Why do women pay so much for haircuts

Brilliant!

I can't even cut paper in a straight line, never going near my own hair. Tried to cut my fringe during Covid, never again!

Slightly scared to post this given the strength of feeling on this thread but here goes. Just putting it out there to add to the discusssion.

There’s a book by Naomi Wolf called The Beauty Myth which explores how the time, effort and money some women spend on conforming to society’s beauty standards can be detrimental to the development of their careers, hobbies and financial security.

I have some sympathy with the sentiment, because I see how much more time and money men seem to have for hobbies , but I don’t see it as women being ‘deluded’ into anything. Some will genuinely enjoy it (as a form of self care).

I do think there’s a very real and strong social pressure that exists for women in a way that it doesn’t for men (although that’s changing as capitalism has realised that it can make more money). I can get away with my messy hair because of where I work, but in a high-powered corporate role I’d be expected to look more groomed (something black women have experienced a lot of discrimination about) and my hair type means this would need professional help. Without using half a tonne of product to slick it back, it would look like I’ve been drawn through a hedge backwards. And yes, it shouldn’t matter (my hair in no way dictates my ability) but let’s be honest, appearances matter and people do judge us on them, women particularly.

Women are held to far higher appearance standards than men, for a lot of women there are social and financial consequences if they don’t conform, and conforming means spending money in many cases.

My stylist does the preliminary cut on my wet hair, then blow dries it and straightens it, then finishes the cut.

The OP misspelled "house" earlier, maybe we should have pointed that out to her seeing as its so important to her

Oh come on...nobody picked up on your spelling mistakes. Commenting on SPAG errors is considered poor form.

Surely, if you can cut the back of your own hair, you are capable of putting something to hide your identity when you post a picture of this hair cut? I really want to see it.

And?

I could never even cut DDs’ fringes straight, so how on earth I’d ever manage to do my own…

I pay around £50 for a cut from a very good Brazilian chap at a local salon.

If I look at it as an hourly rate my DH pays a much higher rate than I do.
He pays £23 for 20/25 mins
I pay £90 for a minimum of 3 hours but it's often closer to 4.

I only pay £50 a cut. It takes an hour. She snips and chats and wanders. She had double booked herself last time, but didn't want to let either client down, so she did us both. My wash cut and blow dry took less than 20 mins and looked exactly the same as when she faffs about.
That's the service I want tbh. No faffage, and ideally to pay a bit less.

There is no way I'd risk another dry haircut.

Yes you are but your point was it was true, posting twice does not make it true. It means you think it’s true but thinking is not the same as it being .

Possibly I could cut my own hair.. it’s long, straight and probably easy to do. But for £60 I get it washed, conditioned, a scalp massage and then I spend half an hour gossiping and setting the world to rights with my hairdresser. Money well spent in my opinion.

Oh and there's no way I could cut my own hair! As was proven during covid...

DH and DS didn't let me near theirs after one attempt either...

I thought you were going to ask why we pay much more than men.

I used to take my son to a barber where I live. At the time it used to cost £14. He had short hair and was done in 10 minutes, but other men (who hardly had any hair were there for 45 minutes and paid the same as far as I could tell). This was when I was probably paying something like £40 for mine - pre-covid before everything started shooting up.

@modernminimalist from one curly haired person to another, could you drop his info please?

Well yes, not everyone is skilled at cutting hair despite whatever training hairdressers have.

But women could learn off YouTube or whatever and they will also be at various levels of skill. No one wants to spend time on bad cut on themselves.

I did cut my own hair once, but the result... wasn't great.

I wear my hair long and naturally curly and get it cut twice a year by a curl specialist at a cost of £85 per cut, so £170 a year, which works out as slightly over 45p a day.

I'm fine with that.

I think some on this thread are being ridiculously touchy and almost offended at the suggestion a non-hairdresser might do a decent job at a simple cut. Why? Bizarre.

When I clean my own bathroom it literally looks just as clean and perfect as after my cleaner's been. When I mow my own lawn, the outcome is just as good as after the gardener's done it. That's not taking anything away from cleaners or gardeners or how hard they work but if someone tried telling me that only an experienced gardener could mow a lawn well then i'd laugh.

I cut my own hair. Started in Covid by following YT tutorials and I never went back to a salon after realising the difference between my work and a professionals work isn't (imo) enough to be worth paying £ for it. I would simply rather spend that money on other things.

I have straight hair to just below my shoulders and find it very simple to do in 3 stages. 1. Under-chin cut to remove length (tied under the chin). 2. Minimal unicorn cut for subtle layers. 3. Slightly feather the fronts. Takes me 20 minutes ish and when i've taken 360 photo's it looks more or less the same as the last time it was cut in a salon.

I understand why people are happy to pay for the convenience of a hairdresser doing it. Also that some hair types would be very difficult to self-cut. But I also think there are a huuggge number of women who simply don't realise how easy it can be to do and would be more than happy to dump the cost if they did.