My local is a busy shop with multiple barbers, and I can make my a point online and pick the person doing the cutting.
I typically pay $27+$7 tip. Straight razor and hot towel on the back of neck, and mix of clippers and scissors for the cut.
The same woman cuts my hair and my son's hair. Last time we went at the same time so they charge us the father-son rate which was $41, even though he is 15 (easy to tell he is over the 12yo limit on the combo deal). The barber ended up with like a $15-20 tip, and I still spent less than if we had gone separately.
In reply to Duke :
I don't pay it so I'm certainly not complaining about it.
More curious if it's local pricing or a fairly standard price and how many people are happily paying that price. I may need to open a barbershop. Steady repeat customers, fairly recession-proof, and a 4-5 chair shop should bring in pretty decent money and have a fairly low overhead. Better yet, a decent-sized shop, one side themed to men, the other to women.
I wonder what a barber or stylist pays in boot rental per month.
$20 + $5 tip. Cash only. About 20min in the chair, and they make me look slightly less like a dweeb on the way out the door with a fun conversation in-between.
Local shop I go has 3 barbers; two of them used to work for another shop in town owned by a real jerk, and when that guy realized those two guys were getting most of the business, he told them he was "retiring" even though he wasn't and laid them off. They decided to open up their own shop right around the corner and put the jerk out of business (and yes, the guy was a real jerk!) They have been appointment-only since the pandemic, which works well for them. Place is always full from opening to close.
Used to be around ~$30 with tip back in 2019 - I went to Sports Clips. Winter 2019 my wife bought some $18 Wahl clippers from the Amazonians and learned to cut mine and my sons hair. There were some dark times, but she does a good job now. When the lockdowns hit, I was still getting a fresh cut every 3 weeks.
I have had too many bad haircuts.
I go to one of those $65 for mens cuts hairdressers.
Granted that hairdresser is my wife, and I don't actually "pay" her per se.
She looks at me the most of any other human and as a high end hair dresser she is more critical of her work than anyone else. I get really good haircuts 
Damn. Ya'll got it good. All the places near me are $50 for a cut. That's a standard short man's haircut. There's a few crusty old or small places that might be $30 but it's either walk-in (which never works for my schedule) or you just won't get a great cut. I've got two places I go that do a great job and the quality of the cut is worth it. Either of those two barbers cut it in a way that it grows out really well and I can make it six weeks instead of a crappier cut that starts to look pretty rough by four weeks.
In reply to Mezzanine :
Oh man! Please tell me you've been to Loui's on North 21st. 2-chair father/son place. That was my go-to for $20 a head.
(edit: I just saw "walk in" not working with your schedule. That's a bummer)
I pay nothing. We cut my hair with the old dog trimmers for a dog that passed away 18 years ago. They were originally sheep shears with a 1/4" blade. Been working for a long time.
Barbershop next door charges me nothing. I tip $20, which I know is less than their standard price.
Toyman! said:In reply to Duke :
I don't pay it so I'm certainly not complaining about it.
OK, lets call it "questioning the value of skilled labor."
A $30 haircut. If a barber can do three an hour will result in a 60-70k a year salary before taxes. That is not exactly making big money. That is being able to do that for 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Oh and then there is the time that it takes to run a business and do business things. And you are not doing three an hour all the time. But that does not stop the clock on things like rent and insurance. I am actually surprised they don't charge more.
Another thing. Why don't people tip if it is the business owner doing the work? That makes no sense to me.
I pay $25 plus a $5 tip.
I went to the same guy at the local Great Clips for over 17 years, but then he moved back to his home city. I tried three different barbers at the same store over the months and every time it was worse, so I tried a different location, same franchise and was not happy with that one either.
So, I tried a different franchise - Fantastic Sams - and the first one was terrific. The second one (same person each time) was OK but not great. I'll give her one more try but I'm close to going to the buzz cut DIY......at my age it's not really that important anymore but if I'm going to pay someone I want it done right.
dean1484 said:Another thing. Why don't people tip if it is the business owner doing the work? That makes no sense to me.
Because it is assumed that, as the business owner, you are setting a price that assures you a reasonable profit, and you are keeping 100% of that profit.
In reply to dean1484 :
I'm not sure I follow your math...
Even if we assume 2 cuts per hour at $30/ea, that $60 per hour.
$60/hour x 2000 hours = $120,000
Of course that is before taxes, insurance, rent, etc.
Still not big money, but starting to get more sustainable, especially if you rent out a chair or two.
Duke said:Toyman! said:In reply to Duke :
I don't pay it so I'm certainly not complaining about it.
OK, lets call it "questioning the value of skilled labor."
I don't question it at all. I know it's not worth that to me. I thought it was a ripoff at $4. That's why my wife cuts it.
The fact that it's worth that to others is what makes it interesting to me.
I'm balding so I told my barber he should charge me 1/2 price cause I only have half the hair of normal men.
He said he should charge me double cause it takes him twice as long to find my hair.
Ba Dum!
Anybody brave enough to start this thread?
What does your LADY pay for hair coloring, cuts and styling?
Datsun240ZGuy said:Anybody brave enough to start this thread?
What does your LADY pay for hair coloring, cuts and styling?
That is a "don't ask, don't tell" arrangement.
In reply to Toyman! :
Actually I can give you some numbers from the women's side of things. My friend Missy is a couple years older than me. We met when I was converting a 3rd floor office into a hair studio for her 20 years ago and have been close family friends since, she was 20 years old at the time.
She earned herself a great reputation, which I'm sure helps immensely as well.
She now, at 40, has a bigger location, a steady client list, grosses about $5k a week by herself, but then also rents the downstairs of the building to some office drone type company, and a chair in her "studio" to another woman for a few hundred a month.
So with all that, I personally would build, buy, or lease a spot in a strip mall, setup for 6 chairs, and rent each chair out for 25 or 30% of my overhead to cover any time I didn't have a full shop. Tattoo studios and piercers are also big on the chair rental or commission based agreements versus rent or mortgage on a full on building, so if you wanted more of a landlord role than a hands on role, it would be worth thinking about.
Toyman! said:Duke said:Toyman! said:In reply to Duke :
I don't pay it so I'm certainly not complaining about it.
OK, lets call it "questioning the value of skilled labor."
I don't question it at all. I know it's not worth that to me. I thought it was a ripoff at $4.
Sounds an awful lot like you're questioning the value right there.
It appears that you're failing to grasp my point, whether intentionally or not.
In your weekly rants, you seem to rant a lot about clients who do not value the skill you and your company bring to the table. Yes?
So it surprises me to hear you, as a potential client, undervaluing someone else's skilled labor.
Is that clear enough yet?
Datsun240ZGuy said:Anybody brave enough to start this thread?
What does your LADY pay for hair coloring, cuts and styling?
About $50 or so every 3 months or so. She doesn't get it colored.
$16, my military discount is $13. I give $20 - $22. C'mon, it's Mayberry.
Used to get it done before covid. Probably spent $25 a cut then at a super sketch place attached to a gas station. Having kids it was another thing to figure out working into the schedule, plus they went out of business during covid.
I do my own now, #2 on the sides, #7 on top. After I do my best, I go ask my wife for help touching up the neck (and maybe help me shave my entire back).
The cheap chain place near me is up to about $30 now with a 15~20% tip thrown in. But I've learned some DIYing skills during the pandemic so I don't go there often.
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