Am I being unreasonable?

[MeaCulpa]

I had to laugh reading this thread. $30 for a trim? I WISH! In Australia, I have been quoted as much at $120 for a trim. Honestly, the longer your hair is, the more they charge you. One of my favorite things to do it tie my hair up on top of my head, and since it's quite fine, it doesn't look like much, then I walk into a salon and inquire about prices, about halfway through the conversation, I let my hair out. The stylists eyes always pop and the price tag double immediately.

If I really need a trim I go to the styling school and pay a student to give me a $20 supervised shampoo and trim. They're awesome because they actually do what you ask.

[Ravenwind]

I had to laugh reading this thread. $30 for a trim? I WISH! In Australia, I have been quoted as much at $120 for a trim. Honestly, the longer your hair is, the more they charge you. One of my favorite things to do it tie my hair up on top of my head, and since it's quite fine, it doesn't look like much, then I walk into a salon and inquire about prices, about halfway through the conversation, I let my hair out. The stylists eyes always pop and the price tag double immediately.

If I really need a trim I go to the styling school and pay a student to give me a $20 supervised shampoo and trim. They're awesome because they actually do what you ask.

$120?? For a trim?? Wow... That's definitely way too much lol. My hair isn't very long though, it's only about BSL. But I get what you're saying.

[akilina]

Holy Moly...Even for me its crazy to hear how much trims cost in some towns!!
Charging sooo much for a hair cut is really not very great right now..at least in my area. Most people live pay check to pay check and are way more likely to come in more often if the prices are not absurd. That is the reason why the owner of the salon I want to work at does not charge an arm and a leg for anything, especially color.

As for one of your questions..If you are trying to get rid of the layers, and they are not really damaged at all I would just leave them and only trim your length. That is what I have been doing. Every 6 months I trim a half inch off to an inch. Its all it needs.

Cheap salons are not bad. There are incredible stylists hiding inside. Sure, there are bad experiences but it has NOTHING to do with it being super cuts or great clips. There are terrible stylists everywhere as well, even in high end expensive salons. Paying more does not mean its going to be better.
You basically just have to say the right things and really make sure you are both on the same page. My first salon job was at GreatClips and people were always happily shocked that they got such a wonderful amazing hair cut

[Icialine]

I really don't think 30$ is too much to ask at all. The thing is, that for a stylist, cutting 12 inches or 1/2 inch is the same amount of work. We may call it a trim but it's really a haircut. The technique is the same, only the amount of hair that ends up on the floor is different.
In fact, it may be more work to cut long hair since, to check that all the layers match, she'll be dealing with holding it a few feet away from your body instead of cutting a shape close to the head as she usually does. My hair is a bit past my hips and I slightly layer it myself at the bottom for movement. This entails trimming it every other month and if I could trust a stylist to do this properly so I could avoid having aching arms and a crick in my neck from holding it out as far as I can reach for half an hour I would go to that pro even if it meant a week of ramen noodles.
If you can wait for your sister to come do it, that's wonderful (you're so lucky!), but I really doubt you can get this done professionally for less. Some barbers don't charge as much as stylists but aside from getting a blunt cut from them I'd be leery of using them. A regular stylist is used to dealing with customers with lots of hair even if she's never worked on hair as long as yours but most barbers have never had to handle more than a couple of inches of hair. If they make a mistake it could set you back several months or more in growth.

[Thinthondiel]

I had to laugh reading this thread. $30 for a trim? I WISH! In Australia, I have been quoted as much at $120 for a trim.

Yeah, that sounds more like the prices I'm used to here in Norway. Not that I really go to hair stylists anymore, now that I cut/trim my own hair.

[katiebeans]

Most of the salons I've been to or called over here charge $40-$60 for a trim/wash/style. There were times in the past where I payed the money because I enjoyed the end results from having them style it. Other times I went to Great Clips or Super Cuts and payed <$10 for a trim. So I think that the $30 they're asking you for is relatively reasonable. But you DON'T have to have the wash and style! That would cut the price down, but I would rather go to an inexpensive chain salon or do it myself.

$120 is absolutely out of this world! I better look like Rapunzel on my way out.

[march_sun]

I live in NYC and the way I found a good cheap hairstylist was through yelp. It was a tiny little place, but it was clean and my appointment started right on time. $15 for a haircut (no shampoo or style). I was very happy with the result! She even recommended that I come back every six months to get trims rather than every 6 weeks, like a stylist would normally recommend. She's awesome! Unfortunately I won't be seeing her until next year

[lapushka]

For a layered cut, a real "style", you'd pay about €40 to €50 over here, so in that case I don't think $30 is that unreasonable. For a straight-across cut, which isn't even a style, yes $30 is a little much. It all depends on what you want, but prices in salons are pretty stable as far as stylish cuts go.

[Chromis]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions I'm sorry if I don't get back to everyone individually but I have read all of your posts. Like I said in my original post I am a very frugal (and sometimes cheap) person, especially when it comes to my hair. I have used the self trimming method before and it has worked great for me when I'm cutting straight across. The layers are a whole different story! I have been growing them out and my hair isn't damaged and I have little to no splits (from what I can tell) but I just wanted a tiny trim to keep them nicer looking and healthy. So I suppose I have a new question. Since I am growing out my layers, would it be best to completely leave them alone while they catch up? I've basically been doing that this past year and they have grown a lot.

Like everyone has been saying, $30 is not a bad deal. And I agree. But for me it's just a bit too much when I don't desperately need a trim. I will never expect to get a decent haircut for $10 at a salon - EVER. lol I know that is completely unreasonable. I suppose I have just been used to my sister trimming my hair for me at home and she takes 10 minutes to do it. I hope everyone understands where I'm coming from and no one thinks I'm being naive.

Yep, just leave em alone. If they aren't splitty there is no need to trim them really. They will catch up just fine!

[dulce]

It took me 2 years to grow out my[never again!] poorly done lop sided salon layers,I just trimmed the hem regularly and they eventually caught up and blended in.I'm finished with salons now and love my CREACLIP.There are alternatives to salons,you can go to them or use a creaclip or Feyes method or Spidermoms pony on top of the head technique,lots of choices to cut your hair.If you keep trimming your layers they will take much longer to grow out.