To keep Open Barbers sustainable, we have to adjust our suggested prices to ensure we cover our base costs.
From 23rd October, our suggested cut & colour prices will be increasing by £4 an hour.
Here is what that looks like for each of our haircut services:
| 30 mins | 45 mins | 60 mins | 90 mins | |
| Pay more if you can | £23 or more | £32 or more | £40 or more | £57 or more |
| Suggested | £17 | £26 | £34 | £51 |
| Pay less if you need to | £5 – £17 | £8 – £26 | £10 – £34 | £15 – £51 |
| All prices are suggested, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. | ||||
You can still use our previous guidance on how to decide how much to pay from here if that is helpful but we continue to allow the client to make the decision of how much to pay for the service and to operate the till themself to give the agency to do so.
We’ve resisted doing this for as long as possible, and we would love to explain what this increase helps us to cover and why we have had to increase the suggested prices.
On the down side
- Unsurprisingly in this “cost of living crisis”, both our bills and supplies have increased in cost.
- We have now reached the point where we have had to register for VAT. This means we need to pay 13% VAT on every service we deliver.
On the up side
- Since the pandemic has stablised, we made the decision to offer new employment contracts to our stylists. This meant they got benefits including paid leave, paid breaks and pension contributions, and now our stylists have more secure employment and more opportunities for a work / life balance.
Most importantly
- We have continued to provide subsidised haircuts which are now needed by 25% of our client base, and our demand for our home visits has increased by more than 30% over the past 6 months.
To learn why affordable and accessible services remain so essential watch our short film and visit our Patreon page. With your support, we will be able to keep our services affordable and accessible for our whole community.