To pay £139.50 for Baleyage?

[Fianceechickie]

Or however you spell it! I’ve spent 5 hours at the hairdressers today after having seen an ‘oil slick’ effect baleyage in Pinterest. It’s like blues and violets over an icy brown base. It looks lovely and all but I couldn’t believe the price and the time it took! Have I been ripped off? There was a lot of work involved...had to have highlights put in, dried, then the colours, then washed, dried and cut.

Placemarking for pretty photo!

I pay £105 for an all over colour (for the grey) and slices of bleaching and then a secondary, crazy colour application plus a cut.

I can well believe a balayage with a pre-lightening and more than one colour put in would take four hours and cost that much.

Want to see pics now as I’m bored with my current hair!

sounds reasonable. PIIIIIIICCS 🙏🏼

Sounds a good price. I've been quoted more for basic balayage without extra colour just toning plus a blow dry and no cut.
My hair does take a very long time. It's extremely thick. I've been in there 6 hours before and the only time the hairdresser isn't with me is during bleach processing.

OMG statistically! I love that! Tempted to get that next time!

That's gorgeous statistically!

I'm in the SE and a haircut and blow dry in a salon (the middling kind, so not everything £12 or posh with wine) is close to £50, so all these for less than £150 sounds very fair!

I don't think we getting a photo

£139 for a hair colour?They see people coming don't they?

Bingbong thank gawd for some sense on the thread, was getting worried and thinking I'd fallen into some parallel universe or something

Madness.

£139 for a hair colour?They see people coming don't they?

Creative colours like OP describes takes an incredible amount of time, product and skill and it's not something taught on basic hairdressing courses You or your employer has to pay for you to attend extra training courses in hair painting and/or lightening.

If they charged any less, the stylist wouldn't be making minimum wage. In fact, if OP has thick or long hair, after taking into account the amount of product needed, it's likely the salon or stylist didn't make much profit at all.

Mine was 185 for that exact pic posted above but it fadeserves in DAYS and the purple goes green and it's awful. I had to go red to get rid of green and then brown and it's still lingering!

What Frequency said. Good balayage takes skill - otherwise you end up with a bad dip-dye job that looks awful. There is a considerable amount of practice and technique required to get the layered colour looking right. It's invariably people with mid to long hair who have it done - so you are looking, usually, at a minimum of 2-3 hours to get it right.

As I've previously said it takes me at least 4 hours when I am having highlights done and at the various salons I've checked out, they have estimated I'll need about 5 hours for the balayage I want - which will cost £140 including the cut and blow dry. At £28 p/hr for the treatment itself, plus the use of the facilities - including complimentary tea/coffee/juice - and most essentially the skill and experience of the stylist to get it to look right - I think it's a price worth paying.

Getting the right salon and stylist makes the difference between this versus this

@Frequency

Creative colours like OP describes takes an incredible amount of time, product and skill and it's not something taught on basic hairdressing courses You or your employer has to pay for you to attend extra training courses in hair painting and/or lightening.

If they charged any less, the stylist wouldn't be making minimum wage. In fact, if OP has thick or long hair, after taking into account the amount of product needed, it's likely the salon or stylist didn't make much profit at all.

You are talking absolute nonsense. Like a lot of others on this thread claiming that balayage takes 5 hours. Does it hell take that long!

And don't all talk as if the hairdresser is sitting there 5 hours with the customer, even if it DID take 5 hours. (Which it doesn't; it takes half that!) She is doing the hair of at least 4 or 5 others during that time. If you do pay that, I bet the hairdressers are rubbing their hands with glee when you ring and book your appointment.

And don't talk as if £250 is a normal price to pay.

No-one I know pays that. Ever. And I bet 95% of the people on this website don't know anyone who pays that either. Even most people who can afford it aren't daft enough to pay it.

And if they ARE taking 4-5 hours, it's because they are deliberately dragging it out to justify the money they are charging. I can't believe people can't see that PMSL! And like I said already, they will be doing the hair of other people while you are sitting there. Don't try and pretend that is not what happens!

@KrytensNanobots

£139 for a hair colour?They see people coming don't they?

Bingbong thank gawd for some sense on the thread, was getting worried and thinking I'd fallen into some parallel universe or something

Madness.

I know right. There are some hilarious, condescending comments on this thread, claiming that 5 hours and £250 is perfectly normal for a balayage. Some people really are living on another planet.

Only on mumsnet do 'normal people' spend a quarter of a grand on one hairstyle.

I am done on this thread. It's too bonkers and hilarious for words!

I'm aiming for this on Friday, can't wait to see yours OP

Sorry papa, only just saw your question, I don’t have much grey at all so you can’t see the little that I have mine done every ten weeks, highlights was 6-7 weeks, and my hair feels better for it too!! My friend has a fair bit of grey she goes every 8 weeks but I’ve never noticed her grey to be honest. Give it a try, you won’t go back!!!

You are talking absolute nonsense. Like a lot of others on this thread claiming that balayage takes 5 hours. Does it hell take that long

15-20 minutes to apply the bleach.

Up to an hour developing the bleach.

15-20 minutes with a conditioning treatment.

Depending on the lift achieved you might need to go back in and re-bleach assuming the hair is strong enough. If it needs re bleaching, it will need reconditioning.

An hour carefully painting the bright colours on the hair, keeping a close eye on color placement.

Another 30 - 60 minutes developing the products.

Rinsing the colours - when working with multiple colours, this isn't as straight forward as sticking their head under the tap. The hair will need to be rinsed in sections in cold water to prevent colour run.

More conditioning.

Cut. Blow dry. Straightening or curling if required.

The salon I work in specializes in fashion colours and hair painting. I know what I'm talking about. A straight forward balayage won't take as long but that's not what OP had.

Also - bleach needs a very close eye kept on it. The stylist should not be working on 4-5 other heads while the bleach is developing. I'd walk myself to the back wash, rinse my hair and go home without paying if my stylist started doing anything other than a simple colour application or cut and blow on one other person while I was sat with bleach on my head.

Exactly ^^PP

I can’t imagine what kind of salon some posters may work in that will do a bayalage so quickly and cheaply 😩

She's left the thread, phew it's safe to come back!

Blimey BingBong you've got a huge chip on your shoulder about people with more money than you. I'm not sure why you keep banging on about "normal" people that spend less or why you're so angry and bitter about it.

I couldn't afford it but if some can and want to pay a lot for a really skilled job that doesn't mean they're not normal or should be laughed at. It's not a lot of money for some.
Chill out.

Yes! I pay £135 for mine with a cut, blow dry and olaplex

BingBong why are you so angry? We're only talking about paying a hairdresser some money to do a job. If the hairdresser is happy, and we are happy with the results, why is it a bad thing? I've had cheap haircuts and hair colouring when I was a student, I've had more expensive hair care when I can afford it. I personally feel there is a massive difference based on the skill level of the hairdresser. You get what you pay for.

If you genuinely are a hairdresser (I think you implied you were upthread?) I'm surprised you don't think it's a job requiring skills?

If it's just the anger at other people spending money you need to think about the frequency too - I only need to get my hair done once or twice a year so overall may end up spending much less than someone who gets their hair done every 6-8 weeks. And the fact that some people (many many people) are richer than me is sometimes a source of mild jealousy, but not so much rage!

I think BingBong spends her days giving blue rinses to OAP's.

I've scrolled down this whole thread wanting a picture and all I've got is no picture and someone going bananas about the cost of a stranger's haircut

wannabestressfree Was that through chemo'? Mine was very fine, always lank and 'ratstaily'. Now it's lovely and soft and thick but incredibly curly. I haven't a clue what to do with it!

YABU that I've read this full thread which is mostly a debate about pricing and no picture what an effing anti climax waste of time.