To think my hairdresser is taking the piss?

[itscseason]

I’m trying to get my hair lifted light enough to go silver.

I’ve just been 2 weeks ago to the hairdresser and had a toner put on (no bleach, not had bleach for 3 months) and it cost £100. The toner has already washed out. Fine I kind of expected it.

I’ve text her to arrange a bleach session and she said I should wait even longer and just have toner again. £100 for something that lasts two washes. And she said my hair isn’t in good condition. My hair seems fine to me, don’t get me wrong it’s not 10/10 health but it’s hardly candy floss.

You don't need a hairdresser to put toner on your hair. I use Redken Shades EQ toners at home for a cool blonde with a root melt and always get compliments on my colour. They are super easy to use (plenty of videos and tips for colour combinations on Youtube), very gentle on your hair, one of the best products out there and your intial outlay for a few different shades + processing solution (which would last you for quite a while) would still be less than a single visit to your hairdresser.

£55 full head bleach highlights in South East- tiny salon. £74 with a cut and blow dry. My hair is silver blonde as this is what the bleach does in my hair

I have longer hair than yours and a lot thicker too. I pay £35 for just toner in central London! More for the blow dry.

Sorry I’m tired and maybe you already answered it. But if I’m wanting to go shades lighter then I’d need to bleach it 1-2 times more but these products would do that?

@itscseason YANBU. I hear ya.

I will never be going to a hairdresser again, ever, for anything. Not a cut or a colour. Nothing - ever. Pre pandemic, it was roughly 15 to 18 pounds for a dry cut in the two hairdressers in my market town. (By the way, there isn't another hairdresser for 18-20 miles. So I don't really have much choice, unless I want to do a 40 mile round trip. And even then there's no guarantee they will be any cheaper.)

I didn't go to the hairdressers from Spring 2020, all of 2021, or the first half of 2022, as I was shielding a bit more because of health reasons, and got a bit paranoid about being in close proximity to people. So I got used to trimming and colouring it myself.

Also, they were closed much of the time because of the pandemic. So that was a another reason for getting used to doing it myself.

Last Autumn (October,) was my niece's wedding and I thought I would quite liked a 'hairdresser' cut, as I've just been trimming and dying myself for about 2 and a half years.

Contacted the hairdresser back in early October last year. They said a dry cut is now 67 pounds. 67 pounds! I said, 'well, how much is it for a wet cut, or cut wash and blow dry?' They said a wet cut's the same as a dry, and a cut wash and blow dry is 80 pounds- so I 'might as well have a cut wash and blow dry really.' So they're trying to make out that a cut wash and blow dry is actually good value, Cos it's only 13 pounds more than the dry cut.

The cut wash and blow dry used to be £30! (Pre pandemic.)

I tried the other hairdresser and they said it's roughly 50 to 65 pounds depending on how long the hair is. I said 'mine is roughly shoulder length.' She said 'Hard to say. It could be anything from 50 to 65 pounds... maybe more We won't know until we start cutting it!'

So basically I will be sitting in the chair spending half an hour while she does my haircut, not knowing how much is going to cost at the end.

People can say, Oh yeah, it's all the extra costs for materials and rent and electric and heating and so on. But the fact is my husband went to a barbers shops just two or three weeks ago, (one in a shopping centre in quite a big town.) They spent 35 minutes doing his hair and did it beautifully. They charged him 18 pounds!

So I have absolutely no idea why the two hairdressers in my little market town are charging so much. I imagine many others are the same (for womens hairdressers!) Suffice to say, though, I will never be going again. Until the day I die. I'll just be doing my own hair. I'm just gonna have to carefully trim it and layer it, get the split ends off, and just dye it myself as I have been doing since Spring 2020.

Like hell am I paying nearly 70 pounds for a trim. And by the way, they now charge £200 for highlights compared to 70 to 80 pound that they charged pre pandemic.

I'm not being funny, I have to be careful, but I can cut and trim and colour my hair myself. I don't want to demean the profession, (and I know I am doing,) but they are cutting and colouring hair, they're not doing heart or brain surgery. Basically it's something I can do myself, and I will be continuing to do it from now on. The rise in costs for WOMEN'S hair is outrageous.

I use Jerome Russell BBlonde Maximum Colour Toner in silver. I'm sure they do one for blonde hair too to take the brassiness out. It goes all over the hair, easy to follow instructions however I would recommend using a very rich conditioner afterwards.

I'm not saying it will work on your hair but I really do think ( in fact I know ) that you are being way overcharged. If you go into a town centre then yes, it possibly will cost more. Ask around, see where friends and people at work go etc or have a drive out of the town centre !
I really hate it when people get ripped off !

No, a toner will not make your hair lighter, you do need bleach for that. Toner can eliminate any brassy tones which can make your hair look a shade lighter, but you will still need bleach to actually lighten it. But you can user toners to stretch the time between hair appointments. Personally, I can get by with 3-4 hair appointments a year for highlights (bleach). Inbetween those appointments I use toner at home (every 4-6 weeks or so) to keep the colour nice and cool and disguise roots with a root melt (which unlike my normal regrowth looks intentional and nicely blended).

leave purple shamppoo / conditioner on for several hours....does similar job...superdrug do a good range of toning shampoos...small bottle about 2.80 !...leave on for few hours.

I think I just need to go back and get it bleached. I’ve been to another place and he charged £270, so I didn’t feel as ripped off by her as she is a lot more qualified and won awards etc.

Honestly it took me ages to find her. Two places before that, they did the strand test and then I had to chase them up. Both lied and said the strand test didn’t work.

If you haven’t had any bleach for 3 months don’t you have serious roots?
it may be that due to the condition of your hair they can’t take it any lighter? Some hairdressers would refuse to do brunette to the amount of bleach required for silver. Usually a colour consultation is free so might be worth shopping around.
toner does wash out fairly quickly, it’s usually more like £20 a time though. There’s no point keeping just having a toner if you want to go lighter though!

Superdrug stuff is called : Colour effects, grey bottle with a green cap...different shades...i use the ash one. works so well...better than expensive brands.

Christ I get balayage, roots, toner, cut and style for £90. I’ve seen myself nip in for root touch up and go and often take a cup of toner home for saving the colour off and it’s an extra £10.

It goes purple if you do that?

You have such pretty hair, this colour is gorgeous!

...agree it can do the superdrug stuff is not purple...i added a post about the product i use above.

I don’t have “serious roots” and would it be an issue if I did? That’s nothing to do with the aibu.

I don’t have serious roots as I had a root melt and it’s blended well and my hair also isn’t a platinum blonde, it’s a warm blonde.

Can get an olaplex kit off ebay. Think I paid 18 quid? Has no 1 and no 2. Massively helped my 2x bleached hair, it's nearly as healthy now as before the bleach.

As pp I do all my own hair stuff now, cut and colour/bleach. Save a fortune and also get exactly what I want!

Thank you, very nice of you to say. It’s just frustrating when you have a colour in mind and I feel I should have reached it in 6 months.

I’ve tried Olaplex so many times and it just doesn’t work for me. But it’s worked well on others definitely.

How did you learn to bleach your hair? I’ve watched videos but I don’t know .. I feel like I’ve end up with snapped hair and bald patches

Thanks for the suggestion!

Have you seen shrine toners? I use this and love it! Boots sell it :) they do an ash blonde x

I agree, your current colour is really pretty!

Can you link to the colour you‘re aiming for? Your hair is probably light enough to achieve a slightly deeper shade of silver with just toner and no extra bleach. Or is it a silvery platinum type shade you want?

Try using icy blond shampoo by milkshake (black shampoo) I go weeks and weeks without needing a toner now I have found this product

Simple ''Blue bag'' is used to remove yellow tints from horse's tails.
It's an optical thing, the blue rinse really helps.

I'm sure human toners are similar, the physics will be the same, surely, a blue colour to mute down brassy tones.

Yes having roots is presumably a problem if you want silver hair as they wouldn’t be silver? If you have taken 6 months to get to that colour presumably the new hair growing in would need several treatments? I thought you said you’d had no bleach just a toner in the last 3 months?