When Tara Salloum went to a Toronto hair salon for balayage, she didn’t think to discuss the price beforehand.
asserted
she → go → price
She was a dye job veteran, used to spending a few hundred dollars every time she sat down in the chair.
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she → use → chair
But when she went to pay, the total came to an eye-watering $900, plus a 20 per cent tip.
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total → go → 900
“I felt flabbergasted,” Salloum said.
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Salloum → feel → ?
“It’s not the norm to talk pricing during a consultation, but it really should be!”
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it → ’ → consultation
Salloum went on to find another stylist who charges a comparatively modest $400, and still lightens her hair regularly — although the recent arrival of her first child has her reconsidering the time and expense.
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her → go → time
“It just doesn’t feel realistic to sit in the chair for six-plus hours every couple of months,” she says.
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she → feel → months
“It’s something I’ve done on autopilot for the last seven years, and I’m realizing it’s not really a necessity to me anymore.”
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it → ’ → me
Salons’ rising costs of doing business is making what has always been an expensive habit even more so.
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what → rise → business
At the same time, many women are returning to pre-pandemic salon schedules after years of taking a more hands-off approach — ramped up by in-office mandates resulting in a more pressing need to look polished in the workplace.
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women → return → workplace
On the Ask TO sub-Reddit, a user posted that they’d paid $560 for full highlights and a cut at a King West salon, and asked: “Is that crazy or normal these days?
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that → ask → salon
I feel like it was closer to $400 not long ago.”
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it → feel → ?
More than 500 comments later, the consensus seems to be that it was almost a bargain.
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it → seem → ?
“I pay close to $700,” said one commenter, adding they used to pay $400 pre-COVID with the same stylist.
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they → pay → stylist
“I think that’s just the going rate now.”
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that → think → ?
Another said: “Sadly this is normal.”
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this → say → ?
Someone mentioned spending $1,200 for similar services.
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Someone → mention → services
Reconsidering the regular hair-colour habit
Alex Neary of Stouffville, Ont., started colouring her hair in Grade 7 via Sun-In, that orange-hued rite of passage.
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Neary → reconsider → passage
In high school, her mom took her for highlights, and she was faithfully blond for her entire 20s and 30s.
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she → take → 20s
Like everyone who couldn’t get their hair done during the pandemic, she was eager to go back to the salon when restrictions were lifted.
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restrictions → get → salon
But when it came time to pay the $400 bill, it hit differently.
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it → come → bill
“I couldn’t believe I’d been spending that much money on my hair,” she says.
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she → believe → hair
“I got my hair dyed once, and then I was like, ‘I’m not doing this.’
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I → get → this
I let it grow out to my natural hair colour, which is actually a really nice shade of brown.
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which → let → brown
“Anytime I see a photo of myself, I’m like, ‘I have brown hair?’,” she says, laughing.
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she → see → hair
“I like myself better as a blond.
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I → like → blond
Sometimes I think about it, but I just can’t justify spending that much money.
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I → think → money
The pressure to cover greys
Neary, who’s in her early 40s, doesn’t mind the silver strands she sees coming in.
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she → cover → strands
(“I call them my tinsel,” she says.)
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she → call → them
But for many women, covering greys is a primary motivator for spending so much money on colour.
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covering → cover → colour
For good reason: Research published last year found that faces of any gender with grey hair were judged to be “older and less attractive.
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faces → publish → hair
This is especially pertinent in a professional environment, and many are putting in more facetime at work given increasing in-office mandates.
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many → put → mandates
Older women perceived going grey as a “risk” to their social status, in a 2021 study, citing feeling invisible and irrelevant.
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women → perceive → study
Distinguished Canadian news anchor Lisa Laflamme kicked off a nationwide conversation about this in 2022 when she said she was “shocked and saddened” that her CTV contract wasn’t renewed, after she decided to go grey during the pandemic.
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she → kick → pandemic
Why salons are charging more
Whatever the reason you’re dyeing your hair, professionals aren’t arguing that their prices have gone up.
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prices → charge → hair
“It’s a thousand per cent true,” says Jason Lee, a celebrity and editorial stylist and colourist who owns an eponymous salon in midtown Toronto.
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who → ’ → Toronto
“As a business owner, we’ve had to have a tough conversation internally to say, ‘We have to do this.’
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We → have → this
Quite frankly, it’s just so we can survive.”
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we → ’ → ?
In 2020, the average client left Lee’s chair paying $300.
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client → leave → 300
Now, it’s between $600 and $700.
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it → ’ → ?
…and 48 more, not listed.
The Aporia
