TurtleHead

I’m beginning to question the value in a $40 haircut.

I used to pay at least that, plus tip, to have my hair cut. I am by no means a frugal person, but I do have trouble spending money on myself. Forking over the $40 for a haircut that I always, always hated until it grew in a few weeks later, plus the added bonus/horror of being attacked by a hot, loud, annoying hair dryer for half an hour, was always very, very painful.

Luckily I only get my hair cut about once every 8 months or so, so it wasn’t a very big annual expense, know what I mean? I get the haircut, I hate it for three weeks, I love it for six weeks, then I wear my hair in a ponytail for six months until I talk myself into giving up the $40 again.

My real problem with haircutters who charge $40 is that they only will do what I ask them to do. I have had the same haircut for twenty years. I am not a hair visionary. What I want, for my money, is creativity. I want someone like Nick on What Not To Wear (I realize he charges slightly more than $40) to look at my face, understand my lifestyle (no! more! hair! drying! ever!), put that together with today’s trends and styles, and create for me a look.

Hairstylists from my past haven’t done that. They all just sit me in the chair and ask me what I want. What I want, I guess, is to look like Katie Holmes at a movie premiere. What I will ask for, on the other hand, is “just take two or three inches off the back, layered all over, no bangs.” Same old, same old…that’ll be $40 please!

I understand that they probably do not often get someone in the chair who will give them carte blanche with their hair. Usually, I’m sure, they get people who have a very specific idea of what they want their hair to look like, and if it doesn’t look exactly like that at the end, they get pissed off and yell at their stylist and make said stylist feel really, really crappy.

But I am not that person. You have an idea of what would look good on me? ANY idea? I’ll take it!

Sadly it seems, $40 can’t buy you an idea. It can only buy you a servant.

So the other day, I was talking to MyFriendJen and she had a cute new haircut, so I asked her where she had it done. I’m currently in the market for a stylist because it’s been more than 8 months, so I’m entering Wild Woman Of The Amazon territory, and my old stylist is currently recovering from having both his legs broken in a car accident in Lebanon (and of course, it’s ALL ABOUT ME).

Anyway, so MyFriendJen told me she just had it done at First Choice. She said, “I got tired of paying $40 to have the same cut over and over. The First Choice people aren’t creative geniuses but they can give me a serviceable cut when I tell them what to do, and it costs like, $14.”

$14!!!! For basically the same service — I instruct, they cut. It’s genius!

So I think I’m sold. I could never bring myself to pay more than $100 for a cut, which is what I think it would take to have someone who would actually design a new look for me. So I may as well just pay $14, instead of $40. Hell, at that price I might endeavour to have my hair cut every six months.

But let’s not get too crazy, now.