To feel scammed? Hairdressers

[NeverEverAgain11]

I've been going to the same chain of hairdressers for the last 6 or so years and always had the same service, balayage (colour) with a cut and finish - because they run promotions whereby if you book a colour alongside a cut and finish you get 50% off the colour)

When I first became a customer of theirs I'd pay between £130 and £140.

The last time I went, last year, the price had risen to £170 (ish)

DP kindly offered to pay for me to get my hair done this week as a treat. Upon booking under the same offer I always book under I was quoted £190 which felt steep but I only go once a year so it didn't seem wildly overpriced as a one off cost.

I felt bad about the price as DP doesn't have a huge amount of disposable money so I said if he paid £150 I'd pay the rest myself.

I booked for today and in the lead up had two calls changing the booking, the first call said they'd changed me over to a senior stylist for time saving purposes but said it would be at no added cost to me. Great.

The second call this morning they had to push my apt back an hour so I was aimlessly wandering around to pass time.

Fast forward to paying and I was charged £230.

I was taken aback and just paid on autopilot as there were two other customers waiting to pay and I didn't want to show myself up. I've felt increasingly annoyed/disappointed on the way home.

In hindsight I wish I'd have questioned the disparity between prices but it's too late now.

I feel like I've been scammed, as daft as that sounds. If I'd have known that would happen I wouldn't have bothered.

Am I being unreasonable or is this unacceptable?

Edited to add - I have shoulder length very fine hair. I only had about an inch taken off from the ends so I couldn't have incurred additional charges for having complex hair.

I think the most likely scenario is that people at the till didn't know about the deal offered by them and charged the full price for a senior stylist.

I'd speak to them and write a complaint if they ignore you

🤨 what? The OP has already explained the whole thing. Did you post without actually reading all her comments?

A well.known salon here in aberdeen did similar to my.eldest. her dad took her and rhey cha ged her from a junior to a senior stylist for a trim...so from £30 to £70!!!

I was raging.

Olaplex would be the extra cost for definate but they did it in a sneaky way like not saying that will be an extra £50

YWU to not challenge the price at the time BUT wtf with those prices!!

No way would I pay that for a cut & colour.

It looks stunning in the second photo, much warmer and in better condition.

The warmer is the problem though. I'm incredibly fair skinned and suit cool tones.

Well your hair is pretty but it is up to them to make sure of correct colour match .
Also they’ve charged you the senior stylist rate when they said they’d charge at a stylists rate AND they didn’t tell you the cost of Olaplex .

Urgh I hate having thick hair....when I used to use the hairdressers 10 years ago they used to charge me a lot extra because of my thick (shoulder length) hair! About £160 a decade ago...absolute rip off. I don't dare go back now my hairs waist length, just surviving on self trims and an annual box dye 😂 the thought of sitting down, getting my hair cut, not liking it and paying over £200 to smile and say thanks, makes me shudder! I'd rather f* it up myself for free

This type of thing happened the last few times I went. The hairdresser kept adding 'complimentary' extras (like special conditioning treatments) and then charging more. I wish I had challenged them. Instead, I stopped going there.

You can buy olaplex online for just over £30 for a few treatments.....
Honestly I can't bring myself to pay for hairdressers these days - they're such a rip off. apply Olaplex myself or use a keratin treatment and dye it with a non toxic Holland and Barrett dye....and have it cut infrequently at my local college or a cheapo place in the market.....and honestly I don't think you can tell the difference....not hundreds of pounds worth of difference anyway.

Hi, long time hairdresser/salon owner.

Prices vary hugely based on overheads, a salon in a big city centre will be much more expensive than a salon on the outskirts so will be considerably cheaper.
However l would say this is high end pricing.

ln my opinion Olaplex is a bit last year as many lighteners have built in bond protection and l would expect a high end salon would be using this as given and not charging extra for this to protect the integrity of the hair.

Regarding the lift, Balayage is a technique (French and means to sweep) and produces a sun-kissed look, if a high level of lift is required then the lightener has to incubated in foil so the heat enables the lift and a different lightener will be used. Balayage uses a clay lightener which drys on the outside producing a dry crust to stop it from transferring to other hair that isn’t being lifted. So you’re not going to get a huge level of lift with Balayage, also the lighter the natural hair the better the lift will be.

lf you have had balayage before and the stylist has achieved the lift that you are happy with then this suggests it wasn’t left on long enough. If the stylist left it on for 50mins then that means it’s lifted as much as it’s going to as the lightener will have lost its strength by then.

Also please remember that the ends of you hair will be naturally lighter as has been subjected to the elements so the roots may not be quite as light as the ends.

Also longer hair will be more as more product will be needed.

In defence of us hairdressers it has been and still is an incredibly tough time for us, our stock has increased hugely as have all of our running costs. However my prices are no where near that of your salon.

lf you are unhappy this is a very easy fix and if you only have it done once a year this is still great value.

l hope this helps, you have lovely hair.

Being charged so much for an Olaplex treatment is preposterous. You know that you can buy a whole bottle of Olaplex 3, approximately a year's supply, for £28? John Lewis have it. (It's even cheaper online, although you cannot be sure of the authenticity) Put it on dry or wet. I use it weekly.

As an ex hairdresser (assistant manager) please give them a call and point out the mistake. It may he that the person at the till did not know and uou got charged the senior stylist price by mistake.
Im sure they will happily refund the difference.
Also if extras are added ie olaplex they should state the cost upfront if its an extra cost otherwise you can refuse as you haven't agreed the price.

I used to go to a very expensive salon years ago, then the colourist discreetly asked me via a third party outside of the salon if I’d be interested in having home visits from her.
that was 12 years ago, she’s been coming to my house since & charges a fraction of the price plus does a fabulous job.

This Salon sounds a bit tricky with prices and product descriptions.

A lot of small businesses have been playing this shitty card just recently and increasing and making up prices because they can.

If you think this Salon's Website prices are confusing.Which l think they are doing deliberately

Report them to Trading Standards at you Local Council.

Totally agree!
The price to get your hair cut and coloured are insane!

Phone them and tell them the price you were quoted. Give them the date you phoned and the time. Ask them if the phone calls are recorded and can they look up the records. They honestly won't bother and will just credit you back the difference.

This is how hairdressers are going to go out of business!
The random pricing infuriates me. Even trying to cost up from the website is like juggling jelly!
I left my last hairdresser because of the lack of pricing transparency and now use a great mobile hairdresser who charges fair prices.

your hair is so so much longer than shoulder length, it's half way down your back - could that be part of why it's more?

This happened to me years ago at a Zaks chain when my hairdresser called in sick so a “senior stylist” did my appointment and charged me more. It’s bang out of order because I didn’t ask for a senior stylist and they didn’t tell me beforehand- same at you and similarly I didn’t want to feel embarrassed challenging the price! Something I also now regret. I now always go local and always get the same person and she’s brilliant and it’s a lot cheaper! Swap hairdressers anyway because that’s extortionate before the price hike. You are right to be annoyed.

This is why I book a wet cut. I always hate the blow dry anyway.

Rush did this to me all the time. I’d specifically select a less experienced stylist for the haircut so it’s cheaper as my hair is also fine and only needs a trim, but a more experienced stylist for the colour. They never once given me the stylists I selected, and it always ended up more expensive than the price when booking, with no communication beforehand that stylist or price would be different.

As they didn’t include stylists chosen or price in their confirmation email, I never felt like I could question it when paying as I didn’t have proof.

They’d also always ask you on the spot if you want to include a tip for your stylist loud enough that if you ever said no (which I felt like saying no as I was already paying more than I was meant to!), the stylist in question would obviously hear. I just stopped going in the end, the 50% off colour wasn’t worth it.

They sounds like a set of arseholes! Glad you've left. If more people did, they'd be forced to behave reasonably!

I went in today to complain.

They've refunded the olaplex and agreed to fix the colour.

After some back and forth with the girl who did the colour on Saturday she agreed it needs to be redone and suggested it be done by somebody more experienced in colour services (somebody I've seen before and was happy with) as she's only a senior stylist (her words)