Hair cut and colour now exceeds what I earn in a day. Absolutely fed up.

[Burntout01]

Obviously everything is going up and up. Just went to book hairdressers- I don’t go often , maybe every four months since I went grey ( used to box dye it for 30 years before that). Its my one bit of self care.
Cost has jumped from £120 to over £170 since I last had it done in September. For full head highlights for chin length bobbed hair plus wash and rough blow dry.
It’s not that I don’t believe its worth that price and I am not knocking my hairdresser, its not about that. But I am a senior NHS nurse with 30 years experience. My job has taken a lot from me and my family. I take home £150 a day. The hair appt is 2.5 hours.
I just cannot justify the expense for myself any more.

Doesn’t the OP work part time though? Having highlights at a salon has always been a bit of a luxury, I’m not surprised it’s a struggle on part time wages.

I used to have a friend who's a mobile hair dresser. She was cheaper than the salons. After covid she decided to charge the same as the salons! I was astounded especially as I have to wash my own hair and vacuum up my cut hair after she leaves. So I went back to the salon for the relaxing experience. I only go once every 3 months, but would really love to grow it all out.

Choice to have 4 dc @Nmeag. We all make choices and you have made an expensive one and you have had lots of maternity leave. That’s never great for the career ladder. There’s fewer and fewer jobs around and the nhs pensions are fantastic. Maybe NHs workers should go without the huge state input into their pensions? Theres never any recognition of that privileged position by nhs staff. Doctors get a whopping 24% from the state as a contribution. That’s obscene when compared to other jobs.

I agree re the cost of going to the hairdresser. I booked a wash, cut and blow dry online. I thought it was £75.

During the appointment the hairdresser kept commenting on how thick my hair was. I assumed she was complimenting me for a tip. After the appointment they charged me £95, I queried it and turns out in tiny little letters it said ‘from’ £75 and they could charge what they wanted depending on length and thickness of hair.

I haven’t had my hair cut since because I just felt scammed. I want to know how much it will cost before I get there and I don’t want to spend nearly £100 on a cut.

Hairdressing is a free market. Your hairdresser has charged what they think is an approprate rate for their skills and time. You don't have to pay that. I assume there are other hair dressers around near you?

Also comparing your daily salaried wage rate to the price a business charges for an individual service is nuts, your hairdresser will only see a fraction of that money in their wages.

Total race to the bottom. You should be able to afford to get your hair done. It’s quite a basic luxury! And you do a hard job and these little things help us all keep going. It’s feels like moral distress that you are giving so much of yourself to a job and can’t even afford to get your hair done. I’m sorry OP. I have heard that smaller salons are cheaper as once they become a rateable business their costs go up.

To you maybe.

I had mine done on Tuesday cut and colour with highlights , in a salon . I'm in Cumbria and was £65 .

It’s well worth doing some legwork, as they’ll some excellent well trained hairdressers that work from home. Look them up in your local area.

Exactly! Im in the UK and I've found a mobile hairdresser who is very good and who sometimes takes clients in at two different salons which look lovely and cozy etc plus the price you pay (at the salon) is exactly the same as when she comes to your house. I've had a haircut and colour for 60 pounds. And yes, I'm in London. For an ombré it would be around 80 pounds without a cut. For highlights similar. Same results as paying £150 + at salons my friends go to!

Most hairdressers are self employed and rent out the space. So no staff to pay. No NI contributions. Just rent ( which will no doubt be included in the space rental costs) tax and electricity and so on.

You could go to a college. Mr Monkey started getting his hair and beard done for free at a barbers training college when he was out of work but continued to go by choice. They are supervised by a teacher so no horrors, but it does take longer than the usual appointment.

I'm having full head highlights today, £80 and a free cut thrown in if I want it. Hair dresser rents a chair in a salon.

Mine is £85ish for full head colour, cut and blow dryer. I have lots of hair and will take 3-4 tubes of colour which are £10ish each. It takes 2.5 hours too. This is a fairly standard amount to pay around me. It’s sounds like the labour part of yours is 3-4* as expensive. Maybe time for a new hairdressser? We live in an affluent ish part of Yorkshire.

I go to a salon about six miles outside the city and pay £120 for cut and highlights. I don’t pay for blow dry though.

@Monty34 No. Most are not working like this at all! The standard hairdresser has overheads. The renting a chair has costs! Plus the self employed have no pension at all unless they pay 100% of the contributions. Rental prices include heat, water, council tax, cleaning, etc. The premises have costs, and they are high!

This is one of the reasons I also didn't replace the cleaner when she left - just can't justify the cost anymore and I'd rather do it myself.

With any service there will be a price point over which people will not pay. It can depend on location, how good you are, how nice where you work is, the ambience.
If hairdressers get enough custom and can charge around £150 upwards for a highlight and cut and blow dry they will continue to do so. They will charge as much as they can.
If people don't pay it, they have to drop their prices if they want the custom.

€50 here in France cut & colour to my medium length greying hair. Lovely English lady in her home salon. I just don’t have time to get there this week 😢
I’m back to the UK next week and will be paying about £240 to my UK salon based hairdresser. Yes, the colour(s) are slightly better, but £200 better? UK has more expenses involved, but it’s literally 5 x more expensive and I can’t justify it any longer.
It may be my last UK cut & colour.

Just repeating this.

I have huge respect for those working in the NHS, but the OP is not on a pittance. 3k take home a month is decent money.

which home colours have you tried ?

A few women I know who have family outside the south east will have their hair done while visiting. Half the price and usually a better job.

I go to a local salon, full head foils with a cut and blow dry is £60. I would expect a more expensive salon to be £110. £170 seems an awful lot

Exactly.

DS2 and DDIL are both band 6 nurses, DS2 will be starting a band 7 job after Christmas, and they are absolutely not on the breadline. DDIL works part time, two 12 hour shifts a week plus one Sunday a month. DS2 does full time, he does do quite a few nights. They own their own home, not in a particularly cheap area of the country, don’t forego haircuts or new clothes. DGS has a nice little life too.

I do hate threads like this, though. People always grumble about the price of haircuts and nails etc but the women, and it is mainly women, who are doing these jobs are not doing them as a hobby. They still have overheads, families to feeds, houses to pay for and cars to run. You don’t have to go, no one is forcing you to.

If your contract states that you are community based not office/equivalent based then your employer cannot reasonably deduct your home/office/home mileage from your claim, and yo should clarify that with HR and your manager. If you're claiming the 59p per mile you may be taxed on the amount over HMRC max.