I’m getting my hair cut and colored today… and the tipping part has always perplexed me. Does one tip around 20% or is more along the lines of a 10% tip? I didn’t know if it was considered the same as, say, eating out at a restaurant.
So if the bill comes out to $100.00… $20 seems like an awfully big tip! Any suggestions?
I’d tip $10 or $15 on that amount.
WOW! I know women spend this much on their hair, but it is always a shock to see it in print. For what its worth I tip four dollars on a twelve dollar haircut. On a $100 haircut I can’t see tipping more than ten.
You are right that tipping a hairstylist is very different from tipping a waiter. At a cheap cut place twenty percent is a starting point for me. There is no way I would drop twenty percent with those prices though.
I’d actually tip $20 on a $100 tab. I believe my hairdresser charges $110, and I give her $135.
I’d tip 20 bux on a $100.00 tab, too.
I’d ask the hairdresser. I don’t tip too much, but conside also that she charges a ton to do a guys basic hair cut.
The thing is, if you can afford to spend $100 on a haircut, it seems pointless and cheap to skimp on the tip. The idea that “at those prices” they shouldn’t get a tip is stupid; the hairstylist is not the one making the mega-bucks off the salon prices, and if those prices seem so outrageous, perhaps you are spending outside your budget to begin with…which is not your stylist’s fault.
My cut and color costs $80, and I always give her an even $100. If I couldn’t afford the extra twenty, I shouldn’t have spent the $80 in the first place; she does a fabulous job and she deserves it.
I’d give $15 on a $100 cut…if it’s good enough to warrant leaving that much. Adjust as you see fit; there is no set amount that you have to give or not give.
I come from the Mr. Pink School of Tipping and Service Recognition.
I give 20 percent, more if there’s anything special she did for me, like send someone out for coffee.
I just had my done a few weeks ago. I tipped $20 on a $100 'do. Here’s MY question, not to be a hijacker or anything. The woman who did my hair is the owner of the salon. It is a regular salon…not just a corner of her basement. Do you tip the owner the same as you tip a worker bee?
My haircuts run about $10 every month or so. I don’t tip (mostly because $10 is a round number and i never have change) so I tend to do my best to drum up more business for the salon. It’s the best haircut I’ve gotten in Arkansas after almost 3 years of searching…I think I’ve referred a dozen guys to it in the last 6 months. I like to think it balances out.
And yes, I am a cheap bastard.
Stonebow. You said it. You’re lucky they don’t give you the Arkansas Bowl Cut!
It gets even trickier when two people enter the equation. For example if you are getting a perm, most of the grunt work will probably be done by the shampoo girl under the direction of the actual hair dresser. The hairdresser comes over once in a while to peek under the rollers and adjust the clock if necessary, but the poor shampoo girl does most of the manual labor. After all was said and done, I felt like tipping the shampoo girl $20 and giving the stylist a fiver.
LOL!! Something to think about!! 
My cut usually costs around $30.00 and my husband thinks THAT is expensive!! I usually throw in around $5.00 on top of that.
We’re pretty broke nowadays though.
I’ve always heard that you don’t tip the owner of a salon. But I don’t want to start a debate on that, YMMV. The thing that always confused me - how would you find out whether your hairdresser is the owner or not? I guess you just find out over time, based on things they say, or how the other hairdressers act around them. But if you’ve been tipping, not sure whether they’re the owner or not, do you then stop tipping once you find out if they’re the owner?!
Heather
Well in my case, there’s only one hairdresser in the salon so she’s definitely the owner. Well, that and I know her. :
: but in a big salon, I don’t know how’d you tell.
-Lil
My mother is a hairdresser, she likes it when she gets big tips, just so you all know 
They ARE artists in a sense… tip them well, they’ll put extra effort into making you look good.
/True Story = On/
I had a haircut in Australia a few years back. A friend of mine who is Australian was having hers done so I decided mine needed doing too.
We went to the salon and both received very nice do’s. Mine finished about 5 minutes after hers did so she had already paid.
After mine was finished I went to pay and it was about A$17 if I remember correctly.
Now, having lived in the US for 6 years I did some basic math and figured about A$22 would be acceptable. I gave the exceptionally attractive, wedding ring wearing young lady A$25 and asked her to give me A$3 change.
The look she gave me could have killed a brown bear at 100 yards until my friend sauntered on over and explained that I tipped everyone and I wasn’t trying to cause offence. She was highly embarresed, I was highly amused and the rest of the small town I was staying in kept commenting on it for the next month or so that I was there
Note to fellow wanderers: Austalians don’t tip either hairdressers or bartenders; expect to get some very, very wierd looks if you try to.
Note to attrictive people: If you are as attractive to the opposite sex as I am :D, expect a combination of wierd, confused and tempted looks
/True Story = Off/
I know that my hairdresser is the owner because we talk. She used to have a worker bee, but she’s been gone for a while. I feel like if I don’t tip her, she’d be insulted or give me a shitty haircut the next time. I’m in a quandry.
My salon specializes. So I get a color from one person and the cut from another and my brows waxed from the third, etc.
I tend to tip around $10 for the color (my colorist is very good and I like her, but I’m not doing a foil or anything too intense so it isn’t a lot of work), on a $65 color. And $10 on a $45 haircut - my stylist does do a lot of work and 10% is cheap when you are looking at a $110 bill.
I’ll tip $3 for the wax. The wax only takes a couple minutes.