The 25% Solution? : The Etiquette of the Tip in These Days of High-Profile, Professional Stylists
ONE LOS ANGELES hairdresser remembers the time a client tipped her $700 for a cut and blow-dry. “Of course, she was paying me $2,800 to do her hair, and I first had to fly to New Mexico and then drive three hours across the desert to get to her ranch,” recalls Lemaire, a celebrity stylist whose salon cuts usually cost $70.
The oil baroness’ generous tip may seem a bit excessive, but a 25% gratuity is becoming the rule, rather than the exception, in upscale salons. By the time the shampoo person, the colorist, the stylist’s assistant and the stylist are tipped, the client can easily go through a wad of bills.
Is the sky the limit? No, says one director of the National Cosmetology Assn. Since the early 1980s, the organization, which represents more than 50,000 hair- and skin-care specialists, has been telling members to discourage tipping.
“Cosmetologists want to be considered professionals,” says hairdresser Janet Johnson, a member of the board of directors of the St. Louis-based organization. “I don’t tip my doctor, my attorneys or my dentist, and I don’t allow tipping in my salon. If stylists can’t make enough money to make ends meet without tips, they should adjust their prices.”
But most salons aren’t following this suggestion. Tipping is allowed and, sometimes, expected in the most elegant salons. It’s typical to see clients slipping $10 or $15 to salon owners, a practice that was once considered gauche.
Many clients are confused about the etiquette of tipping. Who gets how much? Letitia Baldrige, Jacqueline Kennedy’s chief of staff during the Kennedy Administration and one of America’s leading arbiters of manners, says that tipping in a beauty salon is essential and that the percentage of the tip goes up as the price of the service rises.
According to Baldrige, the minimum tip is 10% in a low-priced shop, 15% in a mid-priced salon and 20% or more in a very posh place. She suggests that the gratuity be based on the total bill and then divided among the people who served, with at least $2 to $8 each for the shampoo person and the stylist’s assistant. Manicurists, masseurs and masseuses, facialists and other specialists should be tipped 15% to 20% of their total bills. Distribute the tip when all the services are finished, she suggests, discreetly folding the bills so the amount is not obvious.
“Our society is a long way from thinking of service people in the same way that we think of doctors and lawyers. The person who stops tipping is a Scrooge,” Baldrige says. “It is not necessary to tip the owner if he or she charges more than the other stylists. Kenneth (the Manhattan stylist who coiffed Jacqueline Kennedy during her White House days) would be shocked if you tipped him, for instance.”
A big tip isn’t always ingratiating. One hairdresser was overheard telling another: “That woman is so horrible to me. She gives me a big tip, but it doesn’t make up for the way she treats me. The money isn’t worth the abuse.”
Beauty professionals agree that gratuities should reflect the client’s satisfaction with a job well done. “If you’re not satisfied, just pay for the service,” Johnson says. “Never feel obligated to tip.”
