Tipping Hairdressers?

brokeinwales

I pay £4, 10 minute cut.

Mine takes about an hour and a half! So I suppose if you think of it in terms of paying for their time, it's roughly the same cost.

Depends what you have done, an ends tidy up can be done in a few minutes, but if you have layers and feathering, or a colour, or regular style changes it takes them longer, so it makes sense for them to expect to be paid more. (But men don't have all that stuff do they? I have my hair cut mainly to make it look better, and thus make me feel better - my OH has his hair cut when it gets too long and his "head gets overheated."!)

Good on you for tipping on the free cut though - having worked in "tipped" industries the tips you appreciate are always the ones you never expected to get! (In restaurants/ cafes, although I don't tip automatically, and would NEVER tip for bog standard service, I do like to tip generously if someone goes out of tehir way to be nice. I remember having to eat out on my own once when I was staying away for a job interview and the waiters were so nice I didn't feel alone at all - I gave a 30% tip and they were delighted. Much nicer than the sulky "is that all?" look you get sometimes when you leave 50p after being served a slice of pizza.)

basi_2

Guys, let me just confirm to you all what happens in salons and what exactly gets paid. I used to be a hairdresser and have worked in many salons in central london. I got out of it because the money was very irregular (some months good then other months i was skint for most of it).

1) Most hairdressers working for a salon do not take the total amount of money paid for the services. They are usually either on a basic wage (around £5,000 - £14,000, depending on area) and they have a daily target they need to reach to get their monthly commission ( sometimes 10% - 20% commission). So, if they reach their daily target of £300 and have done a total of £4000 of services for the month, they get a commission of £400 (10%) on top of their salary. Let me tell you, some months hairdressers don't reach their target, so they are left with their basic (and/or TIP's)

2) Some hairdressers are on purely commission basis. So they will make a percentage usually around 30% - 40% ( very rarely 50%) of the services they provide.

The above 2 never get the full amount that the services cost.

3) Very rarely, some hairdressers rent a chair in a salon. They pay a weekly amount to the salon for use of the salon chair and take most of what is paid. This is not so common.

With regards to tipping, for those of you who want to, 5% - 10% is usually very much appreciated. Also, you don't really tip the salon owner....its not expected. This also applies for mobile/freelance hairdressers as the total cost goes to them.

When i started hairdressing i was quite uncomfortable when people tipped me. But when it happened (esp when you could see you weren't going to make target), you really appreciated it and most hairdressers frown on being pushy for tips. Anyhow, i left hairdressing because of the low wage and and now i tip most low paid jobs, including hairdressers, waiters etc.
Hope this clears any confusion.

confused1234_2

When I get round to going to the hairdressers:o, I don't leave a tip. The place I go to is a big chain, and being honest the main reason is that the cost of a cut and blow dry itself is a decent chunk of my surplus cash, even if I save over a couple of months. Paying that cost rather than going somewhere more local and cheaper, I do expect a better service.

Having said that, the hairdresser who last did my hair was lovely, busy but not rude with it (which I have found before, on occasion I have been left for what seemed like ages with no explanation or apology) and I did think about it, but it came to a few pounds more than I had budgeted, and also in such a salon I don't know what the etiquette would be for tipping, would it be when you were paying for your cut, or handing something over after at the till, or what?

nikki2804

I used to tip my hairdresser when she first started out. However since she has gotten more popular I now tend to feel 'rushed' when I'm in there. She's a damn good hairdresser but now I only pay for the hair cut.

That and since I had the bairn and discovered MSE I'm just mean :rotfl: