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.

Ok, so let's break this down..£170 minus VAT, minus product cost (I estimate somewhere around £20-30), minus income tax, minus national insurance contributions. We are already down to about £80.
Take away cost of renting a chair, equipment depreciation. That leaves us with a total of about £70 (this is based on cost of chair in London at £55 per day on the assumption that hairdresser sees 5 clients per day). For a 2,5h appointment this is about £28 per hour pay. Now, considering that self-employed hairdresser is not getting holiday pay, it leaves us with about £20 per hour, I imagine.

Still think nothing justifies the price?

My home hairdresser (very experienced, been working 40 years) charges £60 and I’m in the south - friend just had hers done at a salon and was over £200 😣

Not sure why the undertone of hostility here. I didn’t go into nursing to get rich but I did expect to be able to afford a decent hair cut/ colour on occasion, especially after 30 years in a really responsible and emotionally challenging role. I can’t increase my hours as there is a recruitment freeze. As for the car, my car costs me around £500 a month all in, if I didn’t use it for work we could not offer a full service to patients. I received £27 as they ‘deduct’ my travel distance from home to work and back daily before starting to reimburse me/ us. So even if I don’t go into the office I still lose out on around 90 miles per week before I even start. Most of us don’t even bother to claim anymore!!

I have grown out my hair my grey hair twice. The front is pretty (I think so anyway), lots of different greys and whites and sparkly. But it's a lot of work in a hard water area!

The back however is about 40% grey and 60% ashy brown. It made the grey look yellow and the brown look mucky. The contrast emphasised the different textures too. It was just so ugly and dull and looked unkempt and neglected. I was sad!

OP, there is a home hair dye company called Madison Reed who custom mix your colour, and they'll adjust it for the next time if you find it's not quite right. I've used them and found it very good.

Alternatively, these temporary toning masks are meant to be good:
Wella Color Fresh Mask

Loreal le color gloss

There are MANY hair tutorial videos online. I definitely recommend learning to do the colour yourself and getting professional cuts. Maybe you could just get the professional colour done once or twice a year.

Wow I only pay 80 here for colour wash, highlights, cut and blow dry

Your salary is equivalent to around £50k full time. I think spending £500 a month on a car is ridiculous, on those earnings (not clear if you are FT or PT).

I also wouldn’t spend £170 on my hair as I’ve decided to just go grey.

Are you near London, OP? The big hair companies, Wella etc, have academies where you can get your hair done for a quarter of the price. A mobile/home-based hairdresser will also be cheaper. As an aside, the amount of money that leaves the NHS in profits or PFI payments absolutely makes my blood boil. So sorry.

Unfortunately going to the salon is a luxury many cannot afford and haven’t been able to for a long time in the U.K.

of course it is not an unreasonable charge but sadly now getting further out of reach and into the luxury category of activities.

have you tried a mobile hairdresser? They often have lower overheads so can charge less.

other things I see as a luxury when there is a family in town:
cinema
theatre
eating out
take away
holidays in a hotel
manicured
pedicures
salon waxes
massage
new clothes

however. You are allowed a luxury every now and then so it is worth working out what luxuries you want and when you want them. Perhaps a salon hair appointment is a birthday and Christmas treat?

I stopped colouring my hair because the cost of a salon dye was too high. I have come to like the colour now.

Sadly, my cut still costs more than my day's pay. But I will say, he can cut it so it's a twice a year job and grows out well, so I figure that makes it cost effective.

The car itself cists around £230, the remainder is insurance £70 and petrol!!! I live rurally and as stated need a car for work, it has to be new enough to be reliable.its not a luxury lifestyle choice!!

Actually I think there’s nothing more ageing than hair that looks younger (because of its colour) than the skin it’s on. It makes the skin look even older. Hair has to age in synch with the rest of the body, otherwise it’s as shocking as eg Madonna’s face when you see it next to her hands. Unless you go all out and embrace the dichotomy, but doesn’t sound like this is the objective here.

I think you'll find someone working at home in your budget, look for that

I pay over £100 for cut and highlights at home from a mobile hairdresser. I dread to think what a salon would cost

Well yes… that’s my point. I’m shocked that nursing pays so little. I’m in interpreting. Highly skilled work but the OP will definitely be working harder than me. In my estimation anyway.

I just got my hair done for 125, full head nightlights, supposed to be caramel but I’m ginger! Such a waste of money!

@Burntout01 , I feel your pain. I’m retired, I used to go to the hairdresser 3 times a year but now I stretch it out to 2. there are so many things I’m super careful about spending money on. I’ve spent my life being careful and prudent and now this government is going to cost me probably about 10K a year in additional council tax and an extra 2% on my income. Why did I bother doing all the right things to be self sufficient in my old age? I should have spent, spent, spent and relied on the state to support me. 🤬

YANBU and it's depressing the way costs are just spiriling and spiriling in this country.

I think quite a few people must be stretching out hairdresser appointments, or stopped going altogether now. I rang my hairdresser this week on the off chance of maybe getting squeezed in before Christmas and actually had the choice of three slots next week - that would never have happened in previous years, if you weren't booked in months in advance you'd have little chance of a last minute December appointment.

It must cost a lot to hone haircutting scissors and to sterilise barber-shop tools and implements these days.

My early July "senior men's" haircut was $AUD20 on a weekday.

Then, in mid-September, the same shop asked for $AUD25.

My 2025 shock level reached new heights when, last Tuesday, the new fee reached $AUD$30.

Percentage wise, that's a 50% jump in just five and a half months. My pension rose only 3.75% since March, 2025.

You should shop around. I pay around $200 ( about 100 quid) every seven weeks for a half head with cut and blow dry, but I could easily pay triple that if I went to the local fancy salon. Twentyish years ago I lived in London and used to pay 170 quid to go to a poncey salon served champagne, those were the days!😁

I became sensitive to hair dye after my pregnancy, but it is only the permanent ones. Have you tried the semi-permanent? It lasts longer than I need before my roots grow out anyway!

Have you asked around in your area for local recommendations? I was going to the most expensive salon in town but switched upon recommendation of a friend to a little salon on a side street. My colour is far better and it costs a good £50-£100 less per appointment depending on whether I'm having a root touch up or full foils

So a £50 increase since September,how can they possibly justify this?

Honestly? I think it's time for us to start embracing our glorious silvers.
Hair dye is so expensive to get done professionally, so not good for your hair/scalp anyway, and grows out so darn quickly.
I've seen a number of women who have been dying their hair for decades who have suddenly just embraced allowing it to go completely gray/silver/white and my God doesn't it just look amazing on them!
I think you probably have to get one more color done, (professionally, for them to dye all of your hair white/silver so that when your roots grow in, they'll all match), but one more professional dye job beats going every 6 to 8 weeks forever, doesn't it.
We gotta stop doing this to ourselves.

I have someone come to my home, but even when they were salon based it was nowhere near that cost for an excellent cut and colour

Look around. It's obviously a very expensive salon