When a trendy new hair salon opens up right next door to Paddy's, Dennis and Frank go on the offensive to stop women from cutting off their hair. Meanwhile, Mac is reunited with his childhood dog Poppins.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: When Mac brings "Poppins" to the vet, he cites the fact that "he" does not react when he blows an airhorn in "his" ear.
- Not only is Z perfectly fine with performing a dog-abortion, but it takes him a while to figure out that Mac and Charlie does not want him to kill "Poppins" too.
- Contrived Coincidence: The female "Poppins" ends up belonging to the owner of the hair salon that the males of the gang have an issue with, which lets Dennis blackmail her to not cut Dee's hair by keeping the dog hostage.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The episode revisits the pro-life/pro-choice debate since the second episode of the series through the framing device of the Barbershop and the short haircuts they seem to specialize in.
- Dennis, Mac, Frank and Charlie complain and complain about how women should not be allowed to have haircuts they believe is too masculine out of their own personal disgust with the look, similar to how men try to force their own personal beliefs on women's personal autonomy (which, in some cultures and religions, does include how women wear their hair).
- Dennis tries passing out fliers warning women how short hair will make them ugly, similar to pro-lifers handing out fliers to women who enter Women's Health-Centers.
- Dee decides to get a short haircut because she wants to show up the gang for their misogynist views even if she finds the short-hair hideous, similar to more radical feminist protestors practice abortion as praxis. Frank tries to talk Dee out of going through with it because he regrets getting his own hair cut, similar to how men try to use appeal to emotion to women who decide to got abortions. It's especially telling since Frank (was) her father.
- Frank treats his cut off hair that was made into a toupee like a son that he only visits rarely, reminding the car salesman who owns it to shampoo and comb it often and reminding him to get inside when the wind picks up, stating that he doesn't want to see the toupee "struggle" and telling Dee about visitation rights when she gets a wig of her own at the end of the episode, similar to how estranged fathers often treat children resulting from one-night stands that the woman chose to keep instead of aborting them.
- By the end of the episode, Dee basically forces herself to do a back-alley haircut to show them up, only for it to ruin her hair so much that it forces the rest of the gang to concede that the salon has a place in society, similar to how the risks that back-alley abortions have act as a good argument to allow clinics that do abortions to remain.
- Everything Is Racist: Z claims Mac is racist for not believing Z is a doctor. Subverted in that Z admits he was joking and that he has no medical experience.
- Friend in the Black Market: Frank knows someone who will do dog abortions, of all things. Frank later uses the same guy to get Dee a wig.
- Hypocrite: Much like in "Charlie Wants an Abortion", Mac tries to refute pro-choice arguments using Christian talking points, only to immediately try and find someone who will abort "Poppin's" puppies when the birth could potentially kill "him"."This is different. This affects me."
- Hypocritical Humor: The Gang lambast Dee for suggesting a woman has a right to abandon her child seconds after Dennis and Frank suggested that it's natural for a man to leave whenever he wants.
- Pet the Dog: Dee sincerely thanks Z for him giving her a wig. She doesn't even complain when he explains that he got the hair off of a border collie and it may have fleas.
- Serious Business: Frank and Dennis care so much about how women cut their hair that they stand outside of a salon and try to convince them not to cut it short.
- Shout-Out: Mac and Charlie ask the vet to say "It's not a tumor!"
- Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: When Mac finds it worrying that Poppins seems chubbier than usual and is acting sick, the veterinarian reveals that Poppins is a girl and that she is pregnant. Subverted later when it is revealed that it isn't the real Poppins and that it's just a remarkably similar dog that belongs to a stylist at the salon.
