The other day I went to the hairdressers to have a few inches neatly trimmed off the bottom of my hair. It was nothing extravagant by any means; it took less than 10 minutes, meaning I didn’t even bother to flick through the provided celebrity gossip magazine.
The haircut came to $38, which was seemingly reasonable, considering how little time I spent in the hairdressing chair.
Then my partner mentioned the cost of his haircut the week prior at the same salon. It cost him $32 and was certainly more than just a simple trim. It took close to half an hour.
Although only a $6 difference, I couldn’t help wondering WHY?
Why are women charged more for haircuts that are simpler than men’s?
Are they perhaps trickier than they seem? Do women receive better treatment at the salon? Or have haircuts simply fallen victim to the ‘pink tax’ – AKA charging women more for products and services that are practically identical to men’s.
As these questions incessantly circled my mind, I knew it was time to seek the expertise of a hairdressing professional.
With close to 10 years experience as a hairdressing professional, Elizabeth Morriss from Bhave Hair, explained everything.
Speaking to Mamamia, Morriss said that women pay a higher price at the salon as the whole experience tends be more luxurious.
“It really comes down to the fact that women’s cuts tend to be more relaxing than men’s,” Morriss said.
“Hairdressers take the time to do a proper wash and treat clients with a really beautiful head massage to get them relaxed.
"You've also got your styling time on top of that. Women tend to get a full blow-dry and tong service to really finish off the look as well. Men's are obviously more of a blast dry with product."
Elizabeth says women also tend to place more value on the time they are spending away from kids, work and other commitments while at the salon.
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"It's like their hour of escape from everyday life. They can go in and sit down and even enjoy a glass of wine. It sort of just detaches them from their everyday life.
"We all like to go to our hairdressers and talk about things we sometimes can't talk about with friends or family," says Elizabeth.
"There's something that has always been said about women getting their hair done - you're paying for your counselling time and your haircut comes free."
Do you think women's haircuts should be more costly than men's?
Top Comments
I'm probably going to be lambasted for my comment but the reason that womens haircuts are more expensive is because 90% of the time they are way more time consuming, have unrealistic expectations that come with them and require a different skill set to doing a mans haircut. And yes I was a hairdresser. People say " oh it only takes 10 min" Bullocks! If it only take 10min to do a haircut it's not being done properly. And you know what hairdressers .should be paid well for their time. If a mans haircut takes ages then he should be charged appropriately for it just like a women and vice versa. Women always have more than one service. It's never just a haircut it's nearly always blowdried and thats why it costs more.