GETTING YOUR HAIR cut, washed and dried is one of life’s little luxuries, an act of self-care and maintenance that goes a long way towards putting a pep in your step and making you feel good.
The one drawback? It can be pretty bloody expensive and salon pricing doesn’t always take into account whether you’re getting a trim, a short haircut or a whole new ‘do.
A quick gander at chains like House of Colour and Peter Mark reveals that the starting price for a woman’s haircut is €46. These prices can to go up to as much as €60 if you request a more senior stylist.
And if you Google ‘best dublin salon,’ you’ll find salons charging anything from €80 to €120 for a haircut. That’s a lot of money to part with for that #newhairdontcare feeling.
It’s also significantly more than what lads are expected to pay in barbers.
To counter the disparity in pricing between men’s cut and women’s cuts, a salon in Co. Derry has introduced an innovative gender neutral pricing system.
RoCo is a unisex salon based in Co. Derry. It opened in November 2011 and has gone from strength to strength since. A few weeks ago, it announced plans to do away with traditional pricing and introduce “gender neutral pricing”.
“We believe that the common practice of pricing based on men or women is outdated,” they explained to DailyEdge.ie. “Realistically we have found that the services for a man or woman based on the length of their hair takes the same time, the same practice and the same product.”
Why should a lady with short hair pay any more than a man with short hair? Or a man with long hair pay less than a woman with long hair ?
For those reasons, they decided to come up with gender neutral pricing based on the length of hair as opposed to the gender of the client.
We can see the latest trends turning towards women with shorter styles and more daring looks and believe our new price menu reflects the upcoming trends.
The salon now charges anything from £30 (approx €35) to £47 (approx €55) for a wash, cut and style, regardless of gender.
“We’ve organised our cut and styling options into two sections: ‘Extreme Short Wash,cut & Style ’ and ‘Wash, Cut & Style,’” they explained.
Extreme Short Wash, Cut & Style is a short hair style involving razor and/or shaving techniques to create the desired look. This description will cover most gents’ cuts and ladies with shorter styles.
Wash, Cut & Style is for longer-haired clients. This process takes more time than a shorter cut and therefore should not be specified to women only, as more men have tended to opt for longer styles recently.
They say that the policy has received “a lot of positive feedback” and said their clients agree with their vision.
As for other salons?
We believe that a lot of salons will follow our fair pricing structure as we trust our forward thinking vision.
Your move, everyone.
