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?

Who in the blue Jesus pays £65 for someone to snip scissors and use a hairdryer!!!
Let's address that shall we?
How are hairdressers getting away with this shite!
It's hairdressing!!! Not life saving surgery.....
You've had your pants pulled well and truly down and so have all the rest of you that pay these ridiculous prices! Olaplex from the wholesaler is less than £20 for a decent size bottle!!

£300???

Jesus wept! They saw you coming a mile off!

I pay less than £50 for a full head of highlights and a cut and blow from my mobile hairdresser and let me tell you my hair looks amazing..... it my most favourite thing on my body and I always get compliments about it.

I can't get over £300! 😂😂😂😂😂

Combination of central London prices and adding extras I think

I live in central London and my local salon charge 55 for a cut and blow dry
It’s the local rate.

I have got more upfront as I age just saying “how much will it cost? I don’t want any surprises” it doesn’t embarrass me, better than getting a huge bill

Sounds really expensive, but then 4 hours work is a lot.
Very cheeky to charge you for the tip. I'd ask for that back at least.

I feel sorry for any hairdressers reading this thread and seeing how little people value their skills and experience.

@SheenMcQueen

To those of you who buy and do Olaplex at home, what product do you get? I've just googled and there are lots of options: Number 3 etc? And how do you do it? Please and thank you.

Olaplex comes in different formulations and concentrations. You can buy the salon formulations for home use (you can if you use shady methods but they aren’t available on retail sale in general). The higher the number, the lower the concentration of the olaplex chemical in the formula. So the formulas used in-salon are Olaplex1 and Olaplex2, they are the most concentrated versions (apart from 0).

Olapex3 is the little bottle you can buy for about £25 and use weekly as a prewash to maintain the bonds in your hair. The system was originally, you had 1&2 in salon and took 3 home to maintain until your next in-salon service/treatment. Olaplex0 is a new product for home use and is supposed to mimic what the in-salon products do (build bonds).

4&5 are shampoo and conditioner with tiny amounts in that wash down the drain. I would say a waste of money.

6 is styling creme, mostly made of silicones with a tiny bit of olaplex. Again, not worth your £££.

7 is a styling oil, again, largely silicone, not worth your money.

8 is just a bog standard conditioning hair mask

If you want to have the olaplex experience at home, go for 0 & 3. You can still have 1&2 in salon and maintain with 3. Replicate the in-salon treatment as closely as possible at home with 0 & 3. My top tip for application of phase 1 (or 0 in this case) (it’s what my hairdresser does when I have olaplex) is to put the plug in the basin and use the application bottle to keep sucking any run off back up and reapply to the hair. Get every last drop on the head rather than dripping off down the plug hole.

Haven't RTFT but have read all OP's posts & most of the others.

It is a very expensive haircut!

I'm not sure tho it's as outrageous as suggested by PP's.

Those saying a full head of balayage includes full head of colour - no. If you are colouring your hair, you might get a tint (usual with balayage), and this will be priced separately.

So OP should query was it a tint (which she's had before) or a full head permanent cover.

The balayage itself sounds correct - she has long, thick hair & it was full head. I only ever do 1/4 or 1/2 head & find that very expensive.

They should have been much more explicit about costs too. £300 is such a massive amount of money, they need to be upfront about it.

This is outrageous! I paid £45 last week for all over colour, cut and blow dry in the West of Scotland.

As for for how to use 3 @SheenMcQueen, there are instructions on the bottles but most people tend to put a generous blob through dry hair overnight and wash it out in the morning with their usual shampoo and conditioner, as a weekly thing. Some might do it more regularly if they have more damaged hair or feel like they need it but the standard instructions are for weekly use.

I would expect to pay the £130 full head balayage (just checked and my salon charges £150 for long/thick hair, and £170 for "extreme"; plus the cut and finish. I don't know what olaplex is but if they asked you and you agreed to it then you will have to suck it up.

I would query the extra full head colour charge and the tip (surely a tip is optional?), so that only reduces the charge by £70.

I think they've screwed up with the extra full head colour. I've just googled my local shop in Brighton. A mid range stylist for all your treatments bar the full head colour without tip is £205. £300 though..... I would have cried!!!!

How can you have 2 full heads of something, unless you actually have 2 heads of course

@SheenMcQueen

To those of you who buy and do Olaplex at home, what product do you get? I've just googled and there are lots of options: Number 3 etc? And how do you do it? Please and thank you.

No 0 and no 3 . Soak hair in no 0 for 10 mins then add no 3 on top for another 10 mins . I think the two cost 42 Pounds and I would say there are 4 sessions in that . I have lots of hair - medium long length .

I have foils, cut and blow dry and curls/straightened for £60

That is INSANE!!!!!!
Why is it £65 permanent colour and balayage £130? That means the balayage was actually £195 doesn’t it? what the heck is olaplex? £35? Their pricing needs to be more transparent. I sincerely hope you love it and it lasts ages!

Olaplex is a bond building hair treatment that gets mixed with colour or bleach to reduce the (massive) damage done by chemical treatments.

That's very expensive but why did you not ask how much it would be when booking your appointment?

I pay £6 and my lovely hairdresser comes to the house for that!

You can’t have a full head twice, unless you have two heads.

£6!

@TomorrowsPrincess

Who in the blue Jesus pays £65 for someone to snip scissors and use a hairdryer!!! Let's address that shall we? How are hairdressers getting away with this shite! It's hairdressing!!! Not life saving surgery..... You've had your pants pulled well and truly down and so have all the rest of you that pay these ridiculous prices! Olaplex from the wholesaler is less than £20 for a decent size bottle!!

£300???

Jesus wept! They saw you coming a mile off!

I pay less than £50 for a full head of highlights and a cut and blow from my mobile hairdresser and let me tell you my hair looks amazing..... it my most favourite thing on my body and I always get compliments about it.

I can't get over £300! 😂😂😂😂😂

You're being a bit silly , rude and naive here . Let's reverse this shall we ? "Who the hell pays less than 50 quid for a colour and cut from a mobile hairdresser ? Their skills must be really shit as they don't even value their own time ! Sounds like no decent salon would even employ them . I pay more to have my oven cleaned . I can't get over as cheap a price as that 😂😂😂😂😂"

£60 at my lap o salon for a full head of balayage, wash, cut, blow dry and straighten.

We are no where near London though. I think that makes a big difference. £300 still seems insane though.

@wombatgoeswild

I pay £6 and my lovely hairdresser comes to the house for that!

You pay someone less than minimum wage?

@MrsMaizel yep, £50 here in Wales would be the going rate for a mobile hairdresser doing full head, cut n blow- in fact I’d say it’s a bit on the steep side. My MIL pays £35 all over colour, cut and blow dry on her short hair.

“Full head” is obviously variable depending on hair length. If OP’s root regrowth was very long, then it’s essentially the same amount of hair as a short “full head” anyway.

The salon I go to charges £20 more for a regrowth touch up if your roots are >6 weeks (unless you tried to book in and they couldn’t fit you in which happened to me once). It’s more hair so more work.

Btw just checked and at the salon I go to (same neighbourhood, independent) it would be £270-£360 depending on stylist for what you’ve had. When I go back - haven’t had my hair done since the week before first lockdown, have cut & topped up colour myself since but no bleaching - it’ll be around £345-410 for what I have done depending on whether my >1yr of regrowth can be managed as regrowth or is essentially virgin again! Although my old stylist has left and gone freelance, and isn’t taking on new clients until 2022, but looking at her prices she’d charge £390-470!! She is phenomenal. This is just the level of pricing for these kinds of services in London. It is a luxury to have your hair faffed about with like this, you don’t have to do it. If you like cheap & cheerful then cut it yourself and get a box dye and you’re golden . Prices outside of London are always going to be cheaper, rents are cheaper for starters.

Yeah there's no way you should be paying for 2 full head treatments and it's wrong they quoted £20 or £30'for the treatment when it turned out to be more than double.

There's every chance the till person made a genuine mistake. Be interesting to hear what they say.

Equally as a previous customer it would be prudent for them to have explained that they're prices have doubled since you last went, if that turns out to be the case. It's basic customer service.

I’m in the South East. My local salon (independent and very good) charge £100 for balayage. A cut and style is £45 if you have that on its own but only £20 if you’re having a colour treatment in the same appointment.