To be upset after hairdresser visit

[carlottavaldes]

I've been going to the same hairdresser for 3 years and we've always had a good relationship. I went in today for a consultation before my haircut and colour next week. I'm dark blonde and want to go lighter so I asked for balayage - I had it done by her two years ago for £200 so was expecting a similar price. Instead she quoted me £300. She also said that if I paid less it would look unfinished, blocky, dry, not shiny, and I would be disappointed - which made no sense, as I paid less last time.

I told her that, but she kept pushing and didn't suggest any alternatives (e.g. highlights) - it was basically "pay £300 or have crap hair". I know she's trying to recoup the money she lost during lockdown, and to make the most of people's desperation for haircuts at the moment, but a 50% price hike is ridiculous.

I had been really looking forward to treating myself and being pampered and instead I found myself being pressured and manipulated and told that my budget was no good, which was upsetting as £200 is a lot for me. I don't want to go back, even for a cut, but I'm struggling to find an appointment elsewhere.

Has anyone else experienced hairdressers hiking their prices to make the most of people's need for post-lockdown haircuts? I have a feeling it might backfire for them.

[apooagnuandyou]

@bedtimeshoes

Lots of people manage just fine without a balayage. What a waste of money.

Some of us have a bit more ambition than just "manage". A well done balayage is worth every penny.

Life is too short for just surviving and be miserable.

[TheReluctantPhoenix]

I think you pay what you can comfortably afford for things.

A £300 haircut is like a £70,000 car, great if you are quite well off, a complete waste of money if it impacts the rest of your life.

Personally, when it is more than significant work at the dentist or a private consultant’s appointment, it seems a bit of a rip off. It is only cutting and dying hair...

[FireflyRainbow]

I feel don't even like paying over a fiver for a box dye.YANBU. go to a salon for a consultation and let them tell you what colours you need then go to a hairdressing shop called Sally's and buy your own colour. Get a home hairdresser to do it for cheap and the colour you brought will prob last you ages.

[SpringtimeSummertime]

Some of us have a bit more ambition than just "manage". A well done balayage is worth every penny.

‘Ambition’? That is ridiculous 🤣

[SpringtimeSummertime]

I’m saying that as someone who is happy to pay for DD’s Balayage too!
Ambition though... wth?!

[JustSleepAlready]

There’s no way it’s worth that much money. Haven’t they got a bit of a cheek, when they have been able to claim money from the government through lockdown but now they’re trying to get more money out of people who possibly were really really badly affected financially through all this? Your hairdresser has a nerve and a half, don’t think I’d be going back to her again.

[Angelica789]

My hairdresser has increased her prices steadily over the past 3 years since starting out on her own. Good for her really. People obviously like the service she is offering enough to keep paying it. She’s styling hair to make money, it’s not an essential public service that we should all have access to a subsidised rate.

I am thinking of trying somewhere else that is cheaper and that is my choice as a consumer.

[Devlesko]

@SpringtimeSummertime

Some of us have a bit more ambition than just "manage". A well done balayage is worth every penny.

‘Ambition’? That is ridiculous 🤣

Hair ambition is very expensive though, some prefer a well managed natural look, or something funky that you can do yourself.
It's only worth every penny if you like that kind of thing, it's very common and fashionable, .

[LolaSmiles]

FireflyRainbow
I disagree with doing that, because people who take up hairdressers' time only to go and get someone else to do it have the same approach as people who go to technical shops, make the most of the knowledge that comes from having staff who are very knowledgeable and experienced only to drive down the road to Go Outdoors where the staff know very little or online and buy it there. It's the death of small businesses, and is part of the reason they end up having to raise prices for everyone else or go bust.

[apooagnuandyou]

Hair ambition is very expensive though, some prefer a well managed natural look, or something funky that you can do yourself.
It's only worth every penny if you like that kind of thing, it's very common and fashionable

it costs A LOT of money to get an attractive "natural look"

[apooagnuandyou]

@SpringtimeSummertime

Some of us have a bit more ambition than just "manage". A well done balayage is worth every penny.

‘Ambition’? That is ridiculous 🤣

maybe ambition was the wrong word, but some of us don't want to settle for barely "managing". Life is too short. Sounds grim to always go for the bottom, the cheap options, the low paid jobs. Not my choice.

[CervixHaver]

@Lessthanaballpark

Will someone tell us uneducated people with obviously scuzzy hair what Balayage is?!

It's a new trend of essentially looking like you've let your roots grow out for 6 months. Only difference being that they blend it in a bit. Presumably in an attempt to make it look like your hair gradually changed ten shades 🤷🏼‍♀️

[PinkiOcelot]

@MoreWater what a load of crap!!

[drpet49]

* Her attitude stinks. So basically she is saying that she is capable of a crap job. I would never support her.*

^Completely agree

[SpringtimeSummertime]

maybe ambition was the wrong word, but some of us don't want to settle for barely "managing". Life is too short. Sounds grim to always go for the bottom, the cheap options, the low paid jobs. Not my choice.

I know what you’re saying but it might be better to say ‘look after yourself, take care of your appearance (for yourself), it makes you feel good...’
There are many people in high paid jobs who look like shit so that’s not a great example... The way a person looks isn’t always a reflection on how successful they are.. Look at our esteemed PM! He has the top job in British politics and self care isn’t exactly high up on his priority list!

[PerveenMistry]

@drpet49

* Her attitude stinks. So basically she is saying that she is capable of a crap job. I would never support her.*

^Completely agree

I don't think she was threatening a bad job but rather saying that she'd have to cut the treatment short if her time weren't paid for, and that she couldn't guarantee results for a rush job.

She's under no obligation to cut her rates to appease people looking for bargains.

[mamal29]

Wow! Mine is £160 and I thought that was really pricey!!!

[Fluffinell]

There’s a space in between ‘managing’ and throwing money away needlessly. You will never ever convince me that paying towards or upwards of £500 for a hairdo is anything more than plain frivolity. It can’t be justified. I know how much hair costs.
On the other hand, going for a consultation at a hairdressers then going to Sallys is ridiculously cheeky
Talk about two extremes

[Fluffinell]

Excluding extensions etc

[LolaSmiles]

Fluffinell
I agree with you. Of course there's a difference between a professional colour and an at home box dye, but there comes a point where hairdressers are really selling an aspirational self image rather than better hair.

Then said aspirational people can talk about how 'grim' it is to go for the cheaper options and suggest that having cheaper hair is somehow linked to applying for lower level jobs in this cycle of low aspirations

[apooagnuandyou]

There’s a space in between ‘managing’ and throwing money away needlessly. You will never ever convince me that paying towards or upwards of £500 for a hairdo is anything more than plain frivolity. It can’t be justified. I know how much hair costs.

of course it's justified if you want to.

Some people buy designer goods, some people go on luxury holidays (which I never realised was seemed as a ridiculous extravagance until I came on MN!), some people go to expensive restaurants, or buy expensive dog breeds

Nothing wrong in spending the money you have in something that makes you happy.

Some people are better looking than others. I need a skilled hairdresser to make the most of my hair, so what? I can't use box dye properly, it looks dreadful, one tone colour, not perfect for my skin.

The difference after spending £200 or £300+ is amazing. Worth every single penny for me.

I don't want to settle and looking meh when a bit of money means I can look the best I possibly can. Life is too short to look shit.

[GraduallyWatermelon]

Will someone tell us uneducated people with obviously scuzzy hair what Balayage is?!

Sorry I didn't realise Google was only available for us educated people

[RosesAndHellebores]

I spend a lot on hair - it averages £103.50pcm. I have foils (2 colours) and a tint between them and a cut and blow dry every six weeks (full head alternating between two T bars). My mother in law is horrified that I pay £170 or £130 per visit and comme to about my extravagance.

Yet she has a shampoo and blow dry every week for £18, paying £27 every six weeks when she has it cut. So actually she only pays slightly less than me overall and the cut is very poor. But there's no reasoning with her.

[Devlesko]

@apooagnuandyou

*Hair ambition is very expensive though, some prefer a well managed natural look, or something funky that you can do yourself.
It's only worth every penny if you like that kind of thing, it's very common and fashionable*

it costs A LOT of money to get an attractive "natural look"

About £30/£40 not £300.
My mate buys her dyes wholesale she has a bathroom full and charges people a tenner on top of the cost to her.
Not a hair dresser, just learned how to mix the colours.
I don't dye mine anymore, hence the natural look.

[LolaSmiles]

apooagnuandyou
Can you not see there's a fairly substantial difference between "I like spending several hundred on hair because I like it and it makes me happy" and the sort of outlook where you're obviously polished and ambitious, it's grim to have cheaper hair cuts, linking cheaper hair to lack of aspirations and going for the lower jobs?

You must have a very small world if you only realised that luxury holidays are viewed as an extravagance by coming on mumsnet! Surely the whole point of luxury holidays is they're expensive and selling holidays to the sort of person wants, and can afford, an expensive holiday