Is £40 a lot for cut and blow-dry at home?

[thatsgotit]

Hoping there are some mobile hairdressers out there, or clients of mobile hairdressers, who can advise as I'm really not sure what to think.

My elderly mother is more or less housebound and has a mobile hairdresser come to do her hair once a month. Her hair is very short. She has a wash/cut/blow dry, very simple, no styling products or anything. The hairdresser lives about 7 or 8 miles away I think, and I realise she has to factor petrol costs into her rates.

We're in the East Midlands.

She charges £40 for this and it just seems a bit steep to me considering she doesn't have the overheads of owning a salon. When I have my (long) hair cut and coloured at a salon it costs me in the region of £65, so £40 just for a cut and blow dry of very short hair seems a lot.

Am I out of touch? Perfectly happy to accept if I am, so hopefully no one will jump on me for asking this😄- I'm just asking because I'm wondering if we should shop around a bit or whether £40 is reasonable.

Thanks in advance.

Lisa , I totally get that , my overall thoughts are that the general feeling from lots of posters give the impression that they think that hair services should be cheap , which usually would mean a low wage for the ( mainly women ) hairdresser , and the expectation that we don't deserve to earn decent money

This is very different from you not being bothered by your hair which is an entirely valid point

For the love of the wee man!

Some people are quoting between £10-15 for a mobile hairdresser!! That's absolutely nuts!

Those hairdressers need some business training!

Even if you only factor in petrol and driving time, these women (and they WILL be women) will be on almost half minimum wage.

And once you add insurances, accountants etc etc that brings their earning to virtually nil.

Why are these women working for almost nothing? I assume they must be living off tips. Outrageous.

I think pretty steep considering they are using your electric and your water. I just paid £45 recently at a salon and I wouldn't want to pay the same at home. We are near the midlands.

Well, I've used mobile hairdressers for many years, and when I had my first one, she would be doing me, and my 3 dc, so actually she would be doing a LOT more than 1 in an hour. She still will often do 2 of us when she comes, if one of my adult dc is home and wants a cut.

I wouldn't pay a plumber £40 for 10 - 15mins work either, tbf.

Why is it nuts ?

MN has a really skewed demograph from the overwhelming population averages.
You are aware that there are millions of people that go out to work for a lot less than that, aren't you ? Or do you genuinely think half the population earn £35K plus ?

I think that's a lot.

Personally I wouldn't pay more for the convenience of them coming to my home, although I appreciate some people have no alternative.

I prefer to go to a salon which feels more like I'm being pampered, as opposed to getting wet and uncomfortable having my hair washed over my bath or sink!

She didn't have hers coloured

I changed to going to a salon about a year ago, but prior to that I paid £30 for a mobile hairdresser to come and do a cut and blow dry

Ours charges £25 but we pay £30 as that was what we used to pay her when she worked in a salon .

I'm E Mids and pay £26 for a fab cut&blow, albeit in a salon. I ♥️ my hairdresser and he always gets a tip and presents!

I pay half that in South West.

No it’s cheap. I’m in the north west.

Also, no self-employed person should be charging less than £40 per hour for their time.

Completely agree with Slig. You don’t see plumbers asking for peanuts, including for small jobs.

If you’re earning at minimum wage or under you won’t be on £35k per year, far from it.

Depends where in the country you are I think. Reasonable in London

@Eaumyword whereabouts is your hairdresser? I'm in the East Midlands and am on the lookout for a good hairdresser.

Also, no self-employed person should be charging less than £40 per hour for their time.

Well good luck getting customers in most of the country then if you are a
nail technician
dog walker
childminder
ironer
gardener
cleaner
window cleaner
babysitter

indeed, I went to a chiropodist recently and a half hour appt was £28 - experienced, qualified medical professional with overheads

For a cut & blow dry at home that sound expensive to me, the hairdresser is not paying for premises, business rates, or utilities.

Self employed Plumbers etc. need public liability insurance of at least 2 million.
I’m guessing hairdressers don’t?
DH has just gone self employed as a gas engineer, his PL insurance cost £550. Then there’s his van and thousands of ££s of tools and equipment, not to mention the £10k his training/exams cost plus requalifying every few years.
He gets it wrong and your house could blow up / set on fire or flood or you could be poisoned by gas/Co2 - He charges £60-£75 an hour for those reasons.

I think you have to think about time, from starting from her home to returning it must take the hairdresser a good hour. She has tax, petrol and hairdresser’s insurance to pay. Then ask yourself if you could find the time to do your mother’s hair.

What’s your point? Plumbers just an example plucked from any number of self-employed professions.

Hairdressers need insurance too, btw, but that’s not really the point.

No SE person should be charging anything much less than £40 per hour. Charging prices that leave you earning minimum wage or less is not the one. Why would you take issue with that? Odd.

Well yeah, so £56 per hour.

Think that’s also why most babysitting is done by students and teenagers and not as a full time job.

Just because cleaning (for example) is poorly paid, doesn’t mean it should be or that it’s a good thing. One thing earning £10–£15 with the protections offered by employment (plus the guarantee of regular hours) – still will be a struggle – another thing on a self-employed basis which will inevitably involve many unbillable hours – handling marketing / getting customers, admin, accounting, dealing with enquiries, filling 35+ hour weeks every week of the year.

And indeed it’s difficult to find a fully SE cleaner (rather than through a cleaning agency).

Considering it's an elderly lady I'd be more concerned about whether the hairdresser is trustworthy, communicates well with your mother and generally does a good job. If a hairdresser is underpriced I'd give a higher tip so it all balances out anyway. Your mother is obviously happy with the arrangements so I'd leave well alone.

West Yorkshire here - I pay £25 for cut and blow dry and straightening, to my mobile hairdresser. Takes her about half an hour. She put it up £5 at the start of this year. I think it’s very reasonable.