Haircut prices are going up in Central Texas

If you’re thinking of getting those back to school haircuts, like most things, get ready to pay up.
Published: Aug. 6, 2022 at 10:35 PM CDT

BELTON, Texas (KWTX) - If you’re thinking of getting those back to school haircuts, like most things, get ready to pay up.

KWTX News 10 called over 20 Central Texas salons and barber shops and more than 75% of them said they have raised prices over the last few weeks.

This time last year Legendary Cuts in Belton was charging $25 for an adult men’s cut. Now the shop is charging $35.

“It’s more about the quality of the haircut,” Legendary Cuts barber Lawrence Granville said. “I don’t think people mind paying more. I think that’s what keeps the customers still coming cause they know they can get a quality haircut.”

The price increase came on July 1 after the shop’s barbers met and agreed to raise the price of both their men’s and kid’s cuts due to rising tool costs. Clippers, in particular, have gone up $20 to $30 since last year.

“Whenever we talked about going up it was scary to me,” Granville said. “I did wonder if people would take kindly to it.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nationally haircut prices are up a little more than 6% from last year. That’s the largest annual increase in the price of haircuts since 1982.

Carmel K. Hair owner Carmel Kalisky is choosing not to raise the prices of her cuts after what she saw during the Great Recession. Still, she is seeing the price of hair products like bleach rising.

“One of the things is that people’s self esteem was horrible due to the inflation and/or the lack of jobs,” Kalisky said.

Not raising the prices of her haircuts means Kalisky will take a $7,000 pay cut this year, but she’s willing to take the losses.

“I could either maintain the price point that I’m at right now and/or lower them so that people would at least be able to get something done for themselves to make them feel better.”

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