Why do women pay so much for haircuts

[Moontan]

My colleague just came in complaining about how expensive it is to get her hair cut. She paid 100 pounds.

I was thinking - why don't more women cut their own hair

I think that advertising and marketing has convinced a lot of women - that they must pay someone else a huge amount of money to cut their hair for them.

When it is actually very easy to cut it ourselves.

My mum always cut her own hair.

i also always cut my own hair. Its really easy to cut it very straight at the back, and I also cut layers at the front of my hair

I cut my own hair because the cost is ridiculous. I've gotten pretty good at it over the years, but have a long hairstyle so it's very easy (I know short hair is much harder to cut well)

My DH does pay less for his cut, but he's in there for a lot less time. When you check how long we're each in for, and how much we get charged, he's paying more per minute to sit in a pokey barber's shop than I am to sit in a nicely appointed salon, where an apprentice greets me, takes care of my bag and coat, then brings me a drink and something to read while the qualified professional does a complicated cut for my thick curly hair that I cannot do myself. So I think I get a better deal than him, actually.

Well OP, I think it's because a lot of women are a bit vain about their hair.

I don't exclude myself from that btw. I go to one of the best hairstylists in the city, though not the most expensive he is expensive. But his cut is always really good and grows out well.

And I find a good haircut goes a long way to making me look polished and competent. Good shoes are a more expensive way to do this, but I can manage to avoid too many cuts with the right style.

Also - I think a good salon is an enjoyable experience for a lot of women, so that's also a motivator.

Nope. In and out in 20 minutes

my hairdresser charges very reasonably and is worth every penny , she has become a dear friend who I love , Id be happy to spend the money just for a few hours of her company

I'm not in the UK and I pay the equivalent of UK £29 to have my short hair cut. There is no way I could cut the back of it myself. Even if I could I wouldn't, I enjoy the visits to my hairdresser every 8 weeks.

It’s easy for you, we don’t know , your hair might look a mess. It’s not easy for everyone. I know I couldn’t cut my hair straight.

It makes perfect sense - it's free time they have to spend entirely on themselves and for me, it relaxes me to go get a haircut. It makes me feel relaxed and happy having someone wash and massage my head and then style my hair. Whatever you decide to do in your free time probably wouldn't appeal to me either. That's why we are all different. A concept that seems to be out of your grasp. HTH

I have forgiving long wavy hair that just needs the dry ends taking off occasionally and can manage that myself. Sometimes I go to a salon with low overheads in a cheaper area of town because their work is better than mine.

There can be discrepancies in barber/ salon costings which show up when you have a boy/ teenager with longer hair. His trims are considerably cheaper at a barbers than a salon.

But most women are paying for more complex cuts and treatments like colour and that time is money. Ultimately salons charge what people will pay, and people chose to go back to salons and barbers when they reopened after lockdown, and they are one of the few business types holding strong on the high street (even discounting the come and go barbers that can be used as fronts for money laundering)

I have stupidly thick, massively curly hair that most of the time lives in a pony tail as it’s just too difficult to make it look nice.
I found the best hairdresser for curly hair who told me what to do and now I always look like I’ve just come from the salon, thanks to her tutelage.
I would have paid £200 for someone to show me what I should have been doing since I was a child! Instead I pay £100 every 6 months to keep it under control and it is worth it.

Agree. DH and I started cutting hair for each other during Covid. After that we realised we could do it and have saved ourselves a fortune. Haven't been back to a hairdresser since. I don't think either of us look any worse for it.

Exactly.
I have a complex cut and colour which I 100% couldn’t do myself. So although theoretically I could cut my own hair, I couldn’t cut it in this style.

But not all. Mine is short and no more complicated than the average older man with short hair. They already differentiate between women's short and women's long hair, price-wise - and the short hair price for women is STILL considerably more than the men's single price.

Exactly the style I have . I've also used local hairdressers who have managed to hack it very badly, now paying much more at a city salon where they're cutting it perfectly.
Longer hair yes can possibly be cut at home, but mine is definitely a job for someone else!

A hairdresser butchered my asymmetric bob when my regular hairdresser was on maternity leave. She also managed to mess the colour up.

Which is why I drive 45 mins each way for my hair appointments rather than use the salon a 5 min walk away.

I would struggle to cut my own hair at the back.

I have a mobile hairdresser who comes to my house. She charges £12.50 for each person so DD2 and I have ours done by her every two or three months and it doesn't cost silly money.

I don't want to pay salon prices as I think many of them seem extortionate.

I have a curly cut every 9-10 months. Its £55. Paid £125 for the initial cut.

many hairdressers have no idea how to cut curly hair. So i go to one 2 hours away who only does curly cuts. And i book 2-3 appointments in advance.

I go to Salon every 4 weeks for wash/cut & blow-dry. She thins my hair out and straightens it. I have a jaw line straight bob. £25 + £5 tip. Will also book in-between for wash & blow dry & straighten if I have a special occasion to attend, that is £13 + £2 tip. Compared to a previous salon I used to go to, these prices are very reasonable and feel I can go more frequently.

This is my hair. It’s not coloured but there’s no way I could cut that myself

I dye and cut my own hair, it's just a plain Bob and a bit shaped at the front. It's also wavy, so looks fine even if not done perfectly. I have cut my DH hair and youngest DS hair since covid. My eldest has layers on top and a fade, so he goes to barbers for that as bit beyond me. I've saved thousands over the years.

I paid £150 for a cut and colour today and loved every minute. No way would I give that up to butcher my own hair.

To be honest, I don’t think it’s that easy to cut your own hair into a nice style. Yes, I could probably trim the front of my hair if it was really necessary to do so, but I wouldn’t want to wield scissors to the back of my hair, it would probably look horrendous after I’d finished. No, I’ll leave it to the professionals. Yes, I know that we women tend to pay a lot more to have our hair cut and styled generally speaking, but what is the alternative if we don’t want our hair to look as if it’s been done by an amateur? ( I know I would look as if I’d been dragged through a hedge backwards if I cut it myself 😂).

I pay $63 plus a tip every 5 or 6 weeks to a lovely guy who does a wonderful job on my hair and chats to me about books we both like and movies, and asks after my children and grandchildren. He's about fifteen years younger than me and I've asked him never to retire until I shuffle off this mortal coil!

It is easy to cut hair🤭🤭 you do you darling. I’d love to see the state of your hair. It might be easy to cut random bits off but it is not easy to cut hair properly.
Nothing to do with marketing, most women are intelligent enough to know that it is a job much better trusted to a paid professional. All about finding one you like.

Why do women pay so much for haircuts? The same reason they might "pay so much" for nails handbags, clothes, meals out, cosmetic procedures.... Etc. Because they want to. Because they can. Because they deserve it. Because it's nobody's business but theirs. You go on thinking your hair game is as good as a professional's. I used to meet women like you when I was a nail tech. Their nails were usually horrendous but that's their perogative. It's called free will and we all have it. Also many of us are too busy living full lives to GAF about petty shit like this.