It’s been over a year since I did a hair post, so… lo and behold, the hair post of 2008!
Inspired by a comment from reader Stacy:
One thing that I discovered was eating up a chunk of money is my hair. I tallied up how many times I got my hair cut and highlighted last year — not many, and the total cost came to $530 with tips! This is for four haircuts and three highlights, at not even very expensive salons and when I was trying to go a long time between each salon visit. This also doesn’t include hair products — on which I don’t always buy the drugstore versions, but I do wait until I can get a deal (a Redken buy two get two free special was the last one!) and then stock up. I have thin hair that is very hard to make look nice, so basically my philosophy was to do as much as I could to make it look good…
So…I hope I don’t sound like a snob here. Most girls I know spend WAY more than this on their hair. What do you think? Thanks!
I tallied up my own hair costs… I have thick wavy hair that tends to frizz up even if there is no humidity what-so-ever. I never dye my hair (it’s so dark that the stylist would have to strip out all my natural color, then deposit the new color – I can’t just get highlights or lowlights like a light brunette or a blond can).
A year ago I splurged and paid $200+ to professionally straighten my hair. It’s been nice and straight and much more manageable, but I don’t know if I want to pay such big $$$ to re-do the procedure. Some people have complimented me on my hair’s “body” and “waves”, but unless I’m willing to spend 10+ minutes in the morning working on it, it just looks messy.
If I make the chemical straightening a once-a-year thing, I’d be looking at a ~$400 annual hair budget:
Straightening: $250
Shampoo & conditioner: $10 a set x 4 = $40 (I use drugstore stuff without any sulfates)
Haircut: $20/cut x 3 cuts = $60 (I gave up my lovely little hair boutique)
Total: $350, maybe with another $50 tossed in for incidentals.
That’s about $30 a month on hair. HAIR. Dead cells! (But such pretty dead cells).
So my current plan is, wait until my hair gets so unruly that I can’t stand it anymore, then go get it straightened again. I think I can hold out at least ’til May.
Readers – how much do you spend on hair? Gentlemen are welcome to chime in!
Related posts:
With tip, a bit under $50/cut. I don’t highlight; if I want those, I have to get outside and do it the natural way! I look best if I go every 6 weeks, but I usually wait every 8. So, $250 for cuts, and $50-80 on shampoo & styling products.
And probably $10 worth of hair elastics, since I leave a trail of them behind me at the gym, the bf’s, and lost in the car.
I get my hair cut sporadically for about $50 a time including tip. I would say maybe 3 or 4 times a year. I also dye my hair myself at home for about $20 a time, every 4 to 6 weeks. Kind of a lot, but I like being a redhead (people always think it’s my natural color even though I’m a brunette) and doing it at home at least saves me some money.
i USED to spend around $60 on the haircut and $70 on highlighting… i budget 60$ a month for hair so I would save up for 3 or so months and then get a cut… but the last 3 times I have up to $32, and the last time i highlighted my hair was at least 5+ months ago. slowly breaking the habit!
My hair grows like a weed, so I usually have to go for a trim and dye job every 6-8 weeks. I used to pay $150 every time and would wince at the bill, but I’ve since learned a few tricks.
When I was in NYC last summer for training, I dreaded getting my hair cut (last time I did that in NYC, it cost me $300 -_-) but a co-worker told me I should head to the ‘burbs to get a better deal. I took her advice, hopped on a subway to Flushing (where there are a ton of Asian salons), and got my hair done for $50!
So, maybe check out some places in East/South Bay and see if you can get the chem straightening done for cheaper…and avoid salons in the Marina and Pac Heights like the plague! I went to Mercer Street Salon on Fillmore once, I cried when I saw my hair and the bill! oy…haha
Mercer Street in SF is very pricey. I’ve never been but walked past the salon a few times … very upscale.
I don’t have a set stylist – I just peruse Craigslist for apprentice training salon nights for $20 and get a cut.
Last year I went to Chinatown three times for a haircut – the first time was great, the last two times went downhill. They’re super pushy on selling you hair straightening. If you don’t want it, they’ll straighten it out with a flat iron whether you like it or not!
No particular set budget for myself. I did spend $170 on various haircuts and one color last year which includes 4 bottles of Jason organic shampoo for $10.
The fact that London is one of the most expensive cities in the world doesn’t really help my hair budget…
I have to spend roughly $ 160 for highlights about 3 times a year and $ 120 on a simple cut-and-blow-dry another 3 times a year (I usually don’t do the cut and colour in one go but separate them to make it more bearable). And those sums already include a 20% discount I get through an employee discount program!
That adds up to $ 840 a year. Make that $ 900 to allow for shampoo, conditioner and styling products.
Sigh.
When at uni, i had a shaved head (1mm) and mohican and my own clippers, so i only spent maybe $150 a year on neon hair dye. Might have been more than that, i never kept track in those days.
Now my hair’s grown out long into a more regular style and every now and then i get it cut (layers). However, that only amounts to about once a year, and only costs $40, so i spend about $40 a year on hair cuts and about $50 a year on hair dye for an occassional blonde streak that i do myself.
So, around $90 a year.
But then, i’m a complete geek; I don’t care about my hair or my appearance much, and my hair doesn’t often look good. People can probably guess that i don’t spend much on it. :~P
I spend $0 on hair cuts. I like my hair short, so my wife uses 1/2″ guard on the buzz cuts to shave my head twice a year.
Honestly, I shudder at the thought of having a budget item for hair. Unfortunately, my wife gets a cust every 2 months or so for about $50.
-Mr Stupid
I have very long curly [a bit more wavy now that it's quite a bit longer] hair, and can only be washed twice a week max. I used to always straighten, blow dry, use products, etc. but now I am happy with my natural strawberry blond curls. I buy suave humectress shampoo and conditioner three times a year, which probably brings my costs 18 dollars plus incidental elastics/headbands of ten dollars. No products go into my hair and I get maybe one or two trims a year at 25 dollars a go. So i guess a generous estimate for me would be $75/year. Not bad.
I LIKE to think that I don’t spend that much money on my hair, but maybe I do. I spend about $100 per haircut (I live in New York City! That’s my excuse for the expense!) between 3 and 4 times a year. I don’t highlight or straighten or use any products except shampoo and conditioner and sometimes a smoothing balm, none of which ever cost more than $3 a bottle. I tend to buy that stuff at Target and buy the clearance or sale brands. I’d say my annual hair budget is around $400-450.
I don’t spend much on my hair, and I always feel guilty about it! I’m somewhat clueless when it comes to hair so its usually in a ponytail, or just a mess. I’d say $30 on shampoo (maximum $10 a set, 3 times a year), and I get my hair cut at home. I think if I knew what to do to my hair without it taking much time in the morning I’d spend more…so maybe its a good thing I don’t?
$15/haircut X 4
$6 shampoo & conditioner x 4
$22 Aveda styling product
=$106/year
This is a lot better than what I used to spend…
Let’s see, I get my hair cut every few months so, depending on how busy I am, I probably spend between $120-$150 getting it cut a year. I color my own hair because I couldn’t afford to pay a salon to do it. I have very thick hair that’s a couple inches past my shoulder so I have to use 2 boxes of hair color each time. It grows fast and I color it red so I have to color it about every 6 weeks. That’s about $145 in hair color each year. Shampoo and conditioner, I spend about $80-$100/year, depending on if I can get it on sale or not. I don’t use hair spray or anything like that in my hair so I don’t have to spend money on that kind of stuff. At the highest, it looks like I only spend about $395/year on my hair.
I have a friend who is a stylist & will do it for me for $60 (cut & color) at her house. So $60X10=$600/year. I’ve been feeling like I get such a good deal having her do it, but that’s still a lot of money when I add it up! That doesn’t even include products, which are probably another $200.
I used to get my hair cut about every six weeks for $50/cut including tip but then my WONDERFUL hair stylist moved to WV and I’m nervous about going to anyone new. I did splurge on some hair products at $12/bottle but that bottle has lasted already almost four months and it doesn’t even feel half empty so I feel justified
Oooh so you aren’t wild about the chemical straightening? I have really curly hair and just go to SuperCuts or somewhere cheap for trims (I used to go to nice places but realized the $10 places were just as good for trims) but I’ve been considering getting it straightened for a while. I like it curly, but I also like it straight, but it takes about an hour to do, so I rarely straighten it. I don’t currently know anyone who’s had it done, so I was afraid to do it…and I just read that you said your hair looks messy if you don’t spend a little while fixing it up. Does that mean you have to run a straightener over it to make it look truly straight? And what happens when your hair starts to grow back curly at the roots? I am worried it would be a disaster if I did it….
$10 for a haircut and tip every 4 weeks. I’ve tried to cut it myself (buzz) and I look like an utter goof so it’s worth the money at the barbershop.
Add in some 99 cent shampoo and conditioner about once a month and I’ll spend at most $120 per year.
Being a guy has its perks.
I have ridiculously thick, wavy hair, too; a couple of years ago, I went to donate to Locks of Love, and the hairdresser had to put it into 3 ponytails to cut it!
To the question, though: I don’t think I spend all that much on my hair in a year. One of the things I love about having long hair is that I can get away with only cutting it 2 times per year (maybe 3 if there’s a special occasion). It goes something like this:
2 haircuts @ $18 + tip = $55ish
Shampoo & Conditioner (bought at the dollar store) = $12ish
Spray gel (not bought at the dollar store, I’m picky) = $30ish
Total annual upkeep: $97ish
That doesn’t count the best hair purchase I’ve ever made, a CHI ceramic straightener, bought for ~$125 about 4 years ago and used almost daily since. I do feel like the money I save on cheap haircare is eaten up with the time investment I make by straightening almost every day. Oh, well! That’s the price of being beautiful, eh?
Emilyg – before I straightened my hair it had a LOT of body, now it’s not flat (just ’cause my hair’s so thick), but it’s still nice and straight.
And by straight, I mean, get-up-take-a-shower-air-dry-air-pull-a-brush-through-it-out-the-door straight.
If you are interested in straightening, go to an Asian salon and get their “magic perm,” it might also be known as thermal reconditioning. Be prepared to spend $150-$400 for it, depending on the location, the stylist, and your hair’s length and thickness.
I get the japanese thermal straightening, and it’s $800 a pop, plus tip. I get it done about twice a year, and get the occasional (every 3 or 4 months) cheap haircut at Supercuts for about $20. Shampoo and conditioner comes with the hair treatment– how generous of them, ha ha!– and then my hair’s so straight, I don’t have to use any other product. It’s a lot, but it’s totally worth it to me!!!
My hair is very blonde and highlights naturally from the sun–I’m lucky that way. My hair is very fine but there’s a lot of it. I usually keep it in a ponytail.
I used to do supercuts every 6 weeks when I was in grad school, but I told myself that when I graduated, I was NEVER going back to cheapy haircut places again. I love when people play with my hair and take a long time to luxuriously shampoo and condition and cut my hair, so I make it a priority in my budget.
Then again, I now get my hair cut 3 times a year or so, at $45-$50 a pop, so I think I’m spending LESS now (supercuts was ~$20 with tip, 8-9 times a year). So, ~$150/yr from haircuts.
I stock up on shampoo/conditioner when CVS has a free or 2 for one sale and I have a coupon, so I spend less than $20 a year on that. Other than that, I don’t use any product in my hair. I haven’t bought new hair clips or bands in a few years…
So my total is somewhere between $150-$200/yr.
free at bumble and bumble hair school in Chelsea near Chelsea Market in NYC
I’ve had great razor bobs there
and also flat iron styling= all done by practicing hairdressers in town to learn bumble technique-
all great.
Gosh, I guess I’ve got everybody beaten on this one! I think I spent around $1450 or so over the past year.
My last appointment totalled $162. Normally, it had always been a little more expensive when I would get a trim, too (usually $120 including tip). So, I inquired–the color and highlights were $90, the cut was $50, and rest was tip. And, I said, “But, no, I didn’t get a cut–I got a trim!” She said, “No, it was a cut.” I have long, straight hair. It’s the easiest style in the world to cut–just straight across the bottom. A child could do it. Being that I wasn’t changing the style at all, I considered what she did a trim…not a cut. But, resistance was futile. I paid the extra charge and have not gone back since.
I decided I’d try the color/highlights on my own from box colors. How much do you think it cost me? Oh, about $21. And, I’ve gotten so many compliments on my hair from perfect strangers as a result! So, the change has been a blessing in disguise. Highlights don’t require a degree in brain surgery after all.
I’ll just get a friend to trim my hair for free.
My wallet is grateful, too. I’ve gone from $1450/year to what will be more like $250/year.
I stretch it out and get my hair cut twice a year. I usually get it cut a bit shorter than I would like, but that means that I only have a haircut that I wrinkle my nose at for about 4 weeks. After that, it looks good for 4 solid months (I get layers that grow out well) and then I have a 4 weeks where my hair looks fine, but it is a bit longer than I would like. And then I go back to the salon, to once again get it cut a bit shorter than is ideal.
I pay $40 for my haircut including tip.
I also will do a semi-permanent rinse in my hair (no more than twice/year). I do this at home, which costs me about $8 each time.
I take advantage of sales, coupons and rebates at drugstores like Walgreens and Rite Aid, so I rarely pay more than $2 for a bottle of shampoo or conditioner. I probably go through 3 sets a year. I do the same for styling products. I probably buy 3 different kinds each year
Total:
$40×2 = 80
$8-2 = 16
$4 (shampoo and conditioner) x3 = 12
$2 x3 = $6
80+16+12+6 = $114/year or 9.50/month. Not too bad!
I have curly thick hair so I spend quite a bit on conditioning shampoos, conditioners, serum, moose and cream. However, it looks loads better for it! I have my hair cut only about 4 times a year which costs about 22GBP each time. I still think that myhiar is expensive….if only I could have had straight hair!
I spend about $60/haircut (incl tips) 3 times a year, and probably $50/yr on products. So around $250/yr.
However I used to get partial highlighs, and that made it about $650 ($160/visit plus an extra visit a year – I have darker blond hair, really fine, so I didn’t need touch ups that often).
BEFORE: $100 highlights/cut/color every 3 months, so about $400 a year plus styling products and shampoos. My theory has always been, instead of tipping, I buy a product after the service, because my hair stylist would give me a discount on it, they make commission, and I get something out of it.
NOW: I moved to a bigger city with TWO hair colleges! I get my hair cut there for $12. I then color it myself for about $8 every six weeks. So… maybe $100 a year. And I usually get drugstore stuff on sale now.
I found this post interesting, because I too lately have started feeling the urge to splurge and go back to my pre-university, carefree days of expensive salon treatments. Sure, I loved it, who doesn’t?! But what I like and what I can JUSTIFY spending $100 on are two different stories.
A final thought, hair is one of the biggest appearance things; you can have the outfit, the makeup, etc, down pat but if the hair is wacky… done. LOL. If you want to skimp on the products, makeup, or buy discount clothes, you might be able to get away with it, but a bad dye job (greenish brown hue, or plum purplish undertones) is a dead “cheap” give away. Almost worth spending the money on.
I used to dye my hair (I switched from salons to home kits), and I used to get it cut every 3-4 months.
Now I don’t dye my hair at all, I got a free haircut last month (WOOT!) as a promotion, and I kind of just let it run free until 6 months has passed..
The trick is I usually put my hair up in a bun, so I don’t really need to “deal” with it, and my hair is pretty thick/wavy but also straight at times so I don’t need to do much to it to make it look gorgeous.. *hearts her hair*
I got scolded by a friend for not getting my haircut enough….so I’ve started going maybe once a quarter or so…spend $30-40 on a haircut.
As for shampoo/conditioner, I tend to use a 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner, which lasts a month or two..I’ll try to buy the brand name.
I really don’t take too much care for my hair…I probably should, but I think my aversion to spending money along with my laziness tends to kick in on this.
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