Should I be upset at paying £300 for haircut

[charlieginger1987]

Hi ladies,
Have waited 7 months to get my hair done and finally went today. I got a full head of balayage highlights, a root tint to cover my greys and a cut and blow dry. The website was really unclear and it said £130 for a full head of balayage. Knowing sometimes that hairdressers add optional extras I budgeted £180 just in case. I got to the till, the receptionist seemed awkward, didn't confirm the price straightaway, so I asked her what it was, and £300 appeared on the credit card machine. I can only guess that she didn't say the figure out loud because she was embarrassed to charge me that much. I didn't want to say too much in front of a full salon full of people but I simply said "wow that's expensive?" She shrugged and didn't say anything but "your e-receipt will be sent directly to you". I thought I'd best pay and then query the receipt later as I already felt so embarrassed and caught off guard.

Looking at the receipt they have charged me for:
£130 full head of balayage
£65 full head of permanent colour
£65 ladies cut and finish
£35 olaplex
£5 tip
Total: £300

Am I right to be completely shocked at the price of this?? It did take 4 hours and I have long thick hair but really? Have you ever heard of a haircut this expensive and fellow hair stylists, does this price sound reasonable to you?

Needless to say I have sent Rush an email but am I being unreasonable questioning the price of this haircut?

Just order your own bottle of olaplex from lookfantastic for £20’and it lasts months and months

Id be appalled. I always demand to know the full price beforehand or zi won't go in. I'm having exactly the same today and its costing £145 in total. I've been there before and the cost is clear. Ffs I pay £300 for new private varifocals with frames. They need to be much more transparent.

Sounds like what I used to have done at a central London salon. You shouldn’t have been charged for a permanent colour - it would have been a toner at around £30. And they should have asked you if you wanted the Olaplex and the price. The cut and blow dry is pricey but not overly so for London. Def shouldn’t have added a tip! My long thick hair was balayaged and cut twice a year at a good London salon for around £260. I couldn’t afford to go more than that!

She’s charged you for a full head colour when you haven’t had that and did you ask for the Olaplex? Get up North, I pay £80 for that, £100 with Olaplex!

Shocking OP! I'm sorry you were conned 😐. I'd be writing to head office and also sending them a link to this thread whilst I was at it......

I messaged my friend whose a hair stylist and she was shocked, £140 is what she charges - cut is extra to the colour but she would charge for the extra colour as it's part of the first

Hi I’m sure you paid my a card - you can ask your bank for a charge back - tell them you were overcharged and are querying it with the hairdressers.
You need to do this today. Robbing bastard.

I'd be contacting them on social media for sure. Did u even ask for olaplex ?
I think next time you will know to ask about itemised costs upfront, you have been a little naive and they have taken advantage.

I should definitely be asking for the colour one of the two heads to be refunded!

If nothing else, Rush at Liverpool St is going to be quite empty for the foreseeable!

Sorry you paid so much, OP, but they’ll lose business as a result of being named and shamed on here 😉

You have been ripped off OP. Don't let it go. Complain and demand some refund!

I think women's hairdressing is one of the most over charged services on the planet in general

Wow! £300 is probably more than I've paid in total for hair cuts throughout my life.
Can we see what it turned out like?
I'm really interested to see what £300 of hair treatments look like.

Tbh those prices are inline with, or even less than, the salon I go to but it’s an independent salon whose owner and staff are featured on tv, they have some v well known clients etc. And they really take the time to give you the LA experience and results. I would not pay that for a chain salon!

We have a hairdressers like that in our city centre I went for a complete colour change that required a bleach lift and then colour on top and a cut&BD.

My hair is very lon and very thick but it was taking the bleach like a sponge and lifting well so they did two full head lifts and then a colour on top with a variated root, I didn’t have a fucking clue what I was going on on my head until I twigged afterwards, I nearly died when she said £230 and I’d already paid a £50deposit.

There should definitely be more communication in salons, how do I know as the customer how many trays of bleach my hair will need? It’s an odd system.

Hairdressing for women is an absolute con. My dh pays the barber £8 to sort his Einstein hair out. I haven’t been since the summer to get a cut. Don’t know when I’ll get round to it.

I was in my hairdressers a good 3 hours this week with a repair job on my roots with bleach, then coloured highlights and an all over colour and a cut that is a really precise one - and I paid £65- and that was more than normal because of the fixing lockdown roots situation. My hairdresser is bloody amazing and an absolute genius with colour as well - I’m there every month

If you have grey hair or grey strands they would need to colour all your hair first to a darker colour to get rid of the greys.

Then do the ballyage which is a bleaching process.

I had this done and it was £180 🤔

I didn't have a cut on top as couldn't afford that too!!!

Got the cut the next month!

£75 per hour at a big salon in central London sounds reasonable tbh. You were wanting quite technical work done. They were naughty not being upfront with the total cost before they started work though.

For the record...

£293 more than I paid yesterday.

Yours took 3h 45 mins longer.

However you did have quite a few different things done compared to my de-thatch.

Very expensive but I bet it looks amazing

I am allergic to hair dye and sort of glad now that I only ever have a cut and dry

Enjoy the lovely hair OP, and lesson learned for next time (ask total price up front)

We all get ripped off once in a while, it is a rotten feeling but then again... you live snd learn

@charlieginger1987 I'd be upset too
My normal cut and colour prior to Covid was £65 ( which included an Olaplex treatment) when she reopened I had my normal appt and without any notice of change in costs , i was charged £135 at the till
I felt exactly the same as you - shocked , embarrassed and uncomfortable. I paid and left quickly. When I got home I messaged her and said " do you mind checking I was charged properly today, just in case the girl made a mistake " her reply was we had to increase to cover PPE and reduced appts ? So I found a new hairdresser .. fast forward to this week
My new hairdresser sends out a group message " sorry everyone for the time you have waited ! No increase in cost to any of you , I've been well protected by Government grants so normal charges resume ! "
Happy days ...

@Whydidimarryhim

Hi I’m sure you paid my a card - you can ask your bank for a charge back - tell them you were overcharged and are querying it with the hairdressers. You need to do this today. Robbing bastard.

The prices are clear on their website and OP got exactly what she asked for. For some strange reason, OP assumed the £140 for the balayage covered absolutely everything when it didn’t. But yes, let’s unlawfully do a charge back and call the salon robbing bastards when, apart from adding the £5 tip, they have actually done nothing wrong.

I don’t even like Rush after a couple of bad haircuts a few years ago, but they have actually done nothing wrong here...

@goodwinter

How are they charging for a full head of balayage AND a full head of permanent colour?!

Did they ask you if you wanted the Olaplex treatment?

Just what I thought - surely one or the other and what's Olaplex? Anything you didn't ask for or agree to during the session, you shouldn't pay for.

And taking a tip - even a fiver - is bliddy cheeky!

Tips are voluntary -- and I always give tips to the individual hairdresser, not the salon. I think most of us do. (I'd normally tip 10% but certainly would make an exception here .. . )

I'm not sure if there's much you can do about it now you've paid though, except leave a scathing review on their webpage as a warning to others.

Probably going to get flamed but I box dye and get my hair cut once to twice a year. I'd pay no more than £30 for a cut.