I never wet shave, I use a beard/stubble trimmer and take my facial hair down as low as possible, so there is always some shadow there, I don’t like being completely shaven.
The beard trimmer came in handy during the lockdown, we simply
moved the height control, and my wife went to work on my hair, and along with a pair of thinning scissors, she did a good job. I certainly never had people pointing fingers at me or laughing, and let’s be honest we all (at least most of us) know when we look in the mirror whether we look okay or not, and I was quite happy with my hair, colour apart!
And so when the barbers re-opened there was no rush for me, I went when it was needed not so I could sit in a barber’s chair! But when I did, and when it was all finished I was in for a bit of a shock. The costs of my hair cut had gone up from £8 to £12.50; if I had bothered checking beforehand I probably wouldn’t have gone, so annoyed was I with the size of the price rise!
I appreciate people have ripped or tried to rip us off during the virus. As an example, I saw a pack of five masks for sale on an online auction site for £89, pre virus they were under £12! I understand people have made money honestly from the pandemic and fair play to them for seeing a niche in the market, but barbers putting their price up by over 50% to me is too much, and in my little world is see this as a rip off!
All those loyal customers who have waited for the big re-opening to get their hair cut, are being used to subsidise the money lost by my barber during his closedown period. Most of us lost out, many people furloughed lost 20% of their income, some self-employed people got nothing, some businesses had to close as they had only opened in the New Year and it hadn’t yet taken off. Many, many people lost out and had to take it on the chin, and the barbers should have done the same, not pass their losses onto their customers. The guy cutting my hair even had the audacity to tell me he had been cutting peoples hair during the lockdown, and so making money!
Sorry but over 50% is too much, I would probably have happily paid 
£10, maybe, just maybe even that would have been begrudged a little, but £12.50 was begrudged a lot, and out of principle I won’t be going back.
People will look at this from all angles, but I actually look at it as greed, one of my least favourite subjects in life! Yes, there is supply and demand, and people will happily pay it. I take a different viewpoint.
Thank you for reading and stay safe