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.

I alternate ‘highlights’ appointments with ‘just the roots coloured’ appointments and that makes it a bit cheaper. It works for my colouring. Could that be an option for you?

They will still have to pay for products, equipment, an accountant, their own pensions, money for sick days, holidays etc.

Just cancelled mine, £90 for all over brown. Going to have to do it myself

Hi Op,

sorry I haven’t read the full thread, not sure if this has been suggested. An option could be to take up private work as a nurse to increase your hours? This would be better paid then the NHS or you could do beauty treatments from your home for example Botox etc. More people would likely come to you than a beautician as you are a nurse.

Regardless of their overheads or the relative imbalance in pensions, the increased costs are pricing out more and more of the market. Good pensions don’t give spare cash now. No one is winning and it’s a game of last man standing. We will see more and more people with dodgy teeth, home cut/dyed hair and spectacles fixed with plasters, just like the 1970s. I would guess there will be a number of non-essential service providers who will close as they lose the next income band of customers.

I agree with you.

I now colour my own hair because of the cost but also because I did not think that the colouring I was getting at a salon for an all over colour was any better than what I could do at home!

Ultimately businesses who charge silly prices will just keep losing clients.

You are on a good salary. You can no longer afford this particular hairdresser. Find a cheaper one.

@BustopherPonsonbyJonesi don’t think needing essential dental work or the correct prescription glasses are comparable with getting your hair done.
Wanting cosmetic dental stuff to have ‘perfect’ glowing white teeth, or wanting expensive designer glasses frames would be better comparisons.

I think some people are just jumping on the idea that the OP is a nurse and does an important job (true) and therefore it’s disgraceful that she can’t afford a full head of highlights at an expensive salon. It’s not a right!

and I repeat: her take home pay is 3k a month if she works full time. Thats not the breadline. And if she only works part time, that’s a luxury!

’We need to put up prices as we aren’t making enough money.”
”We can’t afford your prices as our wages haven’t gone up to cover them.”

Options: go less often or not at all, try to find somewhere cheaper (good luck), hair dye at home.

Likely consequences: many hairdressers close (if other people’s wages don’t go up), they are unemployed and have less money to spend, other businesses suffer, recession.

I’m not a nurse but I feel a nurse’s salary should cover a hair cut and colour occasionally and that they shouldn’t need to do additional jobs to afford it. It would be great if we could get a handle on rent prices and utility costs as they are really fuelling a lot of this.

She can afford a cut and colour, just not where she goes now. I earn more than the OP and cannot afford a cut and colur at a lot of London salons. The hairdressing market is pretty competitive, there will be cheaper alternatives.

It’s about 2 or 3 days pay for me. That’s why I only get it done once or twice a year.

I stopped coloring (and if I do, I go for the box) and get a cut twice a year. The cut is £30 (ends of long hair). My hairdresser also offers "quick curls" for £20 so might do rhat few times a year before a party since I'm no longer spending tons for cut and color.

@crossedlines I agree but it is matter of scale. You can ditch the beautician and hairdresser first, then the hygienist, then the six monthly dental check up (or you go less frequently), the same with the opticians. Not great as you cause problems later but it means you can pay for one of those sudden emergencies.

The OP has to make a decision and it is a decision that millions of other people are obviously making. It won’t kill her not to have her hair done but it is a sorry state of affairs that she can’t afford it. She gets a decent (ish) wage but it no longer covers all it used to cover. It seems like the groups being priced out now are nurses, social workers, teachers, police officers and the like. That’s a huge market and it is a gamble on the part of those in the service industry to keep raising prices. They must think it will work. I have doubts.

The cost of living in the US is completely and utterly insane...
It's bad in the UK too but I sincerely hope we're not headed the same way.

My post was in response to someone saying that they charge these rates as they have to run a business, pay staff, NI etc.
All I did was to point out that many hairdressers are self employed, they rent the space. So no, the business owner doesn't pay staff ( you might some who do have a few) but many no, and no NI etc. That was all !
Product costs I expect are paid through the rental cost. And you are right they will include costs for holidays or absences into their overall charges.

Last thing we need is for NHS nurses to leave the NHS.

The OP like so many others complaining about service prices on MN is comparing the price of a service (out of which all those business costs are yet to come) to her take home pay. That is the point people are making.

The reality is that very few hairdressers would match a band six salary, nor would they have the gold plated NHS pension (or half of one) or all the paid holidays, sick pay etc. I’m bemused at the “need" to run a new lease hire car - carers and community nurses I know run much older vehicles from reliable makes which are cheaper to run. The expenses policy for petrol sounds like the standard HMRC rules for claiming car expenses.

The OP is reasonable to make the point “prices have gone up, I’m having to cut back” - five minutes on MN will find a dozen similar threads discussing where and how posters are having to cut costs. They are not reasonable to imply that due to their job they are entitled to keep luxuries any more than anyone else.

Regrettably hair, beauty treatments, meals out, cinema trips etc are exactly the luxuries pretty much every family is cutting back on and its all a bit shit but its not that many years ago that these were luxuries most people saved for anyway. We miss them when we have become used to them and its disappointing but its completely unreasonable to complain about the overall cost of a private business service by comparing it to take home pay from a job with significant public sector benefits.

If you cant justify the cost then just don't book it.

I do my hair at home as i cant afford it to be done by a hairdresser.

I don't bother now. Colour it at home and DH cuts the ends for me. It's one length long anyway so hard to get wrong.
I can afford to get it done, I just don't think for what I want it's worth it. I can't be bothered with the travel to my nearest place (tricky parking) and forced chat every six weeks either.

I'm always flabbergasted at the prices people pay for their hair on here.

I live in a small town with quite a few hair salons and it's about £70 for a cut, colour and blow dry.

That's a lot for me to afford so I get it done very rarely.

Just shop around different salons OP and see if anywhere is cheaper.

That’s a crazy amount of money. I used to colour my hair at home for many years then switched to salon but after the cost kept rising I decided to make peace with my greys. I did have some blonde highlights put in and they’re still good after two years so I might do that again when it’s back to mainly grey😊

I’m 70 and have never coloured my hair. Perhaps I am lucky as I only have some white bits at the side. I was naturally blonde when young and regular swimming has died it to quite a nice colour! My home hairdresser gives me a trim every couple of months for £40. All the salons I asked were astronomical just for a trim ! (London)

I think it is right this is one of those areas where expectations have changed. When I was a child in the late 80s, a local mum who had had hairdressing training would come round and give the whole family a trim for a bit of pin money.

So your take home pay is close to £55K pa - that's £150 x 365.

Not bad.

You're paying for the hairdresser, products, business rates, water rates, electric, premises rent or mortgage, cleaners, etc.

I pay around £170 for half a head of lowlights, cut and finish.

If you have you hair done every 16 weeks the £170 works out at close to £10 a week- 3 coffees or fewer.

As for the car, my car costs me around £500 a month all in

The way you described this was as if you used £500 of fuel a month to get to work.

Obviously you must get mileage at the going rate, and your other expenses are fixed costs you would have anyway.