How much is too much to blow on a new ‘do?
Ever since Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got the $260 cut and color heard ’round the world, reactions have been mixed. Detractors accuse her of “champagne socialism,” while others argue the price tag is within reason for a public figure — and a New Yorker at that.
“I don’t think it’s outlandish,” megastylist Scott Buchanan tells The Post. Prices at his five NYC-area Scott J salons start at $75 for a cut and $90 for color, with lowlights such as the ones AOC received starting at $160.
He also notes that a haircut with celebrity hairdresser Frederic Fekkai costs $750.
A 2016 report by digital payment company Square found that New York women spend an average of $50.80 on a professional shear. (The price dips down to $41.30 for men.)
Buchanan, who suggests that women visit a salon every six to seven weeks, adds, “It’s all relative. If you can’t afford to pay your rent than you’re paying too much.”
Here, seven New Yorkers open up to The Post about the price of maintaining their tresses.
Name: Nicolin Collingridge
Age: 31
Neighborhood: Greenpoint
Collingridge, a public relations supervisor, spends $280 (including tip) for a cut and color at High Horse Salon in Williamsburg, where she goes “every three or four months” to maintain her blond highlights. For her, the price is worth it. “Blondes have more fun, always,” she says.
Name: Nneka Landrum
Age: 46
Neighborhood: Astoria
Landrum has been going to Midtown-based stylist Juliet Fisher for a weekly deep-conditioning treatment, plus a cut and color every six weeks, for the past 15 years. The marketing professional looked up Fisher after seeing a photo shoot she styled in Essence Magazine. Landrum says she spends $100 for her weekly treatment, plus $200 every six or so weeks for a cut and color, not including tip, and says it’s a steal. “There are stylists charging $700 or $800 for a cut.”
Name: Brielle Saggese
Age: 22
Neighborhood: Yorkville
“I’m probably the most low-maintenance New Yorker when it comes to hair,” says Saggese, a fashion-trend forecaster. “I usually have it cut by a friend. I cut my own bangs and I color it out of a $12 L’Oreal box when my roots start annoying me.” Adds the Indiana transplant, who uses kitchen scissors to shear her tresses: “I grew up in the Midwest and its DIY culture, and I don’t like to make a lot of fuss.”
Name: Sandra Maw
Age: 22
Neighborhood: Hell’s Kitchen
“I only got my haircut in New York once,” says Maw, who works in tech, and usually gets snipped in her hometown of Phuket, Thailand. The professional trim happened after a hair catastrophe. “I was traveling in Ecuador and got a $6 haircut, but it looked like a $4 one. It looked like a long mullet,” she says. “So I went to West Vibe Salon in Hell’s Kitchen and paid $90 plus tip” to fix it up, she says.
Name: Marissa Brookes
Age: 40
Neighborhood: Washington Heights
“One time when my hair was shorter, I went into the city for a temporary weave, and it cost $500,” says Brookes, a visual merchandiser. Now, she sticks to her hairdresser in Queens, where she goes twice a year for a trim at about $60 a pop. “I go to my hairdresser’s home because she closed her salon. But when you find a good hairdresser — you want to stick with them.”
Name: Ashley Cadet
Age: 30
Neighborhood: Weehawken, NJ
“I’ve been going through my natural hair journey, and doing a few different protective styles,” says the insurance underwriter, who changes up her style every month. “Now I have crocheted braids. I buy the hair and do it myself at home. This took me four hours, because I had to braid it and individually crochet each in,” says Cadet, who bought three packs of hair for $5.99 each at a hair store in Brooklyn. “You have to be frugal about it. If I went to a hairdresser it would be $150, but since I learned how to do it myself with YouTube, it’s cheaper, although it takes longer.” Cadet will occasionally spend $400 for a weave from her favorite hairdresser, adding, “it costs an arm and a leg but I don’t care because he’s awesome.”
Name: Teresa Lovly
Age: 18
Neighborhood: Flushing, Queens
“I paid about $400 for these extensions from [salon] Bella Me. They are virgin hair, whatever that really means,” says Lovly, a business student at Guttman Community College. “I bought these for my prom last year, and I felt like looking extra today so I put them in,” she says. Otherwise, she trims her own hair between twice-yearly cuts, which cost $50 at her favorite Bayside salon. As for color: “I did a balayage [a color treatment in which dye is painted on] for around $300, and I like to lighten it. I was thinking about touching up my highlights for wintertime.”