Ask Amy: Customer trips over stylist tips
Dear Trimmed: Let’s say your stylist charged $50 for a trim at the upscale salon.
You routinely tipped her another $10.
So, as of your stylist’s departure from the upscale salon, your regular haircuts were worth $60 to you.
You cite business reasons (she surrendered half of her fee to the salon owner) for why you chose to pay and tip the way you did.
Your stylist has now opened her own business and is paying rent, utilities and overhead. Have her skills declined? Are your haircuts no longer worth $60 to you?
If not, you should patronize another business, and your stylist will have received a useful example of how her current pricing is working in the marketplace.
My overall point is that it is not your job to scrutinize this person’s business model and decide what her profit margin should be.
If you choose to continue to patronize this business, yes – it is now considered standard to tip the person who cuts your hair, even if that person owns the business.
Dear Amy: I am 67 and retired from a long nursing career.
I have noticed that I am increasingly called “Dear,” “Sweetie” or “Hon.”
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