Do you tip at hairdressers? I didn't and now I feel guilty

[Ashkey234]

I've just had my hair done,hair extensions at the hairdressers,altogether £410 and I didn't tip.
Should I of ?
I'm moving in the next few weeks and as its a council house I need to buy all new carpets as its basically a empty shell so i need every penny I can get really.
Do you tip?
And if so how much?

Are you @FanjoForTheMammaries? Who told you that?

Are you serious? £410 and you're getting a council house? This must be a joke!

I'm not annoyed. More amused @FanjoForTheMammaries I don't know you so your opinions of me are both irrelevant and inconsequential to me. It's more entertaining than anything else.

It is. Honestly. You should try it some time. Don't get worked up arguing with strangers on the Internet - it's not worth the rise in blood pressure......😃 this site is a microcosm of society in all shapes and forms and fuckwittery abounds at times, just like real life. Don't sweat the small stuff. HTH

@FanjoForTheMammaries am rofl at the irony now 😃 I'm winding you up pet!

You're welcome. Didn't think you'd realised. Glad we cleared that up too.

Am off out for lunch now. Will need to get a copy of the Daily Fail on the way to see what kinds of jolly japes I've missed out on all these years...

Ok haven't read the full thread (it's 14 pages!) but I'm a hairstylist.. extensions take a long time to apply, you are paying for her time as well as the actual hair itself which isn't cheap as it has to be bought from the donor,then processed then packaged and transported etc.. the wholesaler your salon buys it from make a profit on it and so does the processor then they stylist needs to make a small profit on it too so we certainly never make more than 30% profit on the price we charge for extensions!

OP, you have to understand that the way you have phrased your opening post is 100% guaranteed to attract the sort of response you are complaining about.

If you were purely wanting to know whether or not you should have tipped, you should have just said so. Instead, you decided to mention your council house and details that referred to your previous thread which attracted the same response and would prompt other mumsnetters to put 2 and 2 together.

I read your other thread and cannot believe that you wouldn't have expected the same sort of response. YOU have made this thread about your council house and expensive haircut on purpose, NOT everyone else.

For what it's worth I think £400 on a haircut is ridiculous, whether you are struggling to make ends meet or rolling in it, but that's just my personal opinion and who am I to say what others should spend their money on.

Also for what it's worth, your situation has changed (you are no longer single and have a partner with a good income who now also benefits from the council house) and given that we are in a housing crisis, this seems completely immoral. However, it's not my job to police social housing allocation and if you are on to a good thing I can see why you'd rather stay as you are - just don't be so blatant about it on a forum where people genuinely are dependent and scratching around for every last penny if you don't expect a reaction.

Whether she is goady or not it has shown up peoples attutudes nicely.

Yes. It's working perfectly.

The comments about what kind of clothes she must wear etc are below the belt and I thought MNers were better than that. Fanjo is right, the snobby attitudes about people in social housing are loud and clear.

BTW I could afford a one off £400 haircut if I saved for a while. I couldn't afford a deposit for a mortgage or likely get approved for one and the monthly payments would be too much. Being able to afford a one off £400 haircut does not mean someone has enough money to private rent or buy a house.

Personally, if I had a partner who earned a good wage I would be joining money and depending on how long I have been with him I would prefer to get a mortgage but for whatever reason OP is entitled to her new house and she managed to save up for a one off lot of hair extensions. It's not her fault others struggle to pay the rent and aren't entitled to social housing.

And bollocks that anyone gave up their council house just to free up a house for someone who needs it more

Council/housing association housing is subsidised. It is let at below market rent. The OP is benefitting from this discount even though she is better off than many other people, including those hwo recive housing benefit. That in itself makes no sense!!

It also makes no sense for the council/ government to be receiving less than market rent for the OP's property when the OP and her partner can afford to pay more, only for the council to have to pay full housing benefit to a tenant in private rented, who might wll be ill or disabled and unable to work and who probably also has to find money to top-up for the rent out of their decreasing benefits.

Many people have poor health and/or disabled people to care for and so cannot work but yet they can be the ones stuck in private rented, costing a lot in housing benefit and paying the top ups to private landlords.

It is a crazy situation.

Not saying spend nothing on yourself for your self esteem, but there is a balance and I can't see how being encouraged/ enabled to prioritise hair extensions over carpets is good for anyone's mental health and rationality. Better to do it the other way round and feel reassured by making sensible decisions that are affordable and safe and well thought out. That is the way to knock anxiety on the head - not keeping on making dubious decisions and thus almost giving yourself something to be anxious about.

You can't keep feeding the anxiety.

I think, when you've spent that much, not tipping is really mean, especially when the apprentices who shampoo earn pittance.

If you wanted an opinion about tipping then thr original post would say: I've heard some people tip their hairdressers. I tend not to but have just had extensions which were quite expensive already (£400). Is it unreasonable not to tip?

That's it.

Where you live, whether you have anxiety or whatever has NOTHING to do with the supposed point of the thread. Adding them in has been done just to get a rise from people who are quite rightly that somebody is bothered about money enough that a tip would break the bank and prevent home improvements being done, whilst spending almost half a grand on their hair. (Odd regardless of whether someone is a council tennant, private tennant, or owner)

Fanjo I think everyone should be accountable for their spending. One has to examine one's own conscience at the least.

If you are going to post personal financial situations on the internet and ask people' if you are reasonable, then people have to comment on the whole situation in context, else there would be no value in anyone's comment.

So because I save £10 a week for hair extensions that means I'm in a position to rent private?
And I'm not entitled to housing because of that

Do you qualify for housing benefit OP? No, you have said that you earn too much so you are not as badly off as many so that is something at least.

I'm not saying there aren't issues with low pay, the cost of living and the affordability of housing but it doesn't seem to be to much of a problem where the OP lives. Imagine if all areas had houses this cheap!! It is what many people are hoping for.

You work and have a partner earning a good/ high wage off-shore and you live in a part of the country where property is cheap. In a large area of the south & south east of England (not including London) and various other places on the UK, you could not rent a single room in a grotty shared house for what you pay in rent for an entire house and a large garden, and yet the minimum wage is the same nationally. Housing Benefit rarely covers the whole rent so someone could be topping up £100 a month or more, plus bills, still on the minimum wage or receiving benefits.

Am I wrong that your DP earns a good wage? More than £18000 I suspect? Plus your wage? You aren't wealthy perhaps, but you aren't doing too badly. If I have got these numbers completely wrong then I apologise.

So in comparison to many, then yes, you are in a position to private rent - on your income at least, and you are at least able to pay the full market rent on a council house, rather than a reduced rate. There might be other factors making it difficult to private rent, but on income alone it doesn't seem so. Some rents are so high, that you have to be earning over £50000 just to rent a small house. You aren't in that situation.

You are also able to rent privately because you and/or your DP are working when most non-working tenants are refused. That's pretty tough luck if you are too unwell/ disabled to work, and is the crux of why we need council housing for the people who are the most in need/ worst off.

I think on your last thread you were already in housing association housing but have managed to get a bigger council house elsewhere at even less money. That is pretty good fortune!

So this is good news for you OP! If I have got your situation right, you are doing OK in many respects. Despite your anxieties. If you were a couple/ family who could not work through ill-health, then think how much worse it would be and how desperate you would be for a council house. I'm pretty sure then you would feel at least a bit miffed if you found that you couldn't get one because a much better off family had it instead.

In an ideal world then maybe more families could have council tenancies, but you have to realise there is a huge shortage and that people who are suffering more than you can't get housed. It is only human to wish that you sounded more grateful for the rules that means you are entitled. In many areas I have lived in, you would not be given priority regardless of how long you have been on the list and I think that this is right and fair.

You need to ask your DP to contribute fairly to the house he lives in, and to the family. You shouldn't be bearing all the expenses on your own. There are lots of threads on MN about sharing finances which might be helpful.

@FanjoForTheMammaries you sound like you have a massive chip on your shoulder.

Im with the others here. The purpose of social housing is so people who desperately need them get them. Not to house people who are clearly playing the system who have now got money to private rent but won't give it up. If you can't understand these basics FanjoForTheMammaries, I give up.

OP, YOU alone might not be able to afford it but who's kidding who here. Your DP with his contribution can so I call bullshit.