Storms and chickens

[The Dogmother]

OK, can anyone help settle a 'discussion' going on at work...?

 

A colleague spends £100/month on a cut and colour and then tips £10 on top. Some are calling her a mug and saying that tipping should cap at £5 regardless of the spend. Others say that it's justified.

 

Now, I'm no expert but I thought that tips should be around 10% of the spend, but dependent on the quality of service. I do think this is a ludicrous amount though.

 

What do you think?

[mullethunter]

 

That's at the cost spent on hair every month not the tipping conversation.

 

I always tip roughly 10% at restaurants (providing the service wasn't awful) but have never tipped a hairdresser and don't think I ever would.

 

Having said that, my hairdresser is the salon owner so perhaps a bit different (and also it's the same hairdressers my dad goes to and my hairdresser always - I say always, I have my hair cut twice a year at most - refuses to let me pay and adds my cut to my dads bill - I'm 37 )

[Grandmashazzie]

Glad you brought this up DM it is a grey area My hairdresser is salon owner so I don’t tip but buy her a Christmas prezzie, wine or cake etc. Sometimes if a junior washes or sticks colour on I put 2-3 quid in tip box. I occasionally treat myself to a facial and the beautician takes you to till where very often the other girls are waiting for customers, I don’t tip but feel I should and can feel a little paranoid walking out imagining them saying she’s a bit tight ( and it’s not my jawline they are referring to ) At £60 a treatment I feel that’s dear enough.

[Sil-El]

£100 a month? Seriously? What on earth is she having done, or is it a really, really exclusive salon?

 

I usually tip a couple of quid each time - I go roughly every 8 weeks for a cut and blow dry which costs £23 so I hand over £25 and tell the girl to keep the change. Next month I'm having festive highlights put in and as it will cost more and as it's Christmas, I will tip more.

 

To be honest, if I were paying £100 at the hairdresser, I'd consider they'd got enough of my hard earned cash as it was, and I wouldn't tip at all

 

It's down to choice though I think, but I've always tipped hairdressers, apart from when my hair was being done by the person who owned the salon - I figured he probably didn't need it

 

We usually tip around 10% in restaurants too, unless the service was poor.

[The Dogmother]

I totally agree about the price - I was only half listening to the conversation while I was working, then my ears pricked up when the amount was mentioned! It is the 'good salon' in town, there are others, but they do look a bit cheap and tatty. her hair looks nice, nothing unusual, just a good cut and you can't tell it's coloured, which I guess is how it's supposed to be.

 

Sil-El, I have to ask what 'festive highlights' are - do you have them just once a year, or are they sparkly?

 

I think there should be a ruling about tips - 10%, but up to a limit of a fiver, then that's yer lot!

[soapdragon]

£100 per month....splutter! I go every 10 weeks or so and have a cut and quarter head of highlights...just the front which for some odd reason is really grey whilst the rest is just fine; stops me looking like I have a dead badger on my head.

 

I digress; as its the owner who does my hair I don't tip. It costs around £65 per time but I don't feel too bad about it as I don't wear make up or use perfume etc so see it as my one little luxury (apart from the gin and chocolate but that's another story ) I have been going regularly for quite a while now and feel that, as a loyal customer, I am helping keep them in business anyway!

 

On the rare occasions that we eat out I tip only if I feel we have had really good, cheerful service and usually do that by 'rounding up'. If it has just been an average sort of meal/service then I don't tip.

[The Dogmother]

.......stops me looking like I have a dead badger on my head

 

love the analogy!

[Valkyrie]

Hairdressers are expensive round here too! £50+ for wash cut and blow dry. I used to tip 10% but then I just grew my hair and trimmed my own fringe so I didn't have to go again. I don't have my hair dyed or highlighted (did once - took forever to get rid of it when I realised it's a thing to make you go back regularly and it was getting too costly to do) so it's just a routine trim now. Perms are a thing of the past - my hair fights against them so my hair decided that was a waste of money too.

A short while ago the hairdresser didn't layer my hair correctly. Where it waves it bounced up and created a huge shelf between the next layer below. Horrid. Hated it. Next time asked her to not do that bit so it could grow and catch up. She didn't listen. Then I tried a different hairdresser in the village (been there before, didn't like them and DD assured me it was new people - it wasn't) and in spite of telling her what the other girl had done and that I didn't want it touched, she trimmed it where it was trimmed before - just routine chopping half an inch off everywhere! So at the quilt shop where I ranted (like this rant here) they said go to the lady along the corridor - she charges £23 for WCBD. So I did and she was good and she listens and she's funny - and instead of the hairdresser being like the equivalent of other people not wanting to go to the dentist, I enjoy going. It's £25 now to cover costs of renting the property. It's only a small room with 2 sinks and 2 chairs, so I tip £5 - costs more elsewhere and I think it's well deserved. I'll pop in some goodies for Christmas too.

Although it's more expensive indirectly - I have to go to the quilt shop too.

[chickencam]

I’m so glad that I don’t need to colour my hair and the advantage of my current egg head I can spend my wash cut and blow money on other treats. I go every 5 weeks under normal circumstances and it costs me £38, my hairdresser is lovely and we properly put the world to rights and have a good laugh. I don’t tip and she treats me well so obviously not too offended!

[Luvachicken]

I have never tipped my hairdresser.

I get paid just over the minimum wage an hour and my wet cut costs me £28 and it only takes half an hour.

If I got paid £56 an hour I would probably tip.

 

Also, if I leave my hair for the next day, part way through the morning it will look like I've had a dip in a chip pan

And, there is always loads of hair down the back of my t-shirt and I need sellotaping all over to get it off.

She never uses one of those sticky rollers on me even though I know she has one.

That kind of thing doesn't deserve a tip either.

[soapdragon]

Erk....maybe time to find another hairdresser

[Valkyrie]

Soapy - Luvvy isn't far from me - cheaper hairdressers are few and far between. Then you have to consider travel distance in the equation. But my one is in Andover and a bit of a trip along the M3 and A303 - hence tying it in with the quilt shop! Not only that the sewing machine repair man is also in Andover. I can kill a few birds with one stone there. Have to say I've never had hair trimmings go up my nose and I've never even itched all the way home. Bother, I can't move now - I have a good'un!

 

I guess it's all down to what you feel is fine - I don't think they expect it, but always grateful if you do. Or I hope they'd be grateful. I'm sure they understand low paid peeps can't afford extras. Same for the elderly. Most do discounts. Which makes me think that the bunch of shearers (and I've seen sheep with better hairdos than I've had) here are taking the Mickey.

[Sil-El]

Sil-El, I have to ask what 'festive highlights' are - do you have them just once a year, or are they sparkly?

 

I'd love sparkly highlights but no, it's just that I only get them done at this time of year