Back to Basics: How Much Should A Haircut Really Cost?

The cost of a haircut can be a surprisingly controversial subject. Years after John Edwards was skewered for his $400+ haircut (you'd think world leaders would have learned their lesson), it was recently reported that French president François Hollande pays his hairstylist more than $10,000 each month.
But what can a $10,000 haircut get you that a $100 one can't? And, more importantly, how much should all of us common-folk, whose grooming habits are not funded by taxpayers, shell out for a trip to the salon? We investigated.

 

IT'S ALL RELATIVE

"It really depends on your priorities and what you can afford," says Eva Scrivo, a hairstylist and the founder of two namesake salons in New York City, when asked how much is too much to pay for a haircut. "A better way of looking at it is what value do you get from a haircut? If you pay $50 for a bad cut that’s not shaped properly for your features and that you have to wrestle with every morning, then that cut is not worth the money you paid for it. Conversely, if you pay $500 for a haircut that you love and that you only have to get three or four times per year, you're getting better value than you would from a mediocre $150 cut that doesn't look as good on you and that you have to get eight times a year because the hair doesn't grow out as well." So, much like any other type of expenditure, it's about weighing cost versus benefit when it comes to your hair.

WHAT GOES INTO DETERMINING THE COST OF A HAIRCUT?

"Ego!" says Matt Fugate, a hairstylist at Serge Normant at John Frieda (don't worry; he's joking). "Lots of things can warrant a high-priced haircut: Demand for a stylist, skill, press, uniqueness. It's like asking 'how are Jackson Pollack's paintings worth so much?'" 
Of course, locale also plays a major role in setting the price of a haircut (and just about everything else; come to Manhattan and enjoy our $17 cocktails!). "In high-cost cities like New York or San Francisco, hair services are, on average, significantly more expensive than in many other parts of the country," says Scrivo. "Partly, this is because the cost of doing business is so much greater, but it's also because the best and most ambitious professionals in the country tend to gravitate toward such cities, and they'd naturally want to charge more for their services."