Calculating color: the price for rainbow hair (Old Blog Post)

For those of you who think hairstylists overcharge for a hair color, here is a price break down (rounded and based on Paul Mitchell's prices) for popular looks such as the "Burnt Sienna."

The cost to color your hair using one tube of Color is $8; however, most of the time stylists create their own color formulas which requires two or more tubes of color. That's already $8-24 for that perfect violet-brown base color.

To activate the color, a stylist must mix the formula with a developer. A small bottle of this goes for about $10; so far, the stylist spent $26 on products alone.

To create ash blonde highlights a stylist would need a lightener, often referred to as bleach, which costs about $20. This too will require developer to activate the formula.

Developer comes in several volumes. A stylist may need a stronger – or higher – volume to penetrate the hair’s cuticle to remove the hair’s pigment. This often the case if you have virgin, or uncolored, hair or your hair is a darker pigment. That is another $10.

Once the color was stripped the dominant underlying pigment is the resulting color. For an example, brunets have a dominant red pigment; therefore, once their hair is highlighted the highlights may too brassy and will need cooled down.

To achieve the desired ash blonde highlights a toner may be required. A toner is a formula created to cancel out unwanted pigments. This too may require a mix of colors and will cost another $8 to $16. Add another volume of developer and that is at least $40 of products just to create the highlights.

For those rich auburn low-lights, another mixture of colors and developer is required. This is another $26.

In total about $85 was spent by your stylist to create the color.

For a color such as the "Burnt Sienna" some stylists may charge you between $100-$200. Stylists can – and will – reuse tubes of colors and developers for other clients; however, both can expire. This means if a client does not want one of these opened colors than they may never be used again.

Other tools needed for the service will include; gloves, foils to separate the colors, and products for washing or styling the hair. Other costs a stylist would be paying for include utilities. You must also take into consideration the amount of time it takes to perform a service this extensive.

After breaking down the cost for supplies, your stylist may not be making as much of a profit as you think they are.

#haircolor #BurntSienna #cosmetologest #salonpricing