My father-in-law has a theory about shopping for audio equipment. He says if you begin at the low end and keep comparing sound as you climb up the price ladder, eventually you will reach a point where no discernible difference can be heard between the less expensive speaker and the more expensive one. When you reach that point, he says, buy the least expensive.
I’ve always thought that was good advice, and I’m wondering if the same process might be applied to hairstylists.
I understand the importance of earning what one’s services are worth. None of us wants to be underpaid, regardless of profession. People more proficient in their field will earn more than those less able. I understand and agree. But at what point is someone overpaid? Is the guy charging $200 for a cut and style really better than the one charging $60, or is it a perceived value? At what point in the hairstyling process can one no longer tell the difference in a quality cut?
I’ve been to the $10 haircut places and understand from experience that you get what you pay for there. There is no comparison between the cut I receive for $10 and cut I receive for $60. I’m wondering if I can find someone just as good, though, for $30? Yes? No? What do you think.
I’m on a mission to apply my father-in-law’s theory of sound equipment to haircuts, beginning at about $25.00 a pop and moving up until I just can’t see a difference anymore. I may have some bad cuts in my future, but if I wind up finding a stylist for under $60 I’ll consider my experiment worthwhile. I’m not talking about hair coloring which, I confess, I do at home for $7.95 a box. I get compliments on my color, so it can’t be that bad, right? Maybe I’ll get lucky with a cheaper haircut, too.
So what is your opinion? Are you of the $10, $50 or $100+ variety? Inquiring minds want to know.
Til next time -
Lisa
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thank you so much Lisa, that helps a lot. I know he tried to blame me for so much stuff, but like I told all of his family and mine none of that added up to a divorce. I do realize it's his needs, it just hurts so bad to think how many years he's
How funny....i only very recently (within last week) read the coconut oil articles on the web. (100 uses, 80 uses etc.) so i bouht some and ordered some from amazon. (Im a stockpiler.)
Have started trying some of the uses. I tried using it a
I have had very few great haircuts in my life .The problem is my hair is very thick and curly and most hairdressers have no idea how to cut it! It has nothing to do with money…I once had a $15 haircut that was FABULOUS…When I called the salon to book another appointment,, the girl was gone and left no forwarding address!
I’m with Debi – I live in a VERY rural area, and no-one has a clue how to cut natural curly hair. They apparently aren’t trained to do it in school, or so I’m assuming. I have a niece who went to beauty school (or whatever it’s called, fuzzy brain here today) – she’s got amazing natural talent for cutting and stying hair…..
She finally told me many years ago that she wasn’t touching my hair anymore because it doesn’t follow normal hair rules. She’s right. So I cut my own hair for free, and I do a far better job than any professional I’ve ever tried.
Hi Duffy – You may already be familiar with a website that caters to curly heads, naturallycurly.com. They list salon reviews and you might find a stylist who specializes in naturally curly hair. That said, if you are cutting it yourself and doing well, then you are both brave and fortunate! I’d be afraid to take the scissors to my own head. I’d end up looking like hedgehog!
I live amongst corn and bean fields nowhere near that thing called a “city”, Lisa. Thanks for the link, though. I’ll check it out because I’m curious – and if I ever feel like driving 50 to 75 miles to find one of those places…. Well, we shall just see.
Hi Debi – Though you can’t tell from the posted pic (flat iron day!) , I’m a curly head, too, though my hormones decide from day to day just how curly I might be! It’s a mystery!
Ooh–I HATE when they do that! LOL Best cut I ever had was years ago. It is the one and only time I left the salon absolutely in love with my hair. She was gone the next month, no forwarding address. It is painful when that happens!
I also have curly hair. I’ve solved the problem by trimming the front myself and just about every day wearing the back in a pony tail or French twist. I can’t stand my hair on my neck anyway. When it needs a trim in the back, I go to the same girl my husband and boys go to down in Oliver Springs. I like her because she does exactly as I ask her to do…takes no more and no less. she’s a walk in and the cost is fourteen dollars.
As an aside, the worst hair cut I ever got was in a fancy shmancy salon in Knoxville. My mother paid for it, she wanted to give me a treat. It was a nice gesture, but I was scalped!
I’m envious of the $14! You are right about the fancy salons. I think you pay for the name more than the cut, kind of like purchasing a brand over a generic item. And you said she does just what you ask her to do…oh, man…send her flowers. It is so tough to find a stylist who really listens!
I have a fabulous stylist and have gone to her for several years! I pay $20. I would have a very hard time letting anyone else cut my hair! My hair is thick but straight. Maybe that’s easier to style – not sure, but I do know that I LOVE my hair and have received many compliments on it. So she’s doing her job and well.
Based on my experience I would have a terrible time paying more to have my hair styled. In some cases I think you’re paying for the ambience of the salon and not necessarily for the uber skill of the stylist. My stylist works out of a small shop, tasteful but not fancy and just down the street is a ‘fancy’ place – furniture type stations, subdued lighting, soft music, scented air and what I’m paying $20 for costs $65 there. I’m pretty certain the style wouldn’t be $45 better!!! I might feel more pampered, but I’m not even certain about that. My stylist and I have become friends over the years, so we have great gabfests while I’m getting my cut, she cares. She’ll suggest a color or a new cut that reminded her of me, so I still feel special!
As you experiment with stylists, you may get a lot of haircuts you want to hide, but my point is, sometimes the price isn’t always indicative of what you’ll get as a result.
I wish you luck in your search, I’ve had a few haircuts before I found Julie that made me want to cry!!
If you love your hair then you have found the Holy Grail! I don’t often say that myself, and I don’t know too many other ladies who ever have loved their hair either. $20 is a great price, too! I’m hoping to find someone I love for about that price. We’ll see how long it takes me!
Good luck with the haircut experiment! Like every other woman, I’ve had my hair cut & stylist ups and downs. Even when you find a good one, I find within a couple of years they are taking you forgranted as a client and paying less attention to what you’re asking for, especially when you want to make slight changes. They just keep doing what they have always done. And the only cure for that I have found is to make a switch to a new salon and stylist, but it’s risky.
The bravest thing I did this year was walk into a neighbourhood salon in Mexico near our condo and get my hair cut and styled by a hairdresser (the salon owner) I could not even communicate with. He only spoke Spanish and I only speak English, but he’d been recommended to me by a number of Canadian women wintering in Mexico. He gave me the best haircut that I have had in years – for $15.00 including a 20% tip! And I have not been able to find a hairdresser back in Canada who could reproduce it for me, even when I show them a photo of that haircut and explain what he did in his approach to layering. I can’t wait to go back to Mexico this winter and get another haircut from him!
Boy, have you hit the nail on the head! I had a gal I went to for about 6 years and I stopped for just the reason you name. I had an appointment for a trim and when I arrived she had someone under a dryer, someone at the sink, a lady in her station and another waiting! She rushed through my cut so fast I looked like I’d stuck my head under a lawnmower. After six years she treated me like I just didn’t matter, and I paid for it with awful hair for about six months (it took that long to grow it out into some semblance of style). If that had been the first time I might have overlooked it, but that had become the norm and that cut was the last straw. I’ve been to two others since then and I just can’t see paying what I’m paying. There has to be someone out there who won’t charge an arm and a leg.
You were brave to go to someone with whom you could not communicate well. I guess that is what I have to do. Be brave! I’ll keep everyone posted on my search for the perfect hair stylist.
We need to think of what questions to ask a potential new stylist in order to determine if they just cut hair (well enough to make a living), or if they view their job more as a calling and enjoy the challenge and artistry involving in working with each client to make the most of enhancing what she has (they need to possess the “makeover gene” in their DNA!). We all want the kind of stylist who looks at our face shape, hair colour, texture etc. and takes all these things into consideration in creating the right style WITH us.
I don’t want just a technician, I want someone with talent and vision and ideas who has listening skills and understands what I am wanting to address about my hair and look. For that, I am willing to pay.
In addition to what you’ve llisted, I am also willing to pay for someone who goes to harishows to keep up with trends in styles, cutting techniques and products.