Spa treatments

[EBearhug]

I had my eyebrows shaped today, and they commented on how dry my skin is (I know, but I'm not putting anything on it, as it's making it sore at the moment,) and advised me to have a facial, with them, obviously, and gave me a price list leaflet.

Can someone explain to me why a man's eyebrow shape is more expensive than a woman's? I've seen men with far less natural brow than I have, so it can't be like there's more work involved. Facials also have different prices for men's and women's, with the men's being more expensive. I can understand that the ayurvedic facial is differently priced than the gold facial that apparently contains pure gold, but surely the same treatment should have the same price whether on a man or a woman?

(I have no idea whether any men have treatments there. I've never seen any, but then I can go months without going into town, and even more months without having any treatments, and a £5 eyebrow shape tends to be the limit of it in any case, as I don't care about my appearance sufficiently to pay for a gold leaf facial or anything.)

Is it just generalising, eg most men are hairier and with coarser skin that's less likely to have been looked after so needs more doing to it?
Did you mean this to be in feminist chat btw, cos it seems more of a men's rights one?

It's a difference in treatment because of sex. I would not be happy with it if women were charged more when I couldn't see a reason for it, and I am uncomfortable with men being charged more for the same reason. It's not a major issue, but it still seems unfair, and I think it would be preferable to charge £6 for all eyebrow shapes rather than £5 or £7.

I don't think it's unfair to charge differently if the likely amount of work involved differs? Perhaps it would be fairer to give a quote when the beautician had seen the face in question? I can see the potential for causing offence though...
It's not really one for feminism though is it? Women are at an advantage for a change! Apart from the fact that they remain under much more pressure from society to get hairs ripped out of various places than men are.

You could maybe ask the salon and let them know you're willing to subsidise their male clients, in the name of fairness

I'm actually really surprised. I don't think I've ever seen a spa or beautician price list where men's treatments were more expensive than women's.

surely the same treatment should have the same price whether on a man or woman

Absolutely!

Men's hair removal is general more expensive than women's, because they have more of it and are mostly larger than women.

The facial thing I have no idea, maybe the products used happen to cost more?

The salon where I go, things like massages are all the same price whether for a male or female client, not sure about everything else.

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about!!

They charge by time, I think. So if they know it takes, sat, 10 minutes to do the average woman's eyebrows but 12 for the average man's, voila.

But they're not allowed to charge car insurance differently, even though there are statistically different risks between the sexes, so I still don't get how they can for this, even if some treatments take more time. And I'm not entirely convinced by that; it may take more time to do some men more than some women on average, but any individual could be at any point on the scale, regardless of the average of their sex. So it still makes sense to average prices out overall.

Ok maybe it does make sense, but it's women paying more again for a reason that's to do with men. So the average price of car insurance goes up for women and down for men, then the same with facials??

Yes, but in the end, that would be in persuance of the holy grail of feminism, fairness for men. They're very put upon, don't you know.

Some might argue that we could worry more about this if spas were compulsory or women had wage equality, but that's never going to happen so let's deal with this issue.

indeed - go tell all the barbers to put their prices up so that my haircut costs less!

I had my hair cut in a barber's once - I had to lean forward over the sink for my hair to be washed, rather than lean back, as I always have at women's hairdressers.

Surely haircuts are done on the amount of work? A simple cut is less than a cut and colour and blow dry? (I have never had my hair dried, so I haven't really paid attention to the prices.)

I have never had my hair dyed.

Although I never have it dried, either.

Maybe because of the older man Dennis Healy effect so they don't just have to shape they have to trim as well?

Maybe it includes an ear hair trim?

Men's eyebrows are styled differently, usually more hair left, more natural, that might be it?

I would assume they have their reasons otherwise surely they would have women's more expensive. In order to get more men in . ??

Ear hair and nasal hair trims were separate treatments. Probably if you have Dennis Healy eyebrows, you do need a full shampoo and set, though.

Womens hair can blunt a mans face razor in one go, so wonder where the pricing come from

In the interests of fairness, shouldn't we pay the same for haircuts too then? Female prices are usually quite a bit more than males.

A pp suggested this was to do with time so I suppose it does take longer to wash and dry longer hair but not all women have long hair.

Never understood how that car insurance change was passed through. Insurers categorised according to risk groups and male/female have very different risk statistics in terms of driving and accidents. They can still charge you more if you're a waitress as opposed to a teacher - is that fair? Not really.

It was a punch of the skies for men who want equality with those over privileged women. You know, the ones who have fewer accidents, and who's accidents cost insurance companies less when they do have them.

And put Sheila's wheels right out of business too

After a quick google of a few local hairdressers, the price for a "cut and style" i.e. no blow dry, was an average of £10 more for a woman with the basic stylist (as opposed to director etc).

If we're going to question spa treatments, then we may as well go the whole hog and question the discrepancy in male/female hairdresser prices. Everyone gets their hair cut after all whereas the spa market is pretty limited.

The fact that women then pay on average a further £20 each time because they also have a blow dry should, you would think, offset in some way the cost of the cut. But no, they pay more for the cut even when they also pay for this additional service. Gee, thanks for my custom.

Also 99redballon, I was wondering if women have more haircuts than men? And if so this is also unfair as I could understand you charging more if they don't come very often but regualar customers paying a premium seems a bit