[Closed] Do you tip your hairdresser/barber?

My old man always said, if they are round the back of your head with something really sharp; tip them.

Mines usually £8 rounded up to a tenner. Not sure what I will do when they put the prices up?

I tend to tip mine a Quid or two, but it's only £7.50 at the Head Office in Leeds. 🙂

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

£9 but I just hand them a tenner.

Other barber nearby is £11 which is a PITA and my thinking is that as long as people keep giving the £9 barber £10 he won't put his prices up to £10 as some kind of gentleman's agreement. He gets what he really wants and I get to say "keep the change"*.

*I don't really say that phrase

I used to round up to a tender when it was 9 quid, now it's 9:50 it felt mean to only tip 50p so I no longer tip.

Very British problems

Anyone you trust enough to have steel at your throat is worth tipping. End of.

I'm a structural engineer but no one tips me so their house/industrial shed/Dr surgery doesn't fall down!

Some of you guys are paying c.125% of the advertised fee, do you over pay for everything you buy or service you receive?

Yup round it up to £10 but it would cost £7. The barber gets the £3 not the owner, I don't tip the owner when she cuts it, if it was £10 that would be for other costs not just for cutting my hair.

I tip my hairdresser at Christmas - same for the other people who do things regularly for me (window cleaner, gardener, postie and the bin-men ... oh and the estate managers office.)

Sure, 33% tip, every time, about once a month.

I buzz my own hair. Window cleaner charges £9 and I give him 10. On the day he announces it's now 11 quid we may have to work out a Christmas tip arrangement!

Thinking about it, 9 quid is ridiculously cheap for my mock-Tudor gin palace.

I tip the girls who wash it beforehand because my mate will always fit me in at very short notice for a cut whenever I want despite their being a 4week wait for an appointment with him, I can get a decent espresso or beer or glass (or two/three) of champagne whilst I get my hair cut which takes an hr so I often leave slightly the worse for wear but with the sort of haircut that even I have to admit is a damn fine looking cut that is only let down by the person modelling it

I don't tip for a few reasons
1. It's the guys own business rather than some minimum wage employee
2. I pay with a card which never feels right if you add a tip. Where does it go?
3. I am loyal to them, I think repeat business is worth more.

I live in the UK

I tip when I feel it (whatever if is) deserves a tip

I was in New York in November , ate in TGI Fridays on 5th Ave. food was slow and when it finally did arrive, cold, I thought it didn't deserve a tip but that was not an option.
I won't eat in TGI Fridays again anywhere in the world

#hair washing, book an appointment 4 weeks in advance? Champagne?

Is this you?

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Nope. I get a 3 all over, takes about 10 mins & costs £6.50. In fact she tips me by sticking a tit in my ear once in a while.

I've had the same bloke cut my hair every month for the past 22 years (I know it's this long because he started working at the barbers next to the sport shop I worked in when I was at school). He's a mate though, we used to go out drinking and more recently we go out riding together. Seems weird that I'd tip a mate, so I don't.

😀 , nah, I have much better hair than that ^. And I don't book weeks in advance, I usually phone up in the morning and say to him I need a haircut today

Yes

she tips me by sticking a tit in my ear

Sounds good? Can you hear the milk?

Barbers, Waiters, Bell Hops, yes.
Pilot, Check Out Staff, Dentist, no.
It's a minefield!

I've tried tipping Mrs Dingo when she cuts my hair,but she says we do "quite enough of that sort of thing anyway!"

My best mate cuts mine and still charges me so he can whistle for a tip 😆

I don't tip for a few reasons
1. It's the guys own business rather than some minimum wage employee

Last time I gave a barber a tip the horse came in last ...

Yep, £8 for the cut, £10 paid. He does a good job, seems a nice guy and I know full well he's not exactly rich either. £10 to be made to look semi-respectable for 6 weeks or so seems like a bargain to me.

Always a tenner.

I'm a [s]structural[/s] engineer [s]but no one tips me so their house/industrial shed/Dr surgery doesn't fall down![/s]
[s]
Some of you guys are paying c.125% of the advertised fee, do you over pay for everything you buy or service you receive?
[/s]

explains everything, you needn't have bothered with all the rest.

I let myself know what a great job I've done...

No. I'm paying for a service and they supply it at an agreed price. Same for restaurants. I'm already paying extra for the service and they should do it well. Really don't get bellboy tipping either. Their job is to carry your bag, do you tip if they do that particularly well?

I'm a structural engineer so have littl capacity for abstract thought

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

Used to use one that was £9. It wasn't twice as good. They seemed surprised I took the change.

Normally tip, 11/12 or something and I round it up to 15.

Which is a decent tip, but if they do a good cut and are happy to cut in silence if I feel like sitting in silence, it's worth it. Also it genuinely seems to slightly surprise them, as I'm tipping slightly more than most I think. In generally it costs little to be a "good" tipper and makes someone's day a little brighter - so why not?

Of course, only wish each visit cost me a tenner.

I dont normally tip anyone but barbers seem to structure their pricing to be £8 or in my case £13 including a shave so waiting for the £2 back seems churlish. Car wash places also do this IME.

£13 but I give them £15

£8 - no tip. Just never even occurred to me TBH. I'm not a bad tipper in restaurants usually either. In general I think tipping should be phased out and people should be paid properly in the first place.

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

No. I'm paying for a service and they supply it at an agreed price. Same for restaurants. I'm already paying extra for the service and they should do it well.

the people actually doing the job often/mostly have no control at all over the "agreed price". If I use a restaurant and it's food is good, and the service is quick and the server happy, I'll mostly tip pretty well, as I'm likely to go back. They'll remember me as a good customer, and I'll get good service, so I'll tip well...and so it goes.

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

The owner/barber who cuts my hair doesn't really have less power than me though does he?

Just gone up from £7 to £8 and I always give him £1 and make the same old joke: "This can go towards the coffee machine for your regulars!"

One of the regular barbers has just moved to Preston - HMP Kirkham actually, ten months for biting his partner's cheek in a fight as they emerged from a club. I always thought him a bit odd.

What about the Occado man?

Always seems mean sending him out into the cold dark night empty-handed.

But a quid might look like an insult, and a fiver far too much ... so I don't give him anything, while wondering if other people do. Or don't.

My Barber charges £12, if the staff do a particularly good cut or make an effort I pop a quid in for them, I don't always tip. If I am with my boy I usually round it up. Always give a tip at crimbo. Had it cut yesterday but it's only the business owner currently so I see no need for a tip. I wish his pricing was like £9 I would just pay a tenner but 12 is awkward seems excessive to round up to 15??

What about the Occado man?

the Tesco ones are told to refuse tips apparently?

I dont tip as rule, nobody tips me for sorting out their phone line / broadband / e-mail, because thats my JOB which I get PAID to do.

I went to a pub on the green at Kew with family and we worked out how much the food was going to be and I went to order at the bar, paid cash and got the change. OH asked where the rest of the change was. Totted it up, they'd already added a service charge to the food bill. Err I dont think so. Im not paying a tip before I've even seen the food and Im certainly not paying a tip now. F R O!

Yes - its all part of the trickle down effect (or not in some cases)

We had an arrival of a Turkish barbers in a small town/large village with an oversupply of barbers. Offered the full hot towel, lemon scent, burning the hair off etc experience. Hair cutting was acceptable (ok a bit ropey at times) too.

Started at £8 for the cut and experience - bargain compared to the others. Easy to round up to a tenner and a 25% tip for the barber. Then they put it up to £10 and becomes a bit trickier - would be interested to see what actually happened. I still give them a £2 so they are better off but with a lower percentage tip. However, I am sure that many people just hand over a tenner now.

Yes, tips in pubs (with food) seems to changing now. Seems almost de rigeur to tip (or its added to bill anyway)

|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.