I do my own. I’ve had pedicures and it looks like and feels good, but I enjoy doing it myself. How often depends on how my nail polish looks and how fast my toe nails grow.
I miss pedicures…
I have psoriasis, and currently have a sizable plaque on the top of my foot. I could probably get a foot rub, get my nails painted, but it’s kind of gross and most people won’t understand that it’s not contagious. I’m getting the plaque under control, so hopefully someday I’ll get them again. Except that the psoriasis has made a couple of my toenails kind of thick. I"m super self conscious about it.
People keep mentioning the cost, as though this is some incredible luxury. My pedicures cost $23. How much do they cost where y’all live?
I cannot stand anyone messing with my feet. I do my own about every other week. I wear sandals March through October, so I use the pumice and files. I discovered foot masks this year. OMIGOD how I love those. Gold Bond foot cream in house socks every once in awhile.
Same with the hands. I had a professional manicure once. I have thin skin on my hands and it felt like she was slicing it off with the file. I tend to my fingernails two or three nights a week. I take water aerobics, so my polish gets trashed fairly regularly.
Pedicures here seem to go around $30-$50.
They cost about $30 in my area. But if I do it twice a month, that’s $70, including tip. That comes out to about $1000 per year, assuming you don’t add a manicure to the pedicure… and that’s money I need to spend in other places. A couple times a year, it’s a fun treat. every 2 weeks, it’s a financial burden.
I get a pedicure and a brow thread at the same time for a total of $35. I add a $10 tip.
Pretty much this. I can pretty easily afford pedicures, but on my personal luxury scale, I’d much rather get a massage every month than a pedicure every two weeks. I get my nails done every three weeks. I get a facial once a month. I get my brows threaded once a month. My hair is currently as long as its been, I’m only getting it trimmed every three or four months or so, but most of my life I’ve worn it short enough that its a monthly or every six week job. At times I’ve kept up hair color - right now its semi-perm at home while I grow out some color and then let it go grey. Midwinter I usually get a body wrap or two. I love massages - all of those are bigger personal luxuries for me than a pedicure. And each of those - other than the massage, feeds my vanity and makes me feel put together more than my feet - I figure people look at my face more than the callouses on my heels.
And each of those also takes time in addition to money.
The polish part of pedicures is really time consuming - traditional polish dries slow, and I’m in a part of the country where you actually wear shoes or boots for huge parts of the year - so you spend an hour and a half at the salon getting a pedicure and waiting for the polish to dry.
You try to put polish on a Spanish heterosexual man, or a gay one who hasn’t specifically asked for it, and there will be mucho yelling at the very least.
And for women, a manicure is expected to include polish but for a pedi we’re asked if we want polish or not.
The first thing I do when I walk into the salon is browse the polish selection to see what color I’m in the mood for. Ivylad gets the foot pampering without the polish.
I get a pedi once a month for $25. I usually bring my own polish, so I can touch up if necessary.
I found the best haircutter I’ve ever had in my whole life at a Rios Golden Cuts (chain of salons) and the “senior haircut” is $10.00. TEN DOLLARS!!
This woman is soooo good, and I’ve told her I’d gladly pay $50 for the haircut, and HAVE paid more than that in the past for a haircut I didn’t even like. She said she has a lot of senior citizens who have come to her for years and she’s happy where she is. She came to the nursing home to cut my mother’s hair. I pay the $10 and tip her $20 and it’s still less than I had been paying.
IMHO haircutting is an art and a craft. There is skill involved, but talent is also needed. The thing that makes her so good is that she can do the same thing every time. I’ve gotten random great haircuts in my life (my hair is pretty short, so the haircut matters), but the stylist couldn’t do it consistently. My stylist said that when she was in beauty school, when the other girls were on their breaks drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, she was watching the senior stylists and asking them millions of questions. It shows. I’ve sent three girlfriends to her and they love her, too.
Sorry, long story, but wanted to share…