What is an expensive hair cut?

[wtar19]

I've read on a few of the 'how to look polished' threads that an expensive hair cut helps pull your look together but I'm not too sure what that means - please help me and share your wisdom!

I pay £90 for a trim (SW London) which feels bloody expensive but it doesn't look particularly special or swishy. Maybe I just have rubbish hair!

Do people go to really top salons? Or is it more about what you ask for? And if so, what kind of styles do you think look polished?

I live in a village, not near London, and pay £65 for full head foils and in between root colour. Every other visit I also have a cut which is an extra £15 so £80.

£90 for a trim does seem a lot!

Probably you font have rubbish hair but would benefit from a restyle, maybe at a new salon?

I think it's not so much the cut as what you do to it yourself afterwards - my hair looks much more polished when I've taken the time to blow dry it properly or style it with tongs. If I wash it and leave it - not so much. I think an good haircut helps but it's what you do yourself that makes the difference. Says me with a scraggy fringe and caught in the rain hair!

I think that the haircut depends so much on the person cutting your hair - as you would expect.

I have spent so many years trying so many different hairdressers and I have come to the conclusion that expensive definitely doesn't always equal good.

However you might find someone who is really good and who is more expensive simply because they are spending more time.

I have had expensive haircuts in London and found them a bit boring (or bad even) but then had amazing haircuts which were cheap and just round the corner from the expensive places.

Recently I have been on the hunt again for a new hairdresser after moving to another part of the country. After lots of trial and error I found someone who cuts hair really well for certain styles and charges about £40. This is seen as expensive for where I live.

However when I want a slightly different style to a plain bob or similar then I go to another town and hairdresser which is way more expensive- about £65 for a cut. The big difference is that he does a similar cut and spends a similar amount of time cutting the hair whilst wet. He then spends almost the same amount of time though cutting it whilst dry to finish it. It then looks amazing and grows out really well. I also get lots of comments about how good it looks.

I think that the local hairdresser could do a similar thing because he is very skilled however his business model dictates the amount of time he can spend and also his local market and their willingness to pay.

Sorry for waffling on - in short - I think you should try a few different places and if you aren't happy with anywhere (whether cheap or expensive) then keep moving.

I have a Louise Brooks type bob - very blunt and sharp, short fringe - and pay £62 for a cut every five weeks. My hairdresser is fantastic, but I would say the thing that makes the haircut “great” is that she is happy for me to take a comb to it and say, trim those straggly bits please.

I go to an Aveda salon (not in London) and while the allocated time for a cut is 45 minutes, she will spend longer to make sure I am 100% happy. I frequently get compliments from random people about my hair, and always give them my hairdresser’s name, not just the salon name.

I also agree with pp, I wash, blow-dry and run through straighteners every morning unless I’m knocking about the house. If I leave it to air-dry, it looks okay but nowhere near as good.

£90 for a trim? This is why I'm a happy northerner. I have very long hair and foils and cut cost £80. My hairdresser is great.

I have started spending a lot on my haircuts, £150 plus, but the hairdresser takes a couple of hours....cutting my wavy hair while dry so they can shape it with more nuance.
I pay less to them than I would a plumber etc, so I think it's good value.
I love my hair now, absolutely love it, after having a decade of crap hair, I am so happy with it.

I had my hair cut in the summer as a walk in in a salon on the south coast. It cost £45 for a restyle and blow dry, fantastic longish layered bob (my hair is grey). Since then a local hairdresser has twice taken it back to the original, wet cut, £15 each time. I get endless compliments. Doesn’t have to cost a bomb to look expensive.

I think it's the blow dry that maketh hair swish, rather than the haircut.

Have you tried using rollers? I keep meaning to but I'm lazy. I don't even own a hairdryer. My hair is flat and awful... 🙈

If I was paying that and it wasn’t fabulous, I would find a new hairdresser. My cut costs a fortune, but it looks bloody fabulous for ages (colour is a different story)

@swissmilk where do you get your wavy hair cut please if you're in Yorkshire?

I pay £65 for half head foils plus trim and blow dry. My hairdresser is mobile. When I used to visit her in a salon she was over £100. £90 for a trim and blow is extortionate. If its not looking amazing. Move on.

Sorry @IdblowJonSnow nowhere near Yorkshire!

I used to think that paying a lot = better haircut until the hairdresser I had been going to for years moved to a different salon and her prices tripled. But she was still in the same hairdresser...Then I noticed that in the town where I lived, one of the most sought after hairdressers moved salons often and her prices moved all over the place depending on where she was working.

So now I'll give anyone a go!

£70 at a good Surrey salon. DM for details

I think it's the skill of the hairdresser that's key. I pay a whopping £17 for a cut and blow dry (a friend is a mobile hairdresser, so I pay £40 for me, DD, DH and 2DSs to have our hair cut) but she just knows how to cut my hair to make it sit nicely. I have thick, wavy hair and only one other hairdresser I've had previously has been able to do it 'right'. It always looks better if I blow dry it before the straighteners, but for me it's the actual cut that needs to be spot on, I'm just lucky that my hairdresser is a cheap one! That said, if she ever went back into a salon I'd go with her.

The condition of your hair will play a massive part, I've just deep conditioned my hair (by sleeping in a hair mask) and boy how that has changed my style.

Hair colour plays a big part in it looking polished, does it compliment the skin tone, are the headlights in the correct place etc.

Personally I would say to the stylist I wasn't happy, the style doesn't suit my life, how can I make it better.

I have a semi colour and cut every 6 weeks and that’s about £130 in a trendy bit of East London with a senior stylist. Every 3-4 months I get a half head of foils which bumps it up to £220 or so.

My hairdresser, bless her, told me that her goal is to make me look “expensive”. I have a blunt straight collarbone length cut as I’ve got fine hair. The blonde foils are mostly underneath and create movement. I did have to learn how to blow dry properly to get the best out of it.

Go to a salon where they will spend time and treat you to a half hour consultation. Ask a friend who has great hair where they go. Get the top person - usually the director to cut it when you have had the consultation. I can recommend somewhere if you inbox me. You will not be disappointed

Goodness, I get a full head highlights with cut and blow dry for about £60. Took me a few tries to get the right person for what I wanted

I paid £250 this week for a half head of highlights and a haircut. Central London, at a (multi) award winning salon with my hair cut by the founder/owner. He's been cutting my hair for 20+ years since he was a junior stylist at another big name salon and I was a graduate trainee who had just moved to London. He was a lot cheaper then! He moved up the ladder and thank God so did I or I wouldn't be able to afford a cut and colour at his salon. I have 'difficult' hair but he makes it look amazing. I don't have to style my hair at home. I just blast it with my hairdryer and it falls into place. Many people over the years have commented about the quality of my haircuts. Even my very working class Northern father likes my hairdresser and thinks he's worth the money.

Prior to moving to London, I used to get my hair cut at my home village's salon (in the North West) for a princely £5. One extreme or the other, that's me.

Crikey. I pay £50 for a sharp bob,style director level. In another UK capital city :)

I’m lusting after MUA Hannah Martins hair right now and I bet her cut and colour costs a fortune.

I pay £90 for a cut every 6 weeks, in South Wales. My hair looks excellent every time. If you are not loving yours, try another salon.

I pay £13 for a dry cut, but she cuts my hair so well, as I have fine wavy hair, I do need to dry and straighten it, but I have had to do that for as long as I can remember because I have shit hair, it takes her 10 - 15 minutes and she has never tried to get me to colour my hair like all others that were aghast that I have left my hair naturally salt and pepper.

I would cry if I paid £90 for a trim and didn't like it, and I certainly wouldn't go back.