AIBU that a haircut shouldn't cost £60!?

[HollyLondoner]

Why is the cost of my haircut increased every time I visit? I have my haircut every 12 weeks on average and the price increase a few pounds every time. It's gone from £35 around 5 years ago when I started to £60. My favourite hairdresser hasn't been promoted so it's not that. I know she gets paid minimum wage and it doesn't feel right but she's an amazing hairdresser. I went today and was charged £62!?

The cheapest person is £58 and most expensive £90! Not a crazy fancy salon. I'm on the outskirts of London fyi so no means central!

YABU - that's how much it cost
YANBU - it's become so expensive!

Post links to 5 hairdressers in your area (Bristol) that charge £400 for a cut and blow dry, and highlights.

Go on. I'll give you 10 minutes.

https://www.nocohair.com/salon/our-price-guide/
https://trevorsorbie.com/bristol-pricelist/
https://honeandhowe.co.uk/services
https://www.studiocouture-cs.com/about

Here's four. And I said £300-400

You'll give me 10 mins [lol]

With the massive rises in rents, utilities and wages we are reaching the point in many industries where the job isn’t worth the money. When it comes down to brass tacks people don’t care how much the chair costs or how much their hairdresser pays for insurance or window cleaning or bank fees or conditioner. The job costing £60 and the job being worth £60 to the person paying for it are two different things. Some things you have very little choice (MOT, gas safety cert. GP letter, driving test) because you can’t diy it, do without it, or ask your neighbours niece to do it in exchange for a cheesecake, so you stump up. Haircuts, painting and decorating, cleaners etc. people will do without once the cost is too much for the benefit. It’s just not the sort of economic climate where £400, aka 17% of median monthly take home (every other month? 9% of median take home pay) is being dropped on someone cutting your hair for you by any great numbers of people. You can talk about min wage and overheads until the cows come home - it’s either worth the charge or it’s not. I pay about 0.5% of my take home on my hair - that’s the level of gaf I’m at with hair.

YANBU OP. Imo if it was just due to rent, utility costs etc then Barbers for men wouldn’t be so much cheaper (and not all of them just use clippers).

Personally I think about £20- 30 should be about right for a wet cut (no blow dry) dependent on area and hairdressers experience, maybe more like £40 in a major city or for a complete restyle.

Personally I’d never pay more than £40 for a cut - it only costs a bit more than that to groom my dog and that takes at least an hour and looks far harder work than the 10 mins it takes to wet and trim my pixie cut! 🤣

It's around £35-£50 in my area, depending on levels etc. It's too much for what is essentially a trim but they always say it's a restyle and not a cut and blow dry.

I'd continue to suck it up if at least I ever had nice results, but literally every time they fail to do what I ask despite it being a super basic cut (a bit of a trim and some long layers) and me having straight hair.

I have tried different salons, different levels, same result. They either ignore me or seem unable to understand what I'm asking or a combination of both.

On top of that, salons are really unpleasant to be in. Lots of noise and lots of waiting around.

I bought a pair of scissors off of Amazon and I'm giving myself a little trim - first attempt this weekend!

I pay £28 for a cut and blow dry outside Glasgow.

That's City prices
As you go down to town then village it gets cheaper

But renting a chair doesn't earn that much - it can cost you 50% of what you take

I haven't voted because there is so much difference in the price ppl are paying, but I do think that there is a lot of cost that is not just the hourly wage. My wash/cut and rough dry for 10 mins (it's curly) is £35-40, which I know is quite cheap for the area, northern town, and a very basic set up. DD1 pays about £65 for the same, DD2 pays about £15-20, but goes to a barbers (that accept women, not all do here). I only go twice a year, partly because of having mad curly hair, and weirdly my hairdresser, although talented, always cuts it slightly too short, so I go through a cycle of "my, it is a bit short" to "now it looks good" (12 weeks in) to "now it needs cutting" (about 24 weeks in). I think if she cut it more to how I want it, I would go more often.

Can't begin to imagine what the electricity & water bills are like for salons now, they must be extraordinary. If you've a smart meter, maybe go run your hairdryer for several hours & see what impact it has, then think about the fact there were no protections for businesses electricity rates unlike domestic ones.

I haven't had my highlights done in a year. I checked out prices earlier, they've nearly doubled from 89 to 160 on.a Wednesday deal.

Why is it people will always bash skilled trades like hair for charging what they are worth?
a salon will have a lot of overheads,gas electric insurance stock staff costs all the usual annual leave sick leave licences insurances software card machine fees ,the same as cafes and most retail shops.
people always have this assumption hair dressers aren’t worth much in terms of what they do but nobody bats an eyelid at paying £85-£100 an hour for a skilled electrician or plasterer.
it’s no different is it.

I was paying £35 a few years ago but it kept increasing to £65 for a wash, cut, blow dry. After hunting around I’ve recently found an excellent hairdresser who does a dry cut for £26. I’m in and out very quickly but still have a coffee.

Cut and blow dry with salon owner, £75, I go every 11 weeks and think it's money well spent.

Where are you? I'm on London outskirts too and here it goes from between £60 - absolute cheapest - to well over £100 just for cut and blow dry, no colour.
I've started asking for cuts I know will grow out well and just going twice a year.

Its really unfair, historically folk have always looked down on hairdressers, schools discourage it, parents are horrified, and its seen as something you do if you are dim.
and yes, tradesmen charge a fortune but that is ok
Why is that ?
If you don’t want to pay it then fine, do it yourself , but saying we are too expensive is inaccurate, you just dont want to pay it….

We had a guy come in and do one to one training recently and he charges £1350 for the day
Very expensive, but he is fab and i pay it because it is worth it. He has been to us 3 times now

lots of posters are all just used to lower prices , and don't want to pay any more
And the competitive underpaying is ludicrous
“ I pay £60 for a colour and cut ect…
i would go out of business if i charged that , and actually i wouldn't waste my time , tubes of colour alone are £12 each

You see threads on here all the time telling women to retrain and earn more , yet here we are having to defend why we want to earn more ? Why is that ?
You don't mean us do you ? All the comments from people saying they pay peanuts essentially mean its acceptable to you that we earn peanuts ?

I don't need to retrain to earn more because i can earn well doing hair

I love the fact that we charge enough that i can pay my staff well , and that i can go travelling regularly .
My biggest earning stylist regularly comes out with £800 a week

Ps , i forgot on my expenses list the rent . The biggest cost of all £2800 per month plus VAT .£40,000 per year

I think Batchcookbabe must have been cheated on by a hairdresser.

I don't begrudge what I pay for my hairdresser, she's entitled to earn a wage just as I am. I go slightly less often if I'm a bit skint but I don't expect her to earn less just because I have some bills to pay - a good haircut is a luxury.

Thankyou !

It sounds similar to where I am.

It's like lots of things....it depends what you value. Almost irrespective of cost there are some people who don't care about their hair and cut it at home/don't get it cut at all. On the opposite end of the scale there are others who love the experience and place value on a good haircut/might see it as an essential thing. I don't think either is wrong.

I'm somewhere in the middle...I don't enjoy the experience of going but I want the basics done by someone who knows what they are doing. I don't want it washed or want to pay the cost of a blow dry. I have a hairdresser who comes to the house. She's in and out in 20 mins and charges less than half the OP but I give a big tip because a quick, convenient hair cut is what equates to value for me.

In South Yorkshire, some salons in big cities near us charge more but I live in a town with a gazillion hairdressers so they are all fairly competitive

for a cut?!!

I live in a city north of London and mine costs the same for a restyle but still £50 just for a c&bd. I can cope with rises, their costs have gone up too. But it's gone up by at least 80% in 5 years which seems crazy. I'm going to see if I can find a mobile hairdresser who doesn't have the overheads, but will need to find recommendations.

Last time I came to the UK I thought I'd wait and get my haircut in the UK as its bound to be cheaper than Finland. I was wrong
Hairdressers charge 30-40 euros for a wash, cut and blow dry over here and the local hairdressing school charges 10-15 euros and includes a head massage! But that's only during working hours so alas I cannot take advantage of this any more.

go for it.
Proper hairdressing scissors are cheap actually so I have some of those.
I've been doing my own , husband's and 3 boys' for a few years now.

pros:
miles cheaper/ free
more convenient- no waiting, making appointments, getting to hairdressers
no small talk!!
better haircuts. I watched a few you tube videos and it's actually really easy. I get far better results than I ever did at a hairdressers

cons;
Having to sweep the kitchen floor afterwards
always having a slight worry that I'll mess it up but that's never happened yet

The price of stock and utilities are sky high so the increase is understandable.

A lot people who would have a regular hairdressers appointment can't afford the increased prices.