Nogginz Hair Shop on State Street has been giving away free haircut vouchers to female University of Wisconsin students turned away from the Axe sponsored promotion last week.

The Axe Hair Crisis Relief Tour offered male students and other community members a free wash, cut and style at Nogginz from Oct. 12 to Oct. 16 as part of a nationwide promotion.

According to Nogginz owner Lisa Foytik, approximately 700 men, mostly UW students, took advantage of the promotion throughout the week. Axe did not sell any retail products at Nogginz and funded the entire promotion.

Although Nogginz was putting all of its resources toward the promotion, Foytik felt positively about the salon’s involvement.

“They’ve been doing this across the major U.S. campuses,” Foytik said. “So we were honored that they asked us to participate.”

The Axe Hair Crisis Relief Tour advertised with the slogan, “Get girl approved hair,” and distributed complimentary Axe styling products to men who received a haircut at Nogginz. The free haircuts applied strictly to men, and paying female customers could not receive haircuts at Nogginz during the promotion.

Some students were displeased by this exclusion and by the promotion in general.

UW junior Jessi Indresano said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald she believes the promotion demeaned both men and women and was narrow in “regulating any relationship between them to a purely physical affair: your hair is more important than your personality.”

She went on to say the campaign ignored the possibility of a man wanting to attract the attention of another man.

To compensate for the campaign’s exclusion of female customers, Foytik said Nogginz has been passing out vouchers to female students for free haircuts valid for the next two weeks.

The free female haircuts next week are funded entirely by Nogginz management and not through Axe, Foytik said. Nogginz owners will pay the staff to cover the costs of the free haircuts.

Foytik said all the girls who were given vouchers were happy, despite being turned away for an immediate haircut.

— Signe Brewster contributed to this report.