$550 for a haircut might seem a lot, but bad hair can really cost you

A hairdresser recently ghosted me. Why on earth? Well, I was hoping for a free haircut.

I wasn’t just going around asking random hairdressers to cut my hair for free, but rather responding to a request for hair models that hairdressers-in-training can practise on.

Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Sure, letting a student loose on my hair could have resulted in a slightly questionable cut, but here’s the thing: I am sick of spending a fortune at the hairdresser, and I simply will not do it any more.

I have been getting my hair cut and dyed by professionals since I started earning my own money, and turning my naturally mousy-brown tresses blonde has never come cheap.

I’d hate to calculate the total amount I’ve spent over the years, but during the past two to three years alone I would have easily spent about $2000 getting my hair done.

For nice hair, I’ve long felt the cost was worth it, and research into beauty economics suggests there’s some validity in the spend due to the response it can provoke in the workplace.

“Pulchronomics”, the study of the economics of physical attractiveness, has found across many studies that being good-looking can boost your salary.

If you’re not born with it, that’s where a good haircut and some mascara can come in. Researchers have looked at that too, and it turns out grooming can also make a significant difference to your earnings.

US economist Daniel S. Hamermesh has conducted decades of research into pulchronomics, and he boiled it all down in a recent interview with The Times of London.

“If you’re not attractive, it’s a disadvantage in almost every activity you undertake,” he said.

Ouch. Hence the expensive hair cuts. And who doesn’t enjoy a glass of bubbly or a head massage to go with it?

But over time the balance between looking good and the sheer cost has shifted for me, and I no longer feel it’s worth the hundreds of dollars. The recent economic turmoil helped tip the scales.

Inflation skyrocketed over the past three years. While it’s now down to 2.8 per cent and close to the Reserve Bank’s ideal position, that doesn’t mean prices have returned to the levels they were before; it means they’ve stopped rising so quickly.

In that time grocery bills soared. Power bills surged. Rent and mortgage payments skyrocketed. And I, like many Australians, found myself with less cash to spend after making all those essential purchases.

It also meant that if I was going to spend $550 on some highlights and a haircut (yes, it can cost that and more, and yes, I’m aware men’s haircuts are much cheaper – that’s worth its own column), the results had to be really, really good.

Unfortunately, even expensive salons can do a bad job.

I once paid $150 for a haircut only to discover my bangs were very uneven when I got home. Another hairdresser charged me hundreds of dollars for highlights, for me to later realise they’d given me 1990s-esque tiger stripes rather than nicely blended foils.

(No shade at all to my last salon in Canberra, where the lovely team made my hair look fantastic!)

But I don’t need a glass of sparkling wine, or a sound bath and blanket while my hair is being washed. I just want a decent-looking cut, for a decent price.

So, in November, I joined a Facebook group for hair models. My flatmate had used the same group to get a nice haircut for $40 and I was more than happy to be a guinea pig if it meant a cheap or free cut.

I quickly found a hairdresser asking for models to help during course testing for trainees, and after a bit of back and forth, she said she’d come back to me when they finalised the testing. Then I heard nothing, and got no reply to my follow-up.

I responded to a few more call-outs and heard nothing in return – so it seems a free (or extremely cheap) haircut is not in my future.

However, there are plenty of hairdressers who don’t demand a motza – I’ve since booked in with a local hairdresser who charges $60 for a cut and blow dry.

The hair colour situation is trickier. Thanks to Taylor Swift my hue is now considered “old money blonde”, but I’ve still got blonde highlights to grow out and looking like an upside-down Top Deck chocolate block is not what I’m going for.

Still haunted by a tragic home-dye experiment from 15 years ago, I’m loath to touch even a semi-permanent box dye. But I have been trawling subreddits, and I’m feeling brave enough to try toning it down myself.

I’ve also stopped spending the big bucks on branded makeup products. As much as I love them, I’ve realised (along with a large cohort of people on TikTok) that many pharmacy-brand products are just as good if not better than their pricier counterparts.

Will it affect my earnings? Only time will tell. But for now it will increase the amount of earnings I have to spend on other things, and I’ll count that as a win.

Rachel Clun is a former economics correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.