[Closed] Do you tip your hairdresser/barber?

|As someone in the profession for twenty five years i'm reading this with interest.
In my experience there are those that tip and those that do not.
Both get remembered for different reasons.

A haircut is a personal thing and forming a relationship with your barber is worth its weight in gold, everyone has their own personal style of cutting and what will suit one client might not necessarily suit another.
Barbers are often therapists,stylists,shopping assistants and anything in between as well as being professionally trained stylists.

I have clients who come as much for the company and conversation/craic the actual haircut is almost an aside. While tipping isn't compulsory it is appreciated as it shows that the client appreciates the time and effort spent creating a style that's personal to them.
On the other hand i have known clients who arrive during lunch or right as you are closing the shop for the night, and expect you to jump through hoops for them and quite often show no appreciation at all. They still get the same time and professional attention as the tipping clients but the relationship isn't the same for obvious reasons.

A few things about barber shops.
If you have an appointment, be on time, if you're twenty mins late don't expect to be taken right away.
Wash your hair before you go or if you cant then expect to have it washed.
Try to communicate what you want as well as you can, one mans trim is another mans scalping.
Turn your phone off or at least ignore it. Simply put it is considered rude. You wouldn't answer it in the dentists chair.

Its like giving your local bike shop grease monkeys some nice biscuits to go with their tea break, it isn't compulsory but it can make for a better relationship and that unexpected mechanical you had preventing your weekend ride might get bumped up the queue.

Never ever tip unless the service was exceptional

I dont understand why we are meant to tip some folk who do their job and not some other folk who do their job

Also been in restaurants when folk go to leave a tip whilst moaning about crap service

When it was less than a tenner I rounded up. Now it's £12 I don't

£13 ... round it up to £15

I real don't get the non tippers.

Honestly what are your big plans for the extra quid or two ??.... or do you have more short term thinking and go straight next door to the barbers and buy yourselves some sweets.

Interesting as well to see some of our socialist friends of STW being greedy.

Always.

They charge £9, but I always give them the change from a tenner because, well, they do a good job of cutting my hair. And they are nice people. It's always worth being nice to nice people.

Interesting as well to see some of our socialist friends of STW being greedy.

Nice troll though and I never realised the proof of your socialist principles was whether you tipped a barber. thanks for the heads up

Something that pisses me off is when a restaurant adds a tip to the bill (bit irritating) AND tries to disguise it calling it "Opt Svc Chg" or something even more cryptic, on the assumption that customers (especially foreign tourists) will not realise and leave more.

It might be a genrational thing. I know when i first started paying for my own haircuts, i was glad to be able to tip. It showed that i knew the system and had joined that group of men who knew when and how to tip. This included the discreet handshake tip, the sneaky cash into pocket tip and the incognitio tip amongst others. This wisdom set you apart from the socially naive and inept who just did not know these systems. Over the years, it stopped being a thing, just a way of behaving.

Interesting to some of the RW failing to work out what is going on

Hold on a second there pal ... who says I'm RW ?

And we are talking about the Barbers here .... Not chain restaurants.

I dont understand why we are meant to tip some folk who do their job and not some other folk who do their job

I don't tip. I think I pay a fair price for a good service. Also I tend to pay by card and the card reader at the hairdressers hasn't an option for adding a gratuity.

I real don't get the non tippers.

Honestly what are your big plans for the extra quid or two ??.... or do you have more short term thinking and go straight next door to the barbers and buy yourselves some sweets

Interesting as well to see some of our socialist friends of STW being greedy.

I dont understand why we are meant to tip some folk who do their job and not some other folk who do their job

I don't get that some folks can't work out who to tip and who not

I always give my barber a handjob

How's this thread suddenly appeared after I've just been chopped.
£7.20 at my shop (far too cheap). Gave them a tenner cause they do a good job and they're nice girls.

For better or worse I judge people mostly on how they they treat people with less power than themselves.

Ironically, that statement makes you sound like you have a bit of a superiority complex.

[i]Mine charges £4. Cheapest in town by miles. I round it up to a fiver.[/i]

Jeez...where do you live? 😯

I get charged £12 and usually tip a couple more unless I am unhappy with something. (last time I was unhappy was when the woman was breathing her nicotine infected breath in my face!)

[i]The left wing ideal is that everyone gets a fair wage rather than a few crumbs from the table.[/i]

eh? I think you'll find that tipping ensures people do get a fair wage! 😕

eh? I think you'll find that tipping ensures people do get a fair wage!

The whole conventions around who and who does not deserve a tip is very strange.

Without getting too 'reservoir dogs' about it, nobody tips people on minimum wage, zero hours contracts in McDonalds, which I suspect if a far tougher job and less well paid job that cutting hair.

I think you'll find that tipping ensures people do get a fair wage!

We do not tip based solely on what you get paid- its not a "top up" for the poor its just for certain things.

I think you'll find that tipping ensures people do get a fair wage!

We do not tip based solely on what you get paid- its not a "top up" for the poor its just for certain things.

It is a fact that my barber is wealthier than me..
Considerably so

Should he tip me when I go for a trim?

It is a fact that my barber is wealthier than me..
Considerably so

The owners of the place where I go took all the permanent staff off to New York for a long weekend for their Christmas do. I think they're doing ok in the big scheme of things.

I pay £10 for the local place and its pretty good, don't tip normally but was in a few days before Xmas and there were 3 other guys there, we got talking about Xmas do's and the barbers were saying that they couldn't really do one as it was expensive. Looking around I suggested we all put a bit in to let them go and have a bite to eat and some beers - £150 came out of pockets and the level of service is now stellar when I go in !

Do they declare the income?

Or do you sign the Gift Aid form?

[i]No its keeps wages artificially low
We do not tip based solely on what you get paid- its not a "top up" for the poor its just for certain things.[/i]

Depends how you view it, if a new Barber opens a shop and undercuts (oops!) the oppo, then he is clearly willing to work for low pay for a while. If you are very good at what you do (a barber) and you get a stream of customers, then you are hardly on the minimum wage are you?

As a customer who receives service, I reserve the right to pay what I think is right, over and above the stated price.

Yep, I get my hair cut 3 times/year in a mates salon and usually tip £5 for the girls who wash it before my mate cuts it

You have your hair cut every 4 months?? Wow. Slow grower or hairy beast?

A haircut is a personal thing and forming a relationship with your barber is worth its weight in gold

I can think of two occasions where I was particularly pleased with the service or value, so I tipped, but ordinarily I see it as the same transaction as buying from a shop.

Maybe I missed out on this 'education' as my dad's been bald as long as I can remember.

I always wondered if there was a beneficial tax reason for officially charging £8 or £9 and relying on many/most to round up to a tenner??? I guess formally you're supposed to declare tips???

Most of the time unless I happen to not have any change (haircuts a tenner). I know from working low paid jobs that a little extra always made me smile and helped out more than you'd think. And what's £12 for a skilled job taking 40 minutes or so? Great value in my book.

I've never even considered a 'relationship' with a barber, I'd expect every barber to be capable of my short back and sides.

sure, but your own barber gets to know your hair and how it grows, especailly as this changes over the years.

Always do. Give them a couple of quid on top of the bill.

I do the same with the mechanic who works on my motorbikes. Give him a tenner or perhaps twenty if the bill is large.

Then if I pop in with a piffling issue more often than not he'll fix it there and then often for nothing (it elicits another tip, of course).

Oddly enough, I don't tip the guys who look after the car, but that's main dealer and you never see the mechanic, whereas the bike guy's a much smaller set-up and I nearly always speak to the owner.

Ok so we take it that about 10% of the barbers income is tax free ... after a quid tip.

How many haircuts have we all gotta have, before the tax payer gets cheated for more money than Google has tucked away.

It's all complete nonsense. Most barbers and hairdressers aren't employees - they're sole traders, sometimes renting the chair from another barber. Hairdressers are the second worst paid people in the country: http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/these-are-the-10-lowest-paying-jobs-in-britain--eyMObPz1Tl

The people being selfish and refusing to tip when tipping is the social convention are scumbags. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Turkish guys offer me a complimentary drink (beer, soft drink or water), they set my ears on fire (literally), use a cutthroat razor to do the shave bit, wash my hair and then massage my face with a warm eucalyptus infused hot towel for £12- yes, I roundup to £15 with pleasure. It's a real event going there. Lovely and friendly guys. As pampered as I've ever felt 😆

I moved and the new barbers does an okay job for £10. Can't really tip when paying with a note. Not very good VFM either.

My local one from work charges £11 - a lot of others in there round it up to £15 which I find staggering! It's nothing fancy either...

😯

They might have wallets full of cobwebs but that's a bit harsh Kona

😆

Turkish guys offer me a complimentary drink (beer, soft drink or water), they set my ears on fire (literally), use a cutthroat razor to do the shave bit, wash my hair and then massage my face with a warm eucalyptus infused hot towel for £12- yes, I roundup to £15 with pleasure. It's a real event going there. Lovely and friendly guys. As pampered as I've ever felt

Indeed, our guys have transformed the local market. Tired, grumpy and pretty dirty incumbents have really lost a lot of business. Well done the innovative Turks and lovely experience. The wet shaves are great too = although I am always uncomfortable with a cut throat and my neck!!

Great advert for freedom of movement!! 😉

Where are the ladies - the amount they pay and tip is staggering!!!

£70 for me plus tip.

Edit: interesting/annoying how it differs from county to county!

They might have wallets full of cobwebs but that's a bit harsh Kona

i'm assuming you are all Northern with these cheap barbers, mines £15 a cut, so no tipping. Plus i go in with the boy (4) and allthough it's half price and they do a good job, i'm not rounding £22 up to £25..

I always used to shave my head myself, but since i have to be somewhat professional now i've got to have a half reasonable haircut and not look like a hooligan.. i'd prefer to just the clippers out..

It's all complete nonsense. Most barbers and hairdressers aren't employees - they're sole traders, sometimes renting the chair from another barber. Hairdressers are the second worst paid people in the country: http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/these-are-the-10-lowest-paying-jobs-in-britain--eyMObPz1Tl

The woman that cuts my hair has been working at the same place for 12 years, she's pretty smart, has 3 kids, good social life and gets away for a couple of holidays a year. We've had a chat about the owners of the salon and she gave me the impression that they are nice folk that treat the staff well with bonuses, flexible hours and occasional days out. I wouldn't say she's living the high life but she is a long, long way from the margins of society.

The cut costs £30 which I'm happy to pay for what's around an hours work in pleasant surroundings. That seems a fair exchange, I don't feel the need to tip. If i thought the person cutting my hair was somehow being exploited I doubt i would go back regardless of how good the cut was.

My sister is also a hairdresser, has been since the late 70's so I have some insight into working conditions and pay.

konabunny - Member
The people being selfish and refusing to tip when tipping is the social convention are scumbags. You should be ashamed of yourself.

konabunny the barber tipper ... 😆

Luckily I have no hairs on my head otherwise I have to prove you lot with those soft wavy hairs wrong again ... 😆

I doubt I ever tipped any barber before in the far east or in BritLand but those were the days when I had hairs earning peanuts for living and was a student from a poor country far far away.

According to Inland Revenue all income or money a person earns is taxable if they reach the taxable level. No ifs or buts ... all taxable.

KB - and x-reference with the willingness to spend other peoples' money!! 😉

Such is life...being tight with money is an unpleasant trait though.