers remain fully clothed to keep people from having impure thoughts.

Bikini Cuts stylists would not be working in a front window for the gawking convenience of passers-by. At the Sandy salon, windows are covered. The same would likely happen here.

If someone finds the idea offensive, he's not compelled to patronize the business -- just as a person need not buy food at Hooters or patronize Sonic with its roller-skating servers in shorts. There are still plenty of barbershops and salons in town where you can get a haircut from someone who's fully clothed, and many of these charge less than Bikini Cuts, where a haircut goes for about $25.

Bikini Cuts' flashy concept may seem over the top to some -- and that includes veteran stylists who point to the job hazards of hair cutting. Shards of cut hair frequently stab a stylist's flesh, for example, and the tiny wounds often become infected. The thought of exposing large parts of one's body to the cast-off clippings of total strangers is, well, kind of creepy.

Sure, Bikini Cuts promotes women as objects for ogling, but only willing women. And it's not much different from a water park. Why would any woman wear a bikini in public? She wants to be noticed and appreciated, of course. At the Bikini Cuts salon it would even appear, kinkily, that female employees enjoy having hair on their chests.

The bottom line is that this is a fad. Like all fads, it is likely to fade quickly after the novelty wears off.

On the other hand, if the offended insist on making a big deal out of it, they will only encourage more people to go down there to see what all the fuss is about. We saw this happen with such things as LeMar's strippers, Michael Moore's visit to Utah Valley State College, BYU's Rodin exhibit and "The Satanic Verses," a book that Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini thought was so insulting to Islam that he ordered all Muslims to kill its author, Salman Rushdie. The death threat was enough to catapult an otherwise dreadful book to the best-seller list.

close

I told my wife that I was going out for a haircut. All I needed was a trim, maybe only a little off the top.

Perhaps it was the "little off the top" comment that prompted her to bring up our finances. She suggested I stay home and let our daughter cut my hair because "if you go to Bikini Cuts, you will be coming home to new carpet in the front room, hall and bedrooms."

I argued that I fully intended to get my hair cut by a woman in a bikini, but, hey, as long as I was there why not get in on the demonstration action outside the Sandy salon?

"Fine with me," the prosecution countered. "It will be your first $2,000 haircut. Enjoy."

I kicked stuff around in the garage for a while and finally decided that $20 was all I could afford for a haircut. I hate it when women get practical.

My wife doesn't care if I get my hair cut by a scantily clad woman. She knows I would only give myself a migraine trying to see without my glasses.

What concerns her more than anything is the possibility of me going to jail, a far greater reality at my age than getting anything going with a barber in a bikini. She knows that I can be a jerk. I would have gone to watch the demonstrators holler their high-minded agenda and maybe to bait a few ninnies into a rage. Something in me enjoys having fun at the expense of prudes.

Oh, please. You are too. Think about this from both directions for once. If the word "tramp" or "hussy" comes to mind when you consider the gals working at Bikini Cuts, why doesn't the word "prude" come to mind when you think about yourself?

For the record, I looked it up. From Webster's: "a person who is excessively or priggishly attentive to propriety or decorum."

If that doesn't describe you, then who does it describe?

I'll bet that some of the female demonstrators were wearing pants or slacks, an item of attire once considered immodest or downright whorish for women to be seen in.

And yet women wear slacks today with no regard for what its detractors once claimed it would do to society's morals -- and wearing them comfortably because the "hussies" and "tramps" of yore were willing to butt heads with society's prudes.

In the case of Bikini Cuts, sex sells. But does that make it a sexually oriented business? If so, do you have a sexually oriented face? Isn't that the reason why even ultra-modest women enhance the desire of their eyes, lips and cheeks with cosmetics?

For me, the question isn't about nudity or sex. It's about sensitivity. Whether it's politics, religion, race or sports, lots of people in America today are aggrieved because others aren't giving their agenda the proper love and respect.

Is society too insensitive, or are you hypersensitive? Obviously a line has to be drawn somewhere. But just how far should society be required to go in order to protect its boobs?

----- Salt Lake Tribune columnist Robert Kirby welcomes mail at 143 S. Main St., Salt Lake City, UT 84111, or e-mail at rkirby@sltrib.com.

close

SANDY -- She has three daughters. One is 9, the other two are 7. She and her husband live in a home in Herriman -- in one of those big, booming suburban dream tracts. She pays a mortgage. She buys milk and cereal, shoes and jeans for the kids, just like the rest of us.

Except that Pam, who cuts hair for a living, wears a bikini to work. I met her last Saturday at the notorious new salon Bikini Cuts, where I stopped in for a shampoo, trim and scalp massage.

I had to try this place myself, given the uproar that seven stylists clad in bikini tops have generated in this upright Salt Lake suburb. Even though, let's face it, as a 46-year-old mother of two I am not exactly the salon's prime demographic. No, I would say the five guys -- average age about 22 -- who were sitting with me in the waiting area and wearing backward baseball hats, sagging jeans, scant bits of facial hair and uttering the word "awesome" every other sentence while thumbing through copies of Maxim and Stuff paint a more accurate picture of the clientele.

Unless you were sleeping under a slab of granite the past few weeks, you know about Bikini Cuts, wedged into a strip mall at 10295 S. 1300 East. Newspapers, television and talk radio shows have been alive with stories of the pesky little controversy dogging this business.

Last week, ruffled by residents' complaints about the salon, the Sandy City Council adopted a resolution "promoting a child-appropriate standard" for businesses and other public institutions. Sandy now endorses "a community standard that reflects and encourages a wholesome environment for children and families."

Bikini Cuts is brightly painted and sports a tropical theme -- dried beach grass hanging from the operators' work booths and piped-in Beach Boys music. And no-duh, the main attraction is the stylists -- by anyone's measure, well-endowed and not hard to look at -- who wear bikinis and cover themselves from the waist down with sarong wraps.

That's about it. Owner Bethany Prince, who wasn't there the day I visited, has tapped into the oldest gimmick in free enterprise: sex sells. You could tell this from the steady stream of clients, and also from the three different women who wandered past the store's windows, peering inside and straining for a closer look.

That same day, a 2-year-old boy had come in for his first haircut, his parents dutifully snapping photos for his scrapbook. As Pam snipped away at my hair, we mostly talked like any stylist and client would. We meandered into celebrity gossip and bemoaned how mouthy our kids could be. We each wondered what we would make for dinner. Pam has cut hair for 10 years. She likes working in a bikini because for once, the little stray hairs that fly about no longer stick to her clothes and jab her skin.

"The hairs stick through your sleeves and it's hard to get rid of them," she said. "I don't get near as pokey as I used to." Good enough. The work is steady, the tips are good and Pam is making a living. Just an average working mom. In a swimsuit.

I left the shop feeling that little lift a woman gets from a good haircut. And at that moment, Sandy's big, ballyhooed effort to protect its vulnerable youth came to mind.

A few feet from my parked car, a woman with four children was piling her brood into a Chevy Astro van. Two of them were toddlers. The vehicle had no car seats inside. She drove away. Now what was that again about a citywide "child appropriate standard?"

close

Once again proving there's no innocuous gimmick that can't be blown up into a big sexy Media Event with the unsolicited help of a few morally outraged pinheads, Sandy's Bikini Cuts is the "controversy" du jour. Hot women in two-pieces cut your hair--seems to sell itself, but owner Bethany Prince and her team of scantily-but-still-legally-clad stylists have enjoyed the kind of free publicity new businesses can only dream of in The Salt Lake Tribune, the national Bob & Tom radio show and now, City Weekly' s highly influential Lake Effect.

Ms. Prince apparently has media savvy to rival her toned tummy: The tricked-out BikiniCuts.com already has archived press and MP3s, as well as plenty of fetching photos and a gift shop that includes "My Stylist Is Hotter Than Yours" T-shirts and bumper stickers. Maybe she knew all along opening this kind of joint in the 'burbs would generate instant heat, maybe not--either way, she's a welcome relief from our previous King of All Self-Publicity, Super Dell. Can future expansion into Bikini Lube, Bikini Optical and Bikini Legal Services be far behind?

close

A Sandy salon called Bikini Cuts, featuring stylists in body-clinging beach attire, caused enough of a ruckus among certain moral watchdogs last week that the suburb's city council decided to tighten some business ordinances, calling on former "Porn Czar" Paula Houston for help.rn

rnApparently some of the neighbors and concerned people in the community find a woman in a bikini top so sexually alluring and hard to resist as to be offensive, even dangerous. In a story in The Salt Lake Tribune, these folks contended a bikini-clad woman cutting hair could be "the beginning of pornography addictions for young men," and that the shop should be classified as a sexually oriented business -- one of those places pushed to a town's outskirts and hidden among industrial workshops and the like.rn

rnSandy should be careful, though, because places like Bikini Cuts might be just the thing to draw downtown dwellers like The Vulture south to stimulate the Sandy economy.rn

rnAnother issue is precedent. If Sandy's moral watchdogs convince that town's city council that bikini-clad barbers should be considered a "sexually oriented business," what is to stop the moralists in other communities from piling on?rnThis got The Vulture thinking: What else along the Wasatch Front could be redefined as "sexually oriented business" if that judgement is based on whether or not men might get turned on? Consider how different life in Utah would be if these things were suddenly hidden or outlawed:rn

rn* The Provo Girl pilsner-pitching babe would no longer bless us men of simple tastes with billboards, calendars and personal appearances.rn

rn* Say goodbye to the Utah Jazz dancers, and while you're at it, shut down every cheerleading squad and dance troupe at the state's colleges, universities and high schools. Those mini-skirts might be the first step in someone's slide into "pornography addiction."rn

rn* You know those Hot Dog on a Stick stands in the malls, where young ladies are found churning lemonade with gusto? Enjoy them now, because they might be gone if a filth-minded moral watchdog takes a gander. Or you could be forced to drive to some truck stop in a barely incorporated part of the city for a fresh-squeezed treat, sold right next to Penthouse or Hustler.rn

rn* The Hooters in Midvale? History. Every other restaurant, tavern or private club that hires attractive women? Teetering on the brink of being labeled as "sexually oriented." No less an authority than the Zagat Survey from 2002 made note of La Caille's "busty young women in peasant costumes."rn

rnMore simply, any place where a woman's tips could conceivably go up based on what she wears would probably qualify as a no-no.rn

rn* This paper and the Deseret Morning News could both be accused of promoting what Sandy's concerned citizens find pornographic. Ads for the Shania Twain concert show -- gasp! -- a bare midriff, and photos of Ann-Margret can still lead to impure thoughts, especially among those who remember her in "Viva Las Vegas" with The King.

close

Despite its rather silicate name, there is no beach in Sandy . But if the Salt Lake City suburb did have a beach, there would likely be no shortage of shapely women clad, barely, in bikini bathing suits, out there for everyone to see. Just as there must be at public pools in the city. But gather six such women in one place, and put clippers in their hands, and it becomes the closest thing Sandy has to a major public controversy.

The City Council got an earful Tuesday from residents upset that a new hair salon for men called Bikini Cuts has hung out its shingle in a local, excuse the expression, strip mall. One offended resident exclaimed, "The only thing you can't see are the nipples."

Well, that is clearly not the only thing you can't see. And that's the point. Because the bikini-clad barbers are not naked enough to get arrested if they were walking down the street, the business is completely legal.

Bikini Cuts falls far short of the legal definition of a sexually oriented business, the kind of thing that is properly restricted to certain zones, usually industrial areas far from the nearest home or school. Sandy , by the way, has such zones, but lacks any such business.

Opponents call the salon immoral and inappropriate for the youth of the community. They want something done about it. The politicians are properly concerned and the lawyers have been sent off to ponder many a volume of forgotten lore.

But it is unlikely that the city can or will do anything about it, which is as it should be. The survival of Bikini Cuts will be determined by the marketplace, which is also as it should be. And, given the amount of free publicity the shop has gained from the controversy, its future may be very bright indeed.

It is true that, unlike the experience of a public beach or pool, the customers at Bikini Cuts don't have to look past all the ugly people to find the pleasing shapes. They don't have to expose their own less-than-buff bodies. And they can sit very close and actually speak to an attractive female who, in any other time and place, would probably slap you silly.

Sex sells. On magazine covers, beer ads and just about everything else you can name. There's no reason why haircuts should be any different.

The only government interest is to make sure that the somewhat vulnerable women at Bikini Cuts aren't taken advantage of in any way. But even that doesn't seem much of a risk.

These women are holding scissors, and they know how to use them.

close

SANDY -- Not everyone is warming up to Bikini Cuts, the newest salon in town, where bikini-and-sarong clad women cut, clip and coif the hair of a mostly male clientele.

"I walked in there," said resident Brigitte Dawson, "and the only thing you can't see are the nipples."

Wedged between a dollar store and a tanning salon in the Alta View strip mall at 10295 S. 1300 East, the month-old, tropical-themed salon offers a combo haircut, shampoo and scalp massage for $25.

The salon's six stylists, as well as its owner and manager Bethany Prince, all wear bikinis and wrap-around sarong skirts. Customers are greeted in a lobby containing mechanical massage chairs and magazines such as GQ, Maxim, Motor Trend and Men's Health.

"It's just a salon with a theme that stands out," said customer Stan Fitch . "But that's what you have to do in today's market, and you see less here than you do at a public swimming pool."

But after hearing from several groups of angry residents, the City Council on Tuesday resolved to try tightening its business ordinances, within constitutional bounds. To do so, the city will enlist the help of Paula Houston, Utah's former porn czar. Some neighbors consider the stylists' dress to be offensive -- and the beginning of pornography addictions for young men. Many want to see the salon classified as a sexually oriented business that would be restricted to areas zoned for sex shops and strip clubs.

"It's not moral for our city," said Dawson, who is a City Council candidate in next week's general election. "Hooters is calm compared to what they're doing in there."

City Attorney Walter Miller says Bikini Cuts, which obtained a "beauty salon" commercial business license Oct. 7, does not violate any city ordinances with its beach wear.

Unlike the topless maids who cleaned private homes in Davis County , Bikini Cuts' stylists could legally wear their work outfits on public streets.

For now, the issue could boil down to freedom of expression, says Miller.

And while Sandy considers retooling its sexually oriented business ordinance in coming weeks, no potentially sexually oriented businesses will be granted licenses.

Bikini Cuts would not be retroactively affected by a new city code.

However, Prince says she is willing to put up blinds on storefront windows.

In any case, business is not suffering from the controversy, says Prince, who has been contacted by media outlets as far away as Arkansas and Oregon .

Prince began cutting hair at franchise stores like Fantastic Sam's and says Bikini Cuts stylists earn about three times more in tips and double the commission they earn in national chains. Her largest tip has been $50 for a $25 cut.

close

It may be cooling down outside, but things are heating up inside a new Sandy business. A hair salon is creating a tropical feel for its clients -- bikinis and all.

A new Sandy hair salon is offering more than your typical hair cut; it's trying a new technique in taking a little off the top. Bikini Cuts opened its doors in a Sandy strip mall between a craft store and a dollar discount shop. And business is booming.

Mark Hardy Client: "Everybody that works here, every stylist that's here... Well, I've gotten some of the best haircuts I've ever had."

Bethany Prince says she's doing something new in her industry, going after the male clientele. Not only are all the stylists wearing bikinis and sarongs every day, her clients wait in massage chairs watching sports plays on TV or reading one of several men's magazines on the table.

At least seven out of every 10 customers here are men. But neighboring businesses are beginning to hear from people who say a Hawaiian bikini beach does not belong on these Sandy grounds.

Amy Eckhardt, Neighboring Business Owner: "They're pretty much gonna boycott us. Their neighborhood, everybody they know they're gonna tell them not to shop here because we support something they don't approve of."

Maria Roestenburg, Lives in Neighborhood: "I wouldn't want to go and get my hair done there and I hope that my husband and nobody in my family would go to get their hair done there either."

Sandy City approved the business license, but officials say like the clientele, they'll be keeping an eye on things.

The prices at Bikini Cuts are a little higher than average for men, at 25 dollars a cut. They charge the same for a haircut for a woman.

close

High cuts and low cuts -- we're not talking about the haircuts, we're talking about the bikinis.

That's what the stylists wear at a new salon in Sandy. And it's causing a bit of controversy.

The store called 'Bikini Cuts' has gotten some complaints. It's located in a strip mall near a grocery store and a craft store and residents say the two-piece uniforms are inappropriate.

But the store's owner says the attire of the hairstylists is just to create a fun atmosphere. The real goal is to offer good haircuts.

close