October 14, 2024
Barber Sparks Discussion, Praise After Announcing He Will Be Lowering Prices
Maurice C. Simmons, a South Carolina-based barber, has drawn praise and created conversation after saying in a now-viral video that a run in with a former customer who could no longer afford to get his hair cut at the barber’s shop inspired him to lower his prices.
Many social media users chimed in regarding how pandemic era prices for personal grooming have not gone down.
Some pointed to the barber’s idea of returning to a lower price point as a model for other barbers and beauticians. Others said that they have to also receive support from their respective communities to remain open.
In the video, Simmons noted that he didn’t necessarily make more money when he raised his prices, he just cut fewer people’s hair.
In other videos on his Tik-Tok account, he advocates that the price for an average, basic haircut should be between $25-$50 depending on a barber’s skill level.
According to the Washington Post, a lot of attention has also gone to the experiences of Black women in salons and the decrease in quality and attention to their clientele that many women believe have ballooned along with the cost of a style.
As Tricia Romano wrote in an op-ed for the platform, the pandemic, combined with a mass exodus of personal groomers from the industry, provided a way for stylists and barbers to reset their earning potential.
“By the time life opened up again, the decline in stylists was met with a glut of clientele, ready to get their roots done after a year of home haircuts and bad box dyes. And suddenly, the laws of supply and demand hit the hair industry in a way it had never seen before. Instead of being everything to everyone, a growing number are now specializing in particular services and charging a premium for them,” Romano wrote.
Indeed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, pre-pandemic, the median annual salary for a hairstylist was around $26,000 a year. In 2022, that salary had rapidly increased to $33,400.
This increase, Romano posited, is attributable to those workers sharing salaries on social media.
According to CNN, the main expense for these types of businesses is the cost of labor, which has gone up as the labor market in general tightened, raising wages.
Agron Nicaj, the US economist for the Japan-based MUFG Bank, told the outlet that in general, the cost for grooming services is not coming back down.
“When you have strong price pressures in the services sector, they’re likely to last longer,” Nicaj said.
Magda Ryczko, who owns and runs Hairrari, a gender-inclusive barbershop chain with the primary location based in New York, echoed the sentiments of Nicaj.
“It’s not really high-end, it’s not really low-end; I like to keep my brand in the middle,” Ryczko said. “I feel like once we raise [prices,] I don’t think they’re going back down. That’s the risk that you also take as a business raising prices, because you may lose clients.”
Ryczko continued, saying that the price increases for the shop’s clients are a balancing act.
“I just want people to be not struggling, so any way I could maximize the wages I could pay so people can be happy and stay with me for a long time, I think that’s really important.”
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