Frugal Missus Finds a Deal!

I've known about Yelp.com for quite some time, but for whatever reason, didn't really take it seriously. I often found jaded customers skewing the reviews with a negative one, or overly complimentary reviews, which of course, could only have been posted by the owners themselves (who's jaded now??). Well, I'm changing my tune!

I've been searching for a great, local, CHEAP haircut place for myself f-o-r-e-v-e-r! I go through spurts of growing my hair out (read: not cutting it for far too long and having it be nasty and dried out by the time I just get fed up and chop it to my chin) because most decent hairstylists I've found charge $45-$60! I found a great one, but it was over an hour away from my house! BLECH! Who wants to drive that far for a haircut? Not me! With gas, a bridge toll, a lunch out, cost of the cut, and tip, we were looking at about $75. Yikes.

Enter Yelp.com.

I decided to look up a salon in my area with the price range set at "$". I found a salon about 4 miles from my house that had gotten 4.5 stars from 4 different reviewers! While normally, I'd walk by this place and think "chop shop" (aka stylists fresh out of beauty school with little extra training no matter how many Vidal Sassoon and Paul Mitchell posters they put on the wall of the salon), I thought the reviews had to be somewhat legit. Besides, I just wanted a trim AND it's only hair; it'll grow back! Upon further research (a visit to the salon's website), I found that haircuts started at $11!

Furthermore, I've been doing the "no poo method" on my hair since May (don't judge till you've tried it. My curls have never looked better! And no... I don't stink) and haven't gotten a cut since I started going "no poo" (man, I hate that term), and knew I didn't want some stylist scrubbing at my head, undoing months of adjustment to the method! So, this morning, I took a shower, threw my hair back in a ponytail, and went to the salon with a wet head. It was perfect for me! And I didn't get any weird looks from the stylist. Bonus!

It was also very comforting to hear both stylists greet everyone (except me since I was a newcomer) by name. Repeat customers. Always a good sign! After the cut, my stylist said "See you after the baby!!" Already knowing I'd be back, I told her I would indeed!

While it's fun to walk out of a salon all done up, in reality, most people don't have a prayer of styling their hair to look like it does when they leave the salon. By not having the washing or the styling as a part of the price, my haircut came to a WHOPPING $13!

WHAT?!?! You mean I can get my hair cut on a regular basis instead of every 6 months?? You mean I don't have to feel guilty about not getting The Princesses hair cut because I need to pay $50 for MY trim (Trim = less than 1")?? What a new fangled concept!

In any case, Yelp.com is my new friend for finding great deals with great vendors. I highly suggest you take a chance on a couple of searches! Just make sure you do two things: 1) come back here to tell me about the awesome luck you had, and 2) write your own Yelp review about the place. Pay it forward...