Template:Ak:What is the proper amount to tip on a $15 haircut?
From Bellybuttonporn
July 19, 2006 August 2, 2006 Zeppelin writes:
- What is the proper amount to tip on a $15 haircut?
You're a guy, so your haircut won't require as much work as a woman's hair. Women get huge elaborate hairstyles, dyes, washes, and a bunch of other stuff, which justifies their expense.
But the haircut is cheaper anyhow.
There's two basic schools of thought on tipping.
Tipping is for unskilled jobs
Tipping is generally reserved for the kinds of unskilled jobs that anyone can get. Waitstaff, valet parking, etc. However, hairstylists are skilled labor. They go to a vocational school to learn how to cut hair and other services. By this paradigm, no hairstylist deserves a tip.
However, this doesn't really explain all of tipping. Fast food employees typically are not tipped, regardless of the fact that they are unskilled and work very hard.
Tipping is for personal service
On the other hand, some believe you tip people based on personal service. It was once explained to me that "You tip anybody that has to touch you, or anything that goes into you". That seems to match with my experience; we tip waitstaff, (maybe hairdressers), and tattoo artists. However, we don't tip doctors. We also do tip cab drivers and valet parking.
Obviously some exceptions exist to any rule. Doctors, for example, make plenty of money and also charge plenty of money for their service; a tip would be totally unneeded.
I think that rather than personal service, a good rule of thumb is "You tip anyone who can personally fuck your day up".
Big tip? Low tip? No tip at all?
Let's not operate under false pretenses: Cutting a typical man's hair (a $15 cut) is a walk in the park for a hairstylist. Even if the stylist makes your hair look the best it's ever looked, it still wasn't that hard for him or her.
So a big tip is right out.
No tip would be insulting, I guess. Same deal with a tiny tip.
So here we go, using standard tip math, a 15% tip on a $15 cut would be $2.25. However, since the job is rather easy and fishing around for a quarter in your pocket for a tip is rather silly, an acceptable tip is $2.
Thanks for the question! -keith
