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.

Not sure where you live, but in my area £170 would be an appointment with somebody senior at a top end salon. There are plenty of cheaper salons that charge less. You need to shop around. As others have said, mobile hairdressers are usually substantially cheaper, and will likely be less than half that price.

My mum always had a mobile hairdresser because it was much more affordable. Don’t try to live a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget by going to a high end salon. It’s like going to Prada and complaining that clothes are expensive.

What an absolute joke. I'm in Dublin, equivalent to London and a long hair cut and blow dry is 50 to 60 euro.

It depends on the grey, my friends is a sort of sparkly silver it’s lovely, mine was a sort of streaky iron grey mixed in with black, I looked like a badger having a bad day. I truly hated it. Became allergic to hair dye, now after a few years I have found a dye I’m fine with and much prefer not being grey, it’s a very light brown and as my hair is streaky the dye take differently so looks like I have highlights.

Cut is £25 where I live. There is an express hairdressers and a dry cut which is all they offer is a tenner, mens is £8. Often a queue.

Would you consider growing the colour out and just doing the cut? Colouring is extremely laborious and expensive,

I get you - cost of living is crazy and you have to be very careful about where you spend your luxuries (if you can afford them).

Practically there’s a few options

• save money elsewhere
• pick up more work
• find a cheaper stylist
• go less often
• have less done (cut but nothing else?)

Only you can decide what the best option is (or what’s practical).

But I’m sorry you gave to give up one of your few luxuries.

£50 here in Yorkshire, home salon.
OP you need to find a cheaper place. Look into people doing it from home. Mine is £48 every 3 months.

Never! Grey ages me terribly. I colour mine myself with Clairol from the supermarket. Very easy and quick and a good result. My mum is 82 and still colours her hair and has no intention of ever stopping.

Wow. I'm £62 for an all over tint, foils, cut and rough blow dry and that's more than I'd like to be paying 😳

Exactly.

She or he is entitled to charge what they see fit. Your wage is irrelevant.

A mobile hairdresser would probably be cheaper. I pay £80 for full highlights and a cut and blow dry plus curled. My hair is long.

As a nurse, you are contributing just as much for the NHS business of staff costs, electricity and everything else a business needs, through your taxes and NI deductions.
But, if hairdressers are factoring all those business costs, it seems unfair to say nurses do not pay that. They absouloutly do, through their taxes and ni they get deducted from their pay.

It just comes across as bad business sense to argue, ohh well you get paid a wage but do not have to factor in those costs...if you are pricing out people who take home £150 a day, then you must work in a very elitist area of the country.

So unfair to say nurses for not pay that. If that hairdresser needed hospital treatment, they too are paying for the care provided through health care workers, the same as if that hairdresser needed hospital care. Its almost like saying a teacher doesn't pay for their child being educated in a state school..because they are a teacher.

The point is most people are just fed up of service costs going up and up...and a service that used to be affordable is now out of budget, even when you work to earn yoor money, as you did previously.

People arguing about costs etc, ridiculous, as the poster will still work her hours, just won't be able to afford to visit the hairdresser. And if there are no customers from the people that work 12 1/2 shifts, week in week out. The nurse will still be in employment. And the ones comlaining they have a business and over heads and have to charge so much to stay afloat, will not stay afloat, as it is not possible for customers to keep up with. That simple.

Then you would have to stop the explains to customers why uou have to charge so much to stay afloat, you would have to engage with the people that instigate such charges for a business to stay afloat.

Is that not a valid point though? If someone is earning g that much a day and cannot afford a hairdressers appy. Then there is an issue in the costs of running a business....because most earn alot less that that a day.

So, if the traction continues, then the outlook is more bleak for the hairdresser, than the person who cannot afford it. Custom will go down. So it would be just as bad for the business owner hairdresser, eventually?

You can become a model for on of the companies that trains hair stylists. It is much cheaper and it gives me something to talk about when I say I am a part time model!

Have you tried a more gentle/less chemical Holland & Barrett type of hair dye? I use that and it seems to be less harsh for my sensitive skin. Good luck ;)

There's a certain point where things aren't worth it. Coffee at 5 pounds... No. Beer at 8 pounds... No. Don't just suck it up.

Embrace your natural grey (which I bet will actually look fab) and spend the money on other more affordable self care. Or just save it!

You do not chip into people's wages...this person will pay you for a haircut. You get healthcare free when needed, due to living in a society that has this health care system. You do not 'chip in' to pay theory wages. You live in the UK. This person also has the same costs deducted from their wages, as you do. So, their health care is covered to the same extent as yours, gp appt, emergency a & e care...or more prolonged treatment for example cancer treatment, if needed. So ignorant to pretend you do not realise that.

I pay £80 for a half head at a home salon, £90 for dd. Dd’s is for a full head and a lot of highlights as the hairdresser leaves only a small amount of natural hair to break it up and stop the colour from being flat. Maybe shop around?

Would you mind sharing the brand of dye you're happy with? My scalp can react to some but for budget reasons I like to use one at home. Plus I hate sitting in a hairdressers for 3 hours.

@Burntout01 I'm wincing at the box prices these days, but my head is still in 2019 prices.

Where are all the people in the NW going? I’m south Manchester way and have just paid £120 for parting foils, cut and blow and a toner 🫠

My hairdresser costs the same. We are in the ‘poorer’ part of town too.
not only is the cost hugely prohibitive but the time it takes to do it too, I can’t afford the time almost as much as the money.

I’ve stopped going and my hair looks crappy as a consequence. It’s impacting my confidence too, it’s amazing how much can be tied up with hair and self image .

Going grey has completely changed the texture and it’s strawlike most of the time no matter what I do.

I have mixed Afro Caribbean hair and it is so hard to manage. I can’t afford the specialist salons which are much further away, so I migrated to the ’cheaper’ one where they don’t really understand my hair type so I’m not even overly happy with it even after spending almost half a day and the best part of two hundred big ones.

I top up my roots myself around once a month. I keep trying to out grow my grey but I can only get to an inch or two and I can’t abide the badger stripe.
i wish I’d grown it out in lockdown as I originally planned.

YANBU OP

I’m just quoting this so I can hopefully find it when I’m more awake and dye shopping. I desperately need gloss!

I Agree @Burntout01 costs have gone mad!

I stopped highlighting my hair - it was ruining my hair anyway. A chin length bob, going back to my original colour and just doing my roots and 12m later, my hair is thicker and feels more healthy. People tell me I look younger too!

I go to 2 places - vidal sassoon academy, London and my local salon. It costs c£7 every few months for an at home dye to cover any greys I have and c£35 for a cut and blow dry. Much more affordable.

I now only go twice a year to get half a head - occasionally do whole head. My hair stylist recommended an interim semi permanent colour to use in between at home to cover the greys. It's not a box dye - I buy a large bottle of Colour Tonor which lasts years and a small tube of the colour my stylist recommended, which lasts for several applications to mix with it and use it to blend in the greys that show every few weeks. While the grey coverage isn't 100%, it works well enough. Much cheaper and very easy - just put on to dry hair with a brush, then wash out 20 minutes later.

Because the colour is lighter than most of my (artificially coloured) hair, it only covers the greys and doesn't lighten the other colours, so there's no obvious line between newer and older hair. Certainly better than going grey, though in my case it would be more badger, as I still have sections of natural dark hair.

This is a good one.

I also do my own gel nails, fake tan, pedicures and waxing. I use student clinics for facials and massages whenever I can. Saving me SO much money, $1000's a year.