‘I spent a year’s utility bill money on my hair’

MY jaw nearly hit the floor when the total cost of my latest salon visit was revealed. But why are we willingly parting with so much every six to eight weeks, asks Lexie Cartwright.

LADIES, we’ve got a hair-raising issue.

A hair cost raising one that is.

It’s humiliating to admit but my latest brush with a hair salon in Sydney set me back $620.

We’re talking the cost of my electricity bills for the year, all gone in one hit at the basin.

Most of the women I know have been used to paying around the $470 mark for a while, which again is obscene, but it’s a bill we’ve come to expect.

But $620 is seriously ridiculous. And the scary thing is it will keep going up.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal the cost of getting your hair done has soared past the official inflation rate.

People should get paid appropriately according to their expertise and skill level, but the industry across the board is becoming a robbery. You’d be hard pressed finding a salon with trained staff that won’t set you back hundreds of dollars.

The questionably large expenses are those pesky add-ons that the “senior artistic creative design hair master” insists you need or your hair will fall out.

Journalist Lexie Cartwright pays $650 to have her hair done, which is fast becoming a normal price in metropolitan areas. (Pic: supplied)

And her seniority means she has magic hands which somehow boosts the price of your treatment application. I’d happily let the 15-year-old intern awkwardly squirt some treatment on my hair if it means the cost will be shaved by triple.

On that note, how does snipping off dead ends for 12 minutes amount to $150 of labour? Or how can anyone possibly justify $120 to paint on a bit of toner, just because they do a D-grade celeb’s hair which has boosted their social media rep?

Admittedly, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves. We keep going back to these luxurious salons every six to eight weeks and paying top dollar.

But putting your hair in the hands of someone who isn’t well known or reputable is a terrifying prospect.

Sandra Campitelli from the Hairdressing and Beauty Industry Association said a butcher could open a hair salon and legally cut people’s hair, given it’s an unregulated industry.

This made me feel better about pillaging my wallet by going to an expert. And my hair did look beautiful.

Then I went to a family dinner and no-one noticed a thing, except my cousin who thought my skin looked dry.

It’s hard to know if we are really getting bangs for our buck, or whether we’re being conned by hairstylists with decent Instagram followings.

Lexie Cartwright is a journalist for News Corp. Follow her on Twitter at @lexiecartwright.

Originally published as ‘I spent a year’s utility bill money on my hair’