Hair cut and colour now exceeds what I earn in a day. Absolutely fed up.

£50 here in Yorkshire, home salon.
OP you need to find a cheaper place. Look into people doing it from home. Mine is £48 every 3 months.

I get you - cost of living is crazy and you have to be very careful about where you spend your luxuries (if you can afford them).

Practically there’s a few options

• save money elsewhere
• pick up more work
• find a cheaper stylist
• go less often
• have less done (cut but nothing else?)

Only you can decide what the best option is (or what’s practical).

But I’m sorry you gave to give up one of your few luxuries.

Would you consider growing the colour out and just doing the cut? Colouring is extremely laborious and expensive,

It depends on the grey, my friends is a sort of sparkly silver it’s lovely, mine was a sort of streaky iron grey mixed in with black, I looked like a badger having a bad day. I truly hated it. Became allergic to hair dye, now after a few years I have found a dye I’m fine with and much prefer not being grey, it’s a very light brown and as my hair is streaky the dye take differently so looks like I have highlights.

Cut is £25 where I live. There is an express hairdressers and a dry cut which is all they offer is a tenner, mens is £8. Often a queue.

What an absolute joke. I'm in Dublin, equivalent to London and a long hair cut and blow dry is 50 to 60 euro.

Not sure where you live, but in my area £170 would be an appointment with somebody senior at a top end salon. There are plenty of cheaper salons that charge less. You need to shop around. As others have said, mobile hairdressers are usually substantially cheaper, and will likely be less than half that price.

My mum always had a mobile hairdresser because it was much more affordable. Don’t try to live a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget by going to a high end salon. It’s like going to Prada and complaining that clothes are expensive.

I have someone come to my home, but even when they were salon based it was nowhere near that cost for an excellent cut and colour

Look around. It's obviously a very expensive salon

Honestly? I think it's time for us to start embracing our glorious silvers.
Hair dye is so expensive to get done professionally, so not good for your hair/scalp anyway, and grows out so darn quickly.
I've seen a number of women who have been dying their hair for decades who have suddenly just embraced allowing it to go completely gray/silver/white and my God doesn't it just look amazing on them!
I think you probably have to get one more color done, (professionally, for them to dye all of your hair white/silver so that when your roots grow in, they'll all match), but one more professional dye job beats going every 6 to 8 weeks forever, doesn't it.
We gotta stop doing this to ourselves.

So a £50 increase since September,how can they possibly justify this?

Have you asked around in your area for local recommendations? I was going to the most expensive salon in town but switched upon recommendation of a friend to a little salon on a side street. My colour is far better and it costs a good £50-£100 less per appointment depending on whether I'm having a root touch up or full foils

I became sensitive to hair dye after my pregnancy, but it is only the permanent ones. Have you tried the semi-permanent? It lasts longer than I need before my roots grow out anyway!

You should shop around. I pay around $200 ( about 100 quid) every seven weeks for a half head with cut and blow dry, but I could easily pay triple that if I went to the local fancy salon. Twentyish years ago I lived in London and used to pay 170 quid to go to a poncey salon served champagne, those were the days!😁

It must cost a lot to hone haircutting scissors and to sterilise barber-shop tools and implements these days.

My early July "senior men's" haircut was $AUD20 on a weekday.

Then, in mid-September, the same shop asked for $AUD25.

My 2025 shock level reached new heights when, last Tuesday, the new fee reached $AUD$30.

Percentage wise, that's a 50% jump in just five and a half months. My pension rose only 3.75% since March, 2025.

YANBU and it's depressing the way costs are just spiriling and spiriling in this country.

I think quite a few people must be stretching out hairdresser appointments, or stopped going altogether now. I rang my hairdresser this week on the off chance of maybe getting squeezed in before Christmas and actually had the choice of three slots next week - that would never have happened in previous years, if you weren't booked in months in advance you'd have little chance of a last minute December appointment.

@Burntout01 , I feel your pain. I’m retired, I used to go to the hairdresser 3 times a year but now I stretch it out to 2. there are so many things I’m super careful about spending money on. I’ve spent my life being careful and prudent and now this government is going to cost me probably about 10K a year in additional council tax and an extra 2% on my income. Why did I bother doing all the right things to be self sufficient in my old age? I should have spent, spent, spent and relied on the state to support me. 🤬

I just got my hair done for 125, full head nightlights, supposed to be caramel but I’m ginger! Such a waste of money!

Well yes… that’s my point. I’m shocked that nursing pays so little. I’m in interpreting. Highly skilled work but the OP will definitely be working harder than me. In my estimation anyway.

I pay over £100 for cut and highlights at home from a mobile hairdresser. I dread to think what a salon would cost

I think you'll find someone working at home in your budget, look for that

Actually I think there’s nothing more ageing than hair that looks younger (because of its colour) than the skin it’s on. It makes the skin look even older. Hair has to age in synch with the rest of the body, otherwise it’s as shocking as eg Madonna’s face when you see it next to her hands. Unless you go all out and embrace the dichotomy, but doesn’t sound like this is the objective here.

I stopped colouring my hair because the cost of a salon dye was too high. I have come to like the colour now.

Sadly, my cut still costs more than my day's pay. But I will say, he can cut it so it's a twice a year job and grows out well, so I figure that makes it cost effective.

Unfortunately going to the salon is a luxury many cannot afford and haven’t been able to for a long time in the U.K.

of course it is not an unreasonable charge but sadly now getting further out of reach and into the luxury category of activities.

have you tried a mobile hairdresser? They often have lower overheads so can charge less.

other things I see as a luxury when there is a family in town:
cinema
theatre
eating out
take away
holidays in a hotel
manicured
pedicures
salon waxes
massage
new clothes

however. You are allowed a luxury every now and then so it is worth working out what luxuries you want and when you want them. Perhaps a salon hair appointment is a birthday and Christmas treat?

Are you near London, OP? The big hair companies, Wella etc, have academies where you can get your hair done for a quarter of the price. A mobile/home-based hairdresser will also be cheaper. As an aside, the amount of money that leaves the NHS in profits or PFI payments absolutely makes my blood boil. So sorry.

Your salary is equivalent to around £50k full time. I think spending £500 a month on a car is ridiculous, on those earnings (not clear if you are FT or PT).

I also wouldn’t spend £170 on my hair as I’ve decided to just go grey.