What it costs....

I touched on this in my last post: What it actually costs to do your hair. I will probably be shot, drawn, and quartered for this, but, here it is. On average, it costs the salon $7.00 to color your hair...this is a color retouch, where just your regrowth is dealt with, and includes the shampoo, conditioner, water usage, electricity, haircut, styling products, and time involved. We happen to charge $40 for this service. Commission comes off that, which, in most cases, is 50%. So, the stylist gets $20 of it. The $7.00 gets deducted from the remaining total,(to pay the bills) making it $13.00 that the salon makes off that particular service. There's a chi chi salon I know that charges $60 for a color retouch, and the haircut is both extra and the price of that is based on how many years the stylist has under her belt. A friend of mine gets $32 for her haircuts, which means she gets $30 off the color and $16 off the haircut. And she's booked up to 3 months out (which is a personal goal of mine), so she cranks in the money...when I worked with her 6 years ago, she was pulling down $70,000 a year in services, which means she took home $35,000...I'm sure it's more than that by now. You are also paying for the fact that we, as licensed hairdressers, actually went to school, graduated, passed our state board exams to work on your hair. But, knowing what it actually costs makes it hard for me to over charge people. I get that Ginger is in this to make money, and I'd actually like to receive a commission paycheck. (I'm paid by the hour, which isn't a bad thing, just a different thing) But, I just can't justify soaking the client, all with the theory that "I'm worth it" going on. A pet peeve of mine is the fact that we don't have a true set guideline for quoting prices. We have base prices to work from, but there's no consistency. And there's no provision for corrective color, either. I'm confident in what I do, in the services I provide, and I understand the chemicals enough to know what they're capable of doing and what they're not capable of doing. But, I keep in mind that we work in a low income area. Do we have people who have a lot of money and don't look the part?? You betcha. Most of the people who come in are hard working people who either own their own business, or worked in the factories (which are now closed, for the most part) or mills in the area. And, in this economy, everyone is looking for a value. The fact that the haircut or blow dry/style is included in all our chemical prices is a good thing, but we have to justify that, every single time. I keep all this stuff in mind, as I continue to move forward in my education. Once I have my actual certification, I can justify, both to myself and to my client, having a higher price. I've also mentioned to Ginger, several times, that we need to re-vamp the menu of services, but, it never gets done. I also keep this stuff in mind, if I ever open my own salon (still a dream, at this point), all of the issues that I complain about will be addressed, from the start, so there are no "grey areas". I hate grey areas!!