Are you wasting your money on a "high-end" salon cut and color?

Have you ever spent good money on a bad meal at a "high-end" new restaurant or bought something expensive, only to see later that it was actually cheaply made? Well, I hate that with passion! Although I cannot help you with the quality of the food and things you buy, I can, however, share with you my expertise as a salon owner/stylist. With that expertise, you will have insider info and know when you are getting the best  haircut for your money, as well as what makes a haircut cheap-looking, no matter how much you spending on it. Also, I think you would like to know when and why you should go to a salon for a color job and when you are better off doing it yourself.   Haircuts   Every great haircut should, at the very least, have these ingredients:  movement, texture and shape that showcase the person wearing it.   The texture and movement   An expert stylist would and should spend between 10% and 25% of haircutting time on dry hair, utilizing   texturizing techniques like "comb-free dry cutting" and "finishing," which customize the haircut so it flows correctly for the person wearing it.   An inexperienced stylist, on the other hand, makes just the minimum cuts to get the shape in without considering customization of the design.   The shape   Generally, exterior lines created by the cutting tools are what produce the shape. A quality stylist studies the shape of the face and the body of the client when considering the best haircut design and then strategically places the lines (strong or soft), creating the shape. The inexperienced stylist, on the other hand, will establish the lines as needed for the style, not the person wearing it.   The color   If you are going to pay a professional stylist to get a monotone and flat color...why not save the money and do it yourself? A quality and professional hair color application has to support the shape of the style, while considering the client's lifestyle, personality, job/career, age, thickness of hair, natural texture of hair and skin undertone.   A quality, professional hair color job should have shine, movement and texture; it should be purposeful and make you feel good. A bad color job is flat and unnatural (unless it was designed to be unnatural); it has no movement, it does not flow with the style and it clashes with the person’s skin undertone. In short, its purpose is only to cover something up.   Money-saving tips   1) If you are a "kitchen beautician" and have to color your hair by yourself, to be on the safe side, I suggest to always choose a color that is lighter than the desired color. Why? Because if you end up coloring your hair too light, you can then easily go darker; but if you go too dark, just forget about trying to lighten it up yourself with another color…it will make it worse! Hence, the first law of hair color is this—lighter hair color does not lighten darker hair color…period. So if and when that happens, wait for a few weeks, allowing it wash out by itself, or find a good colorist and go in for a color correction.   2)  For the health of your hair, whenever you are considering a color that is the same color as your hair or darker, consider asking for demi- or semi-permanent hair colors (colors without ammonia or peroxide). Since all hair color wash out sooner or later anyways, the term "permanent  hair color" only applies to hair colors that contain ammonia, synthetic ammonia and some kind of peroxide. However, if you have a hair color correction situation or lots of grays, this rule may not apply to you.   3) If you are struggling financially,  ask your stylist if they are open to helping you design low-maintenance hair color applications that show less of your regrowth so you can save money.   To Summarize:    Q- Should you pay more for "high-end" cut and color?   A- Yes, if the stylist is spending the time and using their expertise to customize the haircut for you. Examples of a quality hair color application are when two or more colors and/or multiple coloring techniques like "color painting," "paneling" or "high and low lights" are being used to support your hair texture and style. Otherwise, if they are using one color on your roots and then pulling the same color to the ends, to me, there is nothing "high-end" about that.