How much should I tip?

Great topic! I'd like to hear from real people, and not just magazines, which recommend 15 to 25 percent. (25 percent!?!?!?)

I hope I'm not cheap, but to me a $6 tip for a haircut seems extreme. That is what's suggested for a $30 cut, however. It gets worse if you have a cut and color ($90), and the "suggested" tip climbs to over $20!

I dislike this American practice of tipping everyone for everything. Waiters and waitress I don't mind. That's standard, and it's the majority of their earnings. But now we're supposed to tip hairstylists, manicurists, aestheticians, masseurs, and so on--ON TOP of prices that are already outrageous.

And because it's standard and expected, I don't have the heart to decline. Even if the service wasn't worth a tip. The last time I had my eyebrows waxed (1 minute, $12), I noticed the technician was lingering expectantly while I paid. This wasn't even a salon. It was a cosmetic store in the mall. I tipped her $3 and left feeling resentful.

Where does it end?

Ally

Dave,

I completely agree that a 25 percent tip /should/ be reserved for exceptional service. Something else that's always bothered me: The waiter in the nice restaurant where you ordered filet mignon gets a $25 tip, whereas the waiter at Chili's gets $6. They both carried the same number of plates and made the same number of trips to the kitchen.

This goes for beauty services too. I used to give the woman who cut and colored my hair the "requisite" $20 tip. What could a colorist possibly be doing above and beyond the call of duty, on a monthly basis, to warrant an extra 20 bucks for an hour's work? (Half that time she spent sipping soda and reading a magazine while I sat under the dryer.) That's practically the price of the haircut all over again. And if you tip her 20 percent once, you pretty much have to do it ever after, even if she does a less than stellar job.

If you're just getting your hair cut, a tip is no big deal. But when you get into expensive services like hair extensions or specialty color....ugh!

I think I'm dismayed that tipping is now "automatic." It's not a nicety or an expression of appreciation. To duck out of it is socially unacceptable. For this reason, why not just work it into the price of the service?


Ally

I agree with one point you made, I don't like tipping either. You don't tip your lawyer or doctor, don't tip me either.

HOWEVER, the comment you made about the prices already being outrageous is ludicrus. We spend (at least in my state) a year going thru school full time. That means 40 hours a week plus working another 30 hours a week to make ends meet while in school. We shell out $8,000 to $14,000 for tuition. Then we get out and have to purchase everything we need to perform services: perms, colors, shampoo, conditioners, etc etc etc. A decent pair of shears costs about $150 with better quality shears going for up to $700. And you complain about the price of your haircuts and colors. WHATEVER. Buy a FLOW BEE and do it yourself. I just love to see the women come in that have tried to color their own hair at home and have totally screwed it up because they don't know what they are doing. They come in and act shocked when we tell them it will be at least $150 to correct it. They don't take in to account the $50 in products we will use or the 5 hours of our time or the knowledge we have to be able to correct it in the first place. They could have saved $100 by coming to us in the first place.

The other point I would like to make is getting your eye brows waxed in a cosmetic store in the mall? Are they even licensed to perform that service? In my state they aren't. They hold a demonstrators license which only allows them to apply makeup and they cannot charge for any services.

Sounds to me like there are a lot of people out there who don't realize how hard it is to stand behind that chair for 10 hours a day and try to make 20 people happy. Listen to them complain about everything from their hair to their husbands and just try to make them feel a little better about themselves before they leave.

If yuo ask me, our prices aren't high enough

Gee, a whole year? Wow, that's more than a Bachelor's degree takes in four years, right?! Plus, there's spending $50,000 in college tuition, and not getting any tips! Randy, you're breaking my heart with your sob story. Here's $1,000 just to buy yourself a less snobbish attitude. Thank goodness I am simply growing my hair long and don't need styling ever, nor will I ever need coloring or any of those other astoundingly difficult masterworks that only you and other hair masters are able to accomplish. And to think I never ever have a bad hair day, and it costs me nearly zilch to accomplish all of this. I must be amazingly talented. Yet I think not.

Jennifer Eve

Hello Randy:

I certainly understand the hard work you guys put in. My mother use to work in a salon and all the bending is very hard on the back and standing up all day on a cement floor is not easy for sure.
What has always amaze me is how more expensive the course is itself is when you compare to other courses. For fun I was checking out how much it cost to be a stylist and cost is way up compare to what it use to be. Over here for sure you would pay $8,000 for a ten month course which of course is very expensive and of course you have to include all your tools plus you forgot to mention your chair rental.
Personally I have always tip my stylist well as they do deserve it.

But to just add some humor I had a doctor that wanted a tip.
He wanted to be tip in donuts and treats so many of his patients would come in with home made stuff lol He is great doctor and have a terrific sense of humour.

Gauging by the compliments I receive all the time, yes, I gather I do look good in this classic, timeless hair style. And to think I chose it as an adult, after all those immature years of switching hairdonts, brainwashed by the fad of the minute. Time to grow up, I'd say. No more wastefully throwing away good money. Long haired men and women deprive you salon masters of all that income. Methinks that is the main reason we irritate you all. We don't buy into the typical salon propaganda, i.e. job security, that keeps everyone else returning and pouring countless dollars into your pockets.