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

Your box dye does not look the same as a professional colour no matter how hard you try to convince yourself. I think I noticed you said you smoke in one of your other posts?… I have never, ever smoked a cigarette. Why? Why would you do that? I take care of my health and I can just not smoke cigarettes, not stink or stain my teeth. It has never, not once occurred to me to pay for something that will harm my health that I can so fucking easily not spend money on. …. See what I did there? Your comments are so narrow minded. How can you not see that other people like different experiences to you? Wild

This just popped up on my instagram feed

I’m happy to pay any extras 😃

It’s blowing my mind too! A “simple” bob…. Yeh that doesn’t exist

Gosh your employer NICs on those holidays and spa days and meals must really add up.

It’s unbelievable isn’t ! This poster earns £50 per hour , but hairdressers must not be allowed to earn a decent wage …

This thread really show up a lot of people’s opinions of hairdressers .
The more I see these views , the happier I am with our high prices

Where are you in the country? I'm in North East Wales and it's considerably cheaper than what you paid.

Can you get a train to a cheaper area for the day? Look at other salons.

I’m also a senior nurse but feel that my hairdresser is cheaper than therapy! After a day of abuse at work I could hug her. She’s one of my favourite people and she is amazing at what she does.

She would be one of the last things that I cut back on!

Right, so how dare hairdressers charge “ridiculous” prices (so they can earn a decent wage) but £250 a day for you in 5 hours is perfectly acceptable? You must be ridiculously overpaid then?

@Soddingcatthats a lot of expense but you own the business

surprised you offer beer and g&t when having hair done

the lady @Burntout01 went to wouldn’t pay all that , that’s in her chair hire

so many say embrace the grey. Maybe op didn’t want to. Same as I don’t. Luckily I don’t have to as use a box for £5/6 if on offer so buy a few and my sil who is a semi retired hairdresser does it for £15

she comes to my house so yes she cheap for me - but have another lady who comes and cuts at my home and charges £20

so def cheaper getting a home person to come to you

Sorry not read every previous post, but (depending on your location), you could look for different hairdressers on:- Groupon, Treatwell and Nextdoor sites. I tend to just go with the best deal, but have found some really nice hairdressers. Having half head of highlights and blow dry this week for £48 (cyber Monday discount via Treatwell) in West London.

You can find the same services much cheaper if you shop around. Don’t go to a city centre place, consider travelling to a cheaper area. I used to go to Saks, yes they give you wine and the salon is trendy but it’s more than twice the price! Full head colour, foil highlights, blow dry, cut and style <£70 yesterday.

When Covid hit I had to take out money on credit cards to pay the staff their furlough money as it took weeks to come through
I only got a small amount as we are a limited company.

We still had to pay utilities, rent and insurance .
We then took our 25 k bounce back loan that’s paid off next June

The rest of the loans should be paid off in 2027 hopefully 🤞

Because I want to !! I love my staff , it was a one off, they work very hard and it’s cold in Scotland !!

The clients are charged what is needed ! We have enough money to treat the staff , are you suggesting I reduce the prices ?
Sone people are determined to misunderstand.

I give up !
£3000 staff holiday works out a £57 per week , or just over £11 a day , divided by 25 / 30 Clients a day
30 /50 pence I make it?

and I thought I was bad at maths with my E grade !

I’m amazed how much hair salons cost nowerdays but then I guess like everything else costs have risen but I’ve definitely cut that back as food costs are killing us . Home hair colours must be selling well now

I think the covid bounce back loans mentioned by @Soddingcat are a big issue. Like hospitality, that other sector always currently accused of charging too much, hsirdressers were really impacted by lockdown.

I am not going to get in to the rights and wrongs of lockdown, but I worked in financial services at the time and we all agreed lockdowns would impact people and businesses financially for years, if not decades after.

Why are you taking your staff abroad on a holiday? Why are you paying for their meals? This is bizarre behaviour. Is this the expectation in your industry? Will they leave if you don’t do this? It’s not standard behaviour in most industries, mainly due to the employee tax / benefit in kind mess you can get yourself into by spending so much a year on staff perks but this is where your profit is going, and this is why customers are charged so much.

Last one

Well that’s a pity because there isn’t a party standing in future who would be doing anything about that.

Ok , so for those of you accusing me of lying about my figures I’ll explain and have done some screenshots ,

The £110000 was from last years figures as I have an app with all the expenses, last year we had less staff and one part time , we have 2 apprentices who are much cheaper .
our wages bill now is higher ,
Id forgotten how some mumsnetters love to look for holes in a post and make up evidence to fit their narrative 🙄

we now have 2 senior stylists , one on
£20.50 per hour
one on £16.50 per hour
a new graduate stylist 19 years on £12.50 per hour
2 apprentices
one on £253 per week
one on £335 per week
my PAYE wage is £241 per week
the rest of my wage is taken in profits after the tax bill has been paid
there was around £36 k ish last year left over

Im paying back huge loans from COVID as well as the bounce back loan .
There are many expenses I’ve not listed as there are too many to list …
salon furniture and kitchen loans
Miele washer and dryer for the laundry room was 2.5 k for bigger machines
new 7 fire extinguishers last month cost me nearly £800
PAT testing for the electrics was nearly £300
a new part for the motor of the massage chair was £300
8 new practice dolls heads last week were £90 each.

the list is endless

I’m not sure why I’m being accused of being greedy as I’m the least greedy business owner I know .
I’ve just spent £150 each on fancy spa tickets for the staff for Xmas .
I took them all abroad this year for a weekend and paid for meals .
We had a meal out last night paid for by me

the screenshots are cobbled together , the 2 revenues screenshots are one for last tax year , and one showing up to now .
the more recent figure shows higher due to more staff this tax year.
If you still don’t believe the figures after this then so be it
I am baffled by the way some of you are determined to paint all businesses owners in a bad light
we are not all Phillip Green you know !

Ive managed to stay afloat after COVID that nearly finished me off ,
Ive got hardly any qualifications, an E in maths GCSE
I’ve build this small business up all by myself while bringing up several children , and I’m actually very proud of myself😊----

Ok , so for those of you accusing me of lying about my figures I’ll explain and have done some screenshots ,

The £110000 was from last years figures as I have an app with all the expenses, last year we had less staff and one part time , we have 2 apprentices who are much cheaper .
our wages bill now is higher ,
Id forgotten how some mumsnetters love to look for holes in a post and make up evidence to fit their narrative 🙄

we now have 2 senior stylists , one on
£20.50 per hour
one on £16.50 per hour
a new graduate stylist 19 years on £12.50 per hour
2 apprentices
one on £253 per week
one on £335 per week
my PAYE wage is £241 per week
the rest of my wage is taken in profits after the tax bill has been paid
there was around £36 k ish last year left over

Im paying back huge loans from COVID as well as the bounce back loan .
There are many expenses I’ve not listed as there are too many to list …
salon furniture and kitchen loans
Miele washer and dryer for the laundry room was 2.5 k for bigger machines
new 7 fire extinguishers last month cost me nearly £800
PAT testing for the electrics was nearly £300
a new part for the motor of the massage chair was £300
8 new practice dolls heads last week were £90 each.

the list is endless

I’m not sure why I’m being accused of being greedy as I’m the least greedy business owner I know .
I’ve just spent £150 each on fancy spa tickets for the staff for Xmas .
I took them all abroad this year for a weekend and paid for meals .
We had a meal out last night paid for by me

the screenshots are cobbled together , the 2 revenues screenshots are one for last tax year , and one showing up to now .
the more recent figure shows higher due to more staff this tax year.
If you still don’t believe the figures after this then so be it
I am baffled by the way some of you are determined to paint all businesses owners in a bad light
we are not all Phillip Green you know !

Ive managed to stay afloat after COVID that nearly finished me off ,
Ive got hardly any qualifications, an E in maths GCSE
I’ve build this small business up all by myself while bringing up several children , and I’m actually very proud of myself😊----

It’s shit. Honestly, I doubt very much your hairdresser is taking home £100 ph. A bunch of it will be going to the salon owner to cover costs of operating the location and of course profit.

What’s sad is that wages have reduced in real terms in the NHS. I don’t know where about you are in the country but in Scotland my friend earns less now both in relative and in real terms due to harmonisation. It’s a travesty. A high stress job which I thank you for but thank yous don’t pay for homes, energy and food and life’s little luxuries like biscuits, haircuts and the occasional dinner or night out.

I wanted to acknowledge it is a bit shit just now for many people. I think there are some great suggestions here in this thread for practical options on hair. I think though that your post may be about something bigger than a haircut? I think that the current trajectory on COL is unsustainable ; and will need a correction, whether the market takes care of it (hello invisible hand - unlikely given the gaping inequalities just now it seems it’s not quite bad enough for the drag to hit prices ) or through intervention by government / regulators (which no one seems brave enough to do). It is like the end game in monopoly - whose inventor created it to explain unconstrained Capitalism doesn’t work.

Just read the whole thread and still think it’s reasonable for a salon to charge around that mark for 3 hrs of professional service considering their probable costs.
It’s so odd to see all the people scoffing at the stupidity of women who can’t just replicate the expertise of salon highlights with a box dye. You do know that all over dye and highlights plus a cut are not the same thing as a wash-in single colour?
My sister is a mobile hairdresser and I think she massively undercharges. She says she’s to embarrassed to charge prices that would pay her a minimum wage + £2 hourly salary. I worked it out for her once. What she should be charging if she was covering 4 weeks annual leave plus a small pension contribution plus her car costs and travel time. She should charge DOUBLE.
She declares her income so pays tax too. I guess many others would earn in cash and claim benefits.
Anyway. She ends up charging about 1/6 of what her tradesman husband charges for his time. Both are massively in demand. We expect to pay men big money for their expertise and time but expect women to do it for much less. (Yes I know male hairdressers exist).

Mine is £90 for full head highlights, toner, wash & blowdry. My hair is long. I live north east England. I’d look somewhere else if I was you. Even if you have to have someone come to your house or travel to a little village. Like you say, their costs are probably high so they have to charge that. They probably aren’t overcharging but yes it is ridiculous and obviously you deserve to be paid more as a senior nurse, but that’s another issue :(

@2025VibeandThrive hairdressers always comment on how thick my hair is and how fast it grows. I have short hair and thankfully I've never been charged more because of its thickness. I was one of the first back in the chair in July 2020 as diy cuts were very difficult.