Hairdressers apparently charge by the hour. I am outraged. AIBU?

[PortHills]

Staying at my mother's. DD aged 2 needed a haircut. Dropped into one in the High Street, they said they could fit her in, and that it would depend how long it took but £10 or more. Fine, I thought. Probably £15 max. Oh no, £23. Apparently it took 30 minutes. I assume they took off the time that she spent washing off someone else's colour while we waited....!

Feel totally conned. At home, they charge by age - i.e., 2 years = £2, or the barber shop charges about £8.

I am gutted. I hate spending money unnecessarily and never imagined it would be £23. I am also really cross with them.

AIBU? I know they didn't give me an exact quote, but £23 is a fortune. I didn't tip.

[lurkerspeaks]

I agree with your outrage. I tried an naice london/ home counties chain who charged like that. For a cut & blow dry it kind of made sense and my hair cut was no more expensive than usual.

For colour, however, they charged for the whole time you were in the salon, including the time you sit waiting for it to develop (while the hairdresser usually sees another client). My straightforward highlights cost around £180 quid. (they usually cost about £70).

I never went back after expressing my anger. Applying it in this way is totally daft.

[SirBoobAlot]

Jesus I wouldn't pay that for myself.

[foreverondiet]

Its a lot for a haircut for a 2 year old, and I have never heard of it being priced by time - although I always ask and double check as there is a huge variation in price for little girls hair - from £8 to £25.

I would have been tempted to say - you said £15 max so that's all I am paying its not my fault you took too long.

I pay £6 at barbers for my son, and around £12-£15 for DD (she is 9) - thats in north London - although as I said I always check as have been caught out before.

[SquinkiesRule]

£23? I'd have died paying that much for a 2 year old.
Dd (8) got the works at the hairdressers while I was getting mine coloured the other day, wash condition, cut, blow dried and curled for a tenner, she was in heaven. I gave a couple extra as a tip the woman had kept her amused and happy for nearly an hour.

[thereinmadnesslies]

The hairdressers I go to charge half the adult rate for kids haircuts. I see a 'senior stylist' whatever that means, and a cut and blowdry is £42 which would make it £21 for a child. I've never taken the DC there mind ....

[zipzap]

I would check with them exactly what their hourly rate is - was it definitely a pound a minute? And do you remember the time they started, stopped and took a break for attending to somebody else - might be they forgot (conveniently) to deduct it... Worth writing a snotty letter and saying that they didn't tell you the hourly rate and if you had realised it was so much you would have stopped them spending the last few minutes faffing around (if they did - they often do and I guess there is a reason to if it is by the hour!). Was her hair washed - and if so - did a junior do it?

For what it's worth I'm also based in MK and I use a great salon in Shenley church end (reasonably close to the centre). It looks s bit like an old lady salon from the outside but they are very friendly, cut hair very nicely (and not old laydy style unless you want it!) they have a great training ethic that they seem to train up lots of people, lots of the stylists have kids so it's kid friendly (including a sweetie treat bucket for kids getting their hair cut which is only produced if you say it is ok so kids are none the wiser if you say no. They also do lots of charity stuff. And happy to do kids cuts, plus on weds and sat (I think!) they also do drop in sessions for kids and gents cuts at £8 a go. Its called arcana - google it in Mk for it's website and fb page etc. They also have a second salon with spa attached in Crownhill, a couple of gridsquares or so over from the other one.

Glad to hear you didn't tip in the circumstances!!

[Sugarice]

I have three teen boys and a dh who have wildly different hair types and it costs £30 for the 4.

[Sugarice]

Name and Shame .

That is a dreadful amount to charge, sorry but I would have called the Manager.

I would still call back tomorrow [after reading replies] and say after some thought you are shocked at their pricing system [I'm dead snotty about certain things] and say how pissed off you are.

[Bakingtins]

I have a mobile hairdresser come to the house and cut my sons' hair, £5 each. I've taken the older one to the barber a few times, £8. I paid £11.50 for myself for a wash and cut in a local salon recently.
I'm sure when working out their prices salons do take into account how long it's likely to take, but they ought to display a price list for each type of service. To give you the impression it would be in the region of £10 then charge £23 is outrageous. Name and shame, and leave a few crappy reviews on their website.

[selsigfach]

I would have put down the tenner and said that's your lot. What could they have done? I only pay £9 for a dry cut for myself!

[CuriousMama]

What a con! They saw you coming.

I've just done someone's hair (freelance) She's an adult and it only took me 10 minutes to trim it. I charged her £7 and she gave me a tenner. I'm in the north so that's good going. If her toddler wanted a trim I wouldn't have charged for that. Even though she wriggles

I'd ring up and complain. It's daylight robbery.

[IAmLouisWalsh]

Bloody hell. Glad I have boys - we have graduated to the slightly more expensive barbers at £5 each, but used to pay £3.50!

[BlatantLies]

If it s a layered bob then its a bit more understandable. That's is not a home cut hairstyle.

[poppypebble]

Wow, I only pay £15.50 for a wash, cut and blow. £23 for a two-year-old is ridiculous.

[toobreathless]

Ouch! YANBU.

I take DD (22 months) to the salon attached to a hairdressing college, they make a huge fuss of her as they don't get many kids and charge £2.

[KindleMum]

Hmm, when I booked DD (2 yo) into a fairly posh salon in Yorkshire, they quoted me £10 and then when I came to pay, said as it had been so straightforward (both mine have easy hair, simple cuts and don't fidget in the chair which I guess helps - DD is particularly fascinated by watching the cut in the mirror) they would only be charging me £4. I felt pretty pleased with that and will be using them next for DS.

I never paid £23 for the kids in Fulham!

[BoringSchoolChoiceNickname]

Bloody hell, I pay half that for primary age DCs in Clapham.

[Sizzlesthedog]

Sounds like they don't like cutting children's hair. I'd be very cross at that price, that's more than I pay for a cut a blow dry for me.

I would ring and ask for the manager, don't say why, so you don't get fobbed off with he/she is out. Then ask the manager for the price of a basic child's cut.


Seem a ridiculous price to pay.

[BackforGood]

I would have thought all hairdressing charges are based on how long the job takes, so, in answer to your title, that, in itself is not unreasonable.
However, the amount they are charging seems very high. I certainly don't pay £46 an hour for my hairdresser, and also the amount of time they took seems ridiculously long ~ what 2 yr old will sit still for 1/2 hour ?
However, you should have questioned it when they tried to charge you that - scene or not. Indeed, the bigger the scene the sooner they would have compromised I'd have thought - bad for their business and all that, against the fact clearly you won't be going there again. In truth, you should have asked them before they started cutting, what their hourly rate was if they were charging by time taken, then made it obvious you were looking at your watch, and discounting time when they weren't cutting her hair if they left her in the middle of it.

[PortHills]

She has fine hair, but it is quite thick, so it does show every cut. It is a bob, just below ears now, had about an inch off. I can't do it myself.

Salon is in a small town just south of Milton Keynes.

Lesson learned, I won't go back ;-)

[maisiejoe123]

It would be interesting to know where this salon is. I pay £90 but it is in London and well known celebrity hairdresser. DS likes to get his hair cut at trendy salon near us. I make him contribute £5 so that he has to think about whether he 'really' wants to use them. He does and pays me at the end (he's 15)

[StickEmWithThePointyEnd]

I take ds to the local "old ladies" hairdresser who is fab, great with kids and only charges £6 per cut (no offence meant by the term old ladies but you know what I mean). All the young'uns round here go to the "posh" and "trendy" salon but when I enquired about prices for ds's haircut they initially said £15 then when they realised he was a boy said they don't do toddler boys.

[Midori1999]

It seems odd to actually charge the customer a hourly rate, although obviously most services, including hairdressers do actually base their charges on an hourly rate.

As a hairdresser though, cutting children's hair is a PITA. I have been kicked, had parents want me to cut a screaming, wriggling child's hair, which the rest of the salons client would then obviously have to listen to and it quite often ends up taking the same time as an adults haircut, so I never understand why people always expect to pay less for a child's haircut that takes the same time as an adults? That said, we used to charge half price for under 12's. as a result we mostly hated doing children's hair, not least as we worked on commission.

£23 is ridiculous though, unless that is what they charge for an adult haircut.

[OTTMummA]

30mins including rinsing someone else's colour out.
Op does what is your DD's hair like?

[LessMissAbs]

At those rates, it would have cost me £184, not including colour, for my hair last time I was in - I was there for 4 hours! (it cost me £60).