Ranya Rosehill Sutton barber 'translation error' over price

The Ranya Salon in Rosehill was pilloried on Facebook after a photograph was shared of a board in its shop saying special needs children had to pay more for their haircuts.

But owner Shwan Kadir told Your Local Guardian it was “a language mistake” and that the business had “never” charged somebody more just because their child has special needs.

“There is not one single customer who says we have charged them extra,” he said.

“We have taken the board down the same minute we saw this online. We realised it was a mistake… English is not my first language. I worded it by mistake.

“As a human, everyone makes mistakes. I have apologised publicly. It is affecting our business badly.”

What happened?

A member of the public shared a photo online of a board inside the salon displaying its price list for boys under 15.

It said a scissor cut or skin fade was £15 and a “cut & style” was £13.

But then it said: “Special needs boys under 15Y - £17”.

The online post attracted hundreds of comments accusing the salon of illegal disability discrimination.

It was shared into a local community group where it attracted hundreds more comments.

The original poster has since changed the privacy settings on their Facebook page, but screenshots of their photo remain in circulation.

One Facebook user said all of the Ranya Rosehill salon's windows should be smashed. Owner Shwan Kadir said he had reported this and other threats to police (Image: Facebook)

“Threats”

The salon’s Facebook page was flooded with negative reviews.

“People have been calling here from Scotland,” Mr Kadir alleged.

“There’s some threats as well,” said Mr Kadir.

One poster wrote online: “Smash the windows”.

When another user said they didn’t think that was appropriate, the original poster replied, “I would”.

“I have reported it to the police already,” said Mr Kadir, who said he had run his hairdressing business in Sutton for 17 years.

Trading Standards

Some posters said they had filed formal reports with Sutton Council’s trading standards department.

The council told Your Local Guardian: "We are extremely concerned to have learnt of this case. 

"By law, the council does not have any powers to take enforcement action, but we will be reminding the trader of their responsibility, as all businesses have, to act in accordance with the Disability Discrimination and Equality Acts."

Mr Kadir said he had not yet heard anything from trading standards and insisted he had not broken any laws.

He said he had meant to convey with the sign that when children – with or without special needs – behave in a way which means the cut takes longer than usual, there is a small extra charge.

He said the salon was “entitled” to charge a bit extra in those circumstances, but added that in some cases it had actually offered free haircuts to children with special needs.

“We have lots of customers coming from outside London because our service for the kids is so good,” he claimed.

Shwan Kadir said he had run hairdressing businesses in Sutton for 17 years and had in the past offered free haircuts to children with special needs (Image: Google Streetview)

Complaints

A small number of people have posted complaints online about the service their children received.

One parent claimed on Facebook this week that when she took her autistic son there, “They were so rude and they said, ‘can you make the kid sit still’. They also cut his ear.”

Another wrote: “The same hairdressers I stopped going to years back for pinning my son’s head down to cut his hair, making him scared of any barber to go near him. He’s autistic also!”

Out of more than 400 Google reviews, the shop had received just three negative ones in six years for its treatment of children.

One, 11 months ago, claimed the salon was “awful to autism ADHD children, has no understanding and told me to never bring my child back there again”.

Another, five years ago, said: “If you have a child with SEN don’t bring them here”.

The third, seven years ago, alleged: “Left the shop humiliated after the boss refused to cut my two-year-old son’s hair because he was crying.”

Thanks

Mr Kadir thanked customers for defending the salon online.

“We have never had a bad reputation,” he said.

Even with the influx of bad reviews caused by the Facebook post, many seemingly not by genuine customers, the salon maintained a 3.7 out of 5 overall rating on Facebook and 4.6 for its children’s service.

On Google Reviews, it had 4.5.

“We are part of the community,” Mr Kadir said. “We made a mistake and we apologised. I believe that’s more than enough.”