Would you spend $42,000 on your hair? Study says many women do
Would you pay $42,000 for a lifetime of good hair? A new survey suggests many women already do. The research, which was conducted by OnePoll, gathered information from over 3,000 female Brits and the results showed that they spent an average of over 26,000 pounds (or about $42,000) throughout their lives. They also lost a year of their lives, collectively, styling it.
Stylist Nicky Clarke, who commissioned the survey, marveled at a "how well and truly obsessed the nation really is with hair." That's good news for a hair stylist, but bad news for our bank accounts. But are Americans as obsessed as Brits? Not if you look at a recent study from Consumer Reports.
According to their research published in May, the average American woman spends about $195 a year on haircuts and $260 on color. If this average American woman starts paying for cuts (around $39 a pop) and color ($65 a pop) from age 25 to about 80 years of age, that would mean she spends only about $20,000. Factor in $120 for styling products and $160 for shampoos, based on another recent survey from Pantene. That puts us at about $35,000 over our lives on hair care. It's less then the Brits, but still more than we want to spend, according to the CR survey.
One-third of the women they polled feel they're spending too much on their locks and plan to cut back. But there are benefits to a good cut. "There really is such a thing as a bad hair day-44% of the women have had a mood affected by a bad hair day," according to Lisa Lee Freeman, editor-in-chief of ShopSmart which published the survey last Spring. But is it really worth so much of our hard earned cash? Kate Gosselin seems to think so. Remember that $7000 follicle makeover she got earlier this year? Five more of those and she's spent more than we do on haircare in lifetime.
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