From Service Space to Social Arena: A Scoping Review on the Sociological Role of Hair Salons

Abstract

Hair salons are commonly conceptualized as commercial venues providing aesthetic services and receive limited attention in sociological scholarship. However, beyond their economic function, these spaces operate as multi-layered social arenas where everyday interactions intensify, trust is constructed, emotional labour is performed, and community ties are formed. The aim of this study is to systematically examine the literature that conceptualizes hair salons along a continuum from service spaces to social spaces, to identify dominant thematic, theoretical, and methodological patterns, and to reveal research gaps in the field. The study adopts a scoping review design. A systematic search conducted in Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, and TR Dizin identified 34 peer-reviewed articles that met the inclusion criteria. The selected studies were analyzed through a multi-coding process at thematic, theoretical, and methodological levels. Findings show that the literature clusters around six thematic axes: everyday interaction, emotional labour, social capital, gender and body politics, community-based social support, and service economy/professionalization. Theoretically, emotional labour and gatekeeper/care-work approaches have become particularly prominent, while methodologically the field remains predominantly qualitative. Studies that systematically integrate everyday life, emotional labour, and social capital within a unified analytical framework remain limited. This study reconceptualizes hair salons through a sequential mechanism in which everyday repetition fosters relational intensification; relational intensification generates trust; and trust evolves into social capital and community function. In doing so, it positions hair salons not merely as aesthetic service venues but as informal yet influential components of contemporary social infrastructure.