YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

I was off work today and most excited to be starting my week by getting my hair cut. I think I've mentioned before how much I enjoy going to salons and getting fussed over. I love having a coffee, reading brainless magazines, chatting with the stylist and emerging from the salon with the best hair day I've had in months. The only problem with this scenario is that in Cambridge a basic haircut costs upwards of 30 pounds (75 Canadian bucks!) and I only needed a trim. I may be getting used to the reality of many UK prices, but I can't bring myself to spend that sort of money to lop off just over an inch of hair.

Imagine my joy last week when I saw a salon offering haircuts for "only" 19.95 pounds. It's funny - back in Vancouver I was very loyal to my stylist and would have felt bad about going somewhere else, but here in the land of overpriced haircuts it's free market principles all the way, Baby. I figured that since I always end up with the same basic haircut, I might as well go somewhere cheap and not pay for a stylist with skills that far exceed anything my boring hair needs.

Dumb move. (You see, I forgot that in a free market you also have to look out for sub-standard businesses before they are forced to close). My hair doesn't exactly look bad, but it is even more boring than usual and I left the salon feeling more ho-hum about my hair than any cut I can remember in recent history. I think the cut itself took 10 minutes and then the girl filled time by taking 15 minutes to dry and "style" it (uh - straight hair doesn't need much styling). At least I didn't go for having my hair dyed as it would probably be a horrific shade of green or orange right now.

The worst part? At 19.95 pounds, this is still almost 50 Canadian dollars, which is five more dollars than I paid my very experienced, very wonderful stylist in Vancouver. I know who I'll be calling to make an appointment with over my Christmas holidays.