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

It depends on your hair obviously! Mine is long with a few layers in the front and it's a nondescript very dull brown colour naturally. I used to have it highlighted and it looked great for about one week. Now I've started cutting it myself and using lightening spray. It's amazing how dramatic people are about lightening spray but the truth is, as long as you spray it evenly and brush it through it gives a very very gradual and natural effect and is no more damaging than the bleach the hairdresser uses. That's as long as your hair isn't too dark to begin with.

Its easy to cut hair badly.

Its the same with everything surely. I can paint my own house (badly) or I can pay a decorator to come in and paint it neatly.

I can take up my own trousers badly or I can pay an alterations person to do it neatly.

I can paint my own nails badly or I can go to a salon and a technican will paint them nicely.

My friend never goes to the hairdresser. She has cut her own (straight) hair for years. She layers the front and cuts the back straight. Except it isn't nice. Sometimes I compliment her when I notice it is shorter than the last time I saw her. But I am trying to be nice to her. Maybe I shouldn't do this because now she, like you, might think she's doing a better job than a hairdresser would.

But extrapolate that out and then you could say why are you going for a meal you can cook at home, why are you getting a taxi you could walk and so on. Why are you going to the supermarket when you can grow your own vegetables. Actually are you Tom Good?

Why do people keep on coming up with this silly old chestnut - "post a pic of YOU then OP!" She's clearly not going to do it, so people need to stop bugging her. As I said, even if she did and her hair looked nice, the naysayers would insist she had used someone else's head/hairstyle.

@Moontan YANBU. At all. Plenty of people will agree, But as I said earlier, you won't get many agreeing on here as some people just love to be contrary.

This 100%

Does the barber wash your hair? Does the hairdresser always? I've never understood why women's hair has to be washed even for a simple trim and men's hair doesn't.

Unanimously is completely incorrect.

Many people have said that they agree and disagree

Yes this is a good point. The one person I know who cuts her own hair also looks awful. I would never, ever tell her that as it would be rude/unkind but its the truth

Cutting hair is very easy. Cutting it well isn't so most people pay professionals

What other things do you do yourself? Do you service your own car? Any painting and decorating? Take the moss off your roof and clean your gutters?

Most of these things you should be able to do yourself but sometimes it's just nice to have a professional with the right tools do it for you.

I like my hairdresser and I like that she takes time with customers to ensure they are happy. And she colours my hair beautifully. Happy to pay her for the job.

If I didn't care what my hair looked like, I might give it a go but I am only too aware how cack-handed I am. I would therefore rather pay someone for their time, skill and materials to make my hair look decent 😂

Exactly!!

To add to my earlier post…I’ve just worked it out. My husband pays £240 per year based on a cut every 3 weeks. I pay £184 a year based on having it done on average every 7.5 weeks.

No it means you’ve posted the same thing on two threads.

Yes, funny how they are ignoring the maths though isnt it?

🤣

Which im allowed to do. I didnt START two threads on the same topic. I replied to someone elses thread

Have mine cut every 6 weeks.. short layered costs me £17 ( l always give £20).. local hairdressers in a row of shops.. she's won awards too. Don't have to go to a huge high street one.

I said ‘pretty much’ unanimously. There’s a difference. But you know that. I think you’re just deliberately being goady now.

I cut my own because it’s really long and I normally wear it in a bun. Also can’t be bothered to go to a hairdresser. I do understand why people go to hairdressers though.

Are you talking inside or outside painting. I have always painted the inside of my own house yes.

None of my housea have needed to have the outside painted

I think some on this thread are being ridiculously touchy and almost offended at the suggestion a non-hairdresser might do a decent job at a simple cut. Why? Bizarre.

When I clean my own bathroom it literally looks just as clean and perfect as after my cleaner's been. When I mow my own lawn, the outcome is just as good as after the gardener's done it. That's not taking anything away from cleaners or gardeners or how hard they work but if someone tried telling me that only an experienced gardener could mow a lawn well then i'd laugh.

I cut my own hair. Started in Covid by following YT tutorials and I never went back to a salon after realising the difference between my work and a professionals work isn't (imo) enough to be worth paying £ for it. I would simply rather spend that money on other things.

I have straight hair to just below my shoulders and find it very simple to do in 3 stages. 1. Under-chin cut to remove length (tied under the chin). 2. Minimal unicorn cut for subtle layers. 3. Slightly feather the fronts. Takes me 20 minutes ish and when i've taken 360 photo's it looks more or less the same as the last time it was cut in a salon.

I understand why people are happy to pay for the convenience of a hairdresser doing it. Also that some hair types would be very difficult to self-cut. But I also think there are a huuggge number of women who simply don't realise how easy it can be to do and would be more than happy to dump the cost if they did.

I did cut my own hair once, but the result... wasn't great.

I wear my hair long and naturally curly and get it cut twice a year by a curl specialist at a cost of £85 per cut, so £170 a year, which works out as slightly over 45p a day.

I'm fine with that.

Well yes, not everyone is skilled at cutting hair despite whatever training hairdressers have.

But women could learn off YouTube or whatever and they will also be at various levels of skill. No one wants to spend time on bad cut on themselves.

@modernminimalist from one curly haired person to another, could you drop his info please?

'Pretty much unanimously' is incorrect grammar. You should know that.

I thought you were going to ask why we pay much more than men.

I used to take my son to a barber where I live. At the time it used to cost £14. He had short hair and was done in 10 minutes, but other men (who hardly had any hair were there for 45 minutes and paid the same as far as I could tell). This was when I was probably paying something like £40 for mine - pre-covid before everything started shooting up.