Hair Cuts $$

[panthera]

I pay 20€

plus tip to the owner of a salon just across the street from my apartment.

She always finds time for me when I have time.
She works with my hair (I don't have a natural part).
She is perfectly happy to cut it the way I want it and not to the current "style" whatever that happens to be.

Her salon is clean, her staff pleasant and professional.

When I'm in the 'States, I go to a barbershop in Cheyenne. They rag me a lot about my beard (super conservative, republicans, all of them) but they know how to cut hair, they respect that I don't have a natural part (you have no idea how important that is when you have a thick head of hair and some num-nut tries to cut it the way "everybody" wears it).

I pay $10 plus tip, including to the owner.

Sure, the German salon is more pleasant personally - the owner is lesbian and it is sometimes hard not to just laugh when I listen to what passes for knowledge in the conservative world.

But they're both professional and competent. I disagree with not paying owners a tip, I'm sure that knowing I value their service is one reason I get good service.

I gave up on "Hairstylists" years ago. If you've got a good one, great, but most are too busy being fashionable to pay attention to their customer's needs. A good barber is worth his or her weight in gold.

And, yes, I think it's true, most barbers are very straight. So?

 

[polkanut]

Old-fashioned barber for me, 1 chair shop, $10, no tip. I was doing my own for awhile, but it looked like crap, so I'm back to going about every 6 weeks. I usually just have it buzzed short, and tapered in the back, and on the sides.

 

[sudsman]

Flat Top

is $ 20.oo every other mo.

 

[hunter]

flat top here too...

...but I go every other week. $15 including tip.

Then I shave the sides at home.

I don't like hair on my head. However, as the years go by it seems to grow everywhere else.

Hunter

 

[little-edie]

most of you.....

....pay next to nothing! i charge 40.00 for women, 30.00 for men. and most everyone tips at least 5.00.

 

[perc-o-prince]

$15 + $2 tip at Supercuts (I go when Christine's cutting) about every 6 weeks for me. $0 for Rich since I do it with the Oster cutter and the #3 guard.

I'll be investigating the new place that opened nearby. They were offering $2.99 cuts as a special, and now they're $4.99. I don't know what their regular prices will be, but Supercuts has been inching up and up, and, frankly, it's just a haircut. I figure if The Donald can pay someone lots of $$ (and you know he does) for his hair to look like THAT................

Chuck

 

[turboace]

Haircut once every 6 weeks $25 foil highlights every other cut $25 extra

 

[a440]

I wait every 15 months....

Then I shave my head. (luckily my hair grows back fast)

I then mail my hair to "locks of love". They use my hair for wigs for cancer patients.

It is usually past my shoulders by the time I cut it. I love to know where it is going. I have done this for the past 5 years.

Brent

 

[perc-o-prince]

Brent,

A great cause! Back when I could deal wih the ponytail, I used to do the same thing. I always thought of the back of my head as a hair farm!!

Chuck

 

[golittlesport]

I go to a salon and pay $40 plus $5 tip, every 4 weeks

Gary goes anywhere, usually SuperCuts and the like, and pays $20-25 with $5 tip, every 6 weeks.

My hair grows faster.

 

[mattl]

Me???

$14 every 6 to 12 weeks --yeah I get shaggy. I'm past due at the moment, I'll get one in a week or two that will hold me till Feb...

 

[omomatic]

Well my haircut every 4 weeks is AUS$50 which equates to about US$40 approx. (no tip required in Australia) but having my dog clipped every 4 weeks is AUS $75. Go figure??????

 

[ronhic]

Speaking of dogs.....

....our 2 Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers cost us $175 per month in clipping etc....

 

[panthera]

Professional Services

One of the most interesting differences between ex-pat Americans like me and Europeans in general, Germans in particular, is our approach to saying "please" and "thank-you".
Especially in the context of saying "please and thank-you" in the form of tips.

I can't count the number of times that German friends have told me I needn't have tipped someone for their service or how I didn't need to be so friendly when making a request. Polite, yes. Friendly, no.

They do note that I seem to get better and faster service than otherwise, put it down to the foreign accent, not the fact that maybe being appreciated is a universal and not cultural artefact.

Certainly, I have clients for whom I'll go that extra mile, simply because they take the time to say "hey, that was really great work, thanks!" when I've finished a project. I also have clients whom I charge far more simply because I know they'll do nothing but bitch, piss and moan throughout the project and then try to knock the price down at the end. One did that, with the argument that, since the book I translated for her had been well reviewed and already sold out, it would have done even better had I translated in accordance with her (totally absurd) views instead of producing a best-seller.

We're now done three books together and she still doesn't get it.

Hair stylists, however you call them, doctors, nurses, waiters and waitresses are all in a position to do really evil things to you if you piss them off. How easy is it to just spit in your soup when you're nasty? How quickly the barber can make a cut which looks just fine sprayed into place in his shop, but after your first shower looks (as he intended) like your face is not only asynchronous, but was designed by a drunk animation artist who'd watched too many Friday the 13th movies?

Cutting hair really well is a profession you learn, not something any idiot with a pair of scissors can do. I've read, back in the gold rush days, men would pay barbers more for a shave and cut than they'd pay the ladies to get off.

 

[vacbear58]

There is always room for good manners

In this busy and sometimes uncaring world there is always time for a simple "Please" or "Thank You", and hopefully it makes life a little more pleasant for both the server (in whatever sense) and the customer, whether tipping is involved or not. Normally I will say both words, and if the service has been good I will say "Thank you for your help", unless I receive bad service. For example I was in Ikea a couple of weekends ago to get a couple of units - the person in teh kitchen department could not have looked or behaved more bored. Got my picking list and walked away. On the other hand the person on the checkout (and lets face it, there can be few more grizzly places than the checkout in IKEA) gave me a pleasant greeting, scanned the goods quickly, said Please when telling me the bill total. I hope she felt she had the same courtesey from me. Result, my day was made a little bit better for such little effort.

And Panthera is right, you NEVER mess with someone wo can leave you looking like a freak until the hair has time to grow back
Al

 

[panthera]

So true, Al

I work with graduate students more than with any other group. Given my chaotic scheduling, this is hardly surprising - my family situation in the US means that I am more able to teach seminars which are not tied to a tight semester beginning and ending schedule than to do what I am doing this semester - teaching undergrads the basics.

It's fun, but the hardest part is explaining to them the value of being nice and polite as opposed to merely being "correct". The two words no longer differ, but once upon a time, the English language made a distinction between politeness and courtesy.

Yesterday, for instance, I had a young man come into my shoe-box of an office with a paper due that afternoon. He asked whether I might have a minute or two free to look at it as he was uncertain he'd understood the formal guidelines properly.

Sure, no hu-hu - I gave him quite a bit of my time, gladly and, yes, it will show in a better grade for him.

Monday, however, I had a meeting with our Prüfungsamtsvorsitzender, a student and his lawyer. He was bound and determined to brow-beat me into granting him an extra semester (!) to write his term-paper.

Never asked once, never said please, just showed up with his lawyer and a legal threat. The whole basis? I had granted a student with TWO broken arms an extension the week before...

Well, since he brought a lawyer and I didn't have the university rep. with me (would have only been a telephone call, but our director wasn't batting an eyelash and I felt no compunction to reveal that fact) I, of course, insisted upon my right to require a second meeting with our counsel present...and, sadly, since that couldn't be done before March, he'd just have to take the "incomplete" in my course (did I mention, it is a prereq. for nearly everything in his next semester? Hmm, must have slipped my mind...)

I've worked in kitchens, you wouldn't believe what happens to rude customers.

 

[steve1-18]

I have a school near by and get a cut for $5. Nothing fancy, mind you. Usually get a pedicure ($12). Eyebrow wax ($4).

Haven't had a facial, yet, but thinking about it ($15).

I have a ball with the 'girls' clowning around with them.

I'm due for a doo when I get back from Florida.

I go about once a month.

Tip the student $5.00, too.

 

[drhardee]

Thinking of barber shops and my mind drifts...

Being married to a hairdresser, it could be free. However, since he's been legally blind since his stroke in '95, I go to a old-fashioned military barber shop right outside the gates of Ft. Jackson, here in Columbia. A dry cut is $10 and I give the owner a $5 tip. Yeah, I know all about tipping the owner,and I fully realize that a 50% tip is excessive. His wife works in the chair next to his. He's one of the last of a fading breed..the old-fashioned straight razor barber. One can't even get a barber's certification in this state anymore (according to him,)and there aren't anymore "barber schools" left in South Carolina, only Cosmetologist Academies.

There ain't no "shampooing" or "cosmetizing" goin' on in there..it's a man's domain, and I have to struggle to keep up with the sports talk and the hunting talk. I mostly just nod and agree with the majority of opinion, except when the talk turns to "queers". It appears there is a hispanic gay bar soon opening across the street from this testosterone laden den, and lately it's been a lot of conversation. Part of me knows I shouldn't be supporting such latent hate-talk, but, the little head usually wins out, knowing what I'll see in there.

I'd pay much more than $15.00 to just sit there all day and watch the parade of soldiers and Highway Patrolmen walk in and sit down, most of whom are in painted-on uniforms. The sheer beauty of some of these men is sometimes just breathtaking. They'll sit there and natter on about football, politics, their girlfriends/wives and kids,unaware of just how cute they are. But, every great now and then, I'll subtly cruise one who'll cut his eyes at me "a certain way" and then I've got a case of "..don't ask, don't tell" going on. Were it not my appointment next, I'd be following Mr. Soldier/Patrolman out into the parking lot. He wouldn't have to ask, and I wouldn't tell.

But I need to get in the chair, and my cut takes quite awhile. I always get a razor cut around my ears, and an un-asked for shoulder and scalp massage from the owner...maybe/probably the result of my excessive tip, or the fact that I don't object to it a bit like the average straight man might.
So, the barber shop fantasy scenario remains that.. a fantasy.

 

[whirlcool]

I can't count the number of times that German friends have told me I needn't have tipped someone for their service.

I'll agree with this one. We have some German friends that come over and visit us biannually. They are really great people. Whats even better is that we have the same warped sense of humor!
But if we go out anywhere, I have to remind the husband that a tip is expected. His reasoning is that:

1. I'll probably never see these people again, why should I tip them?

2. In Germany many times the tip is automatically added on to the check, so I don't have to leave anything extra!

I suspect that I am dealing with cheapskates here.

 

[travlincub321]

Just got my head shaved at a Great Clips in Beaverton OR for $6.99 christmas special.. $2.00 tip and the lady was nice and they put the kids in the other side of the shop..

Thats my kinda cut