Stylist Reveals The Hairstyle Women Ask For That Indicates The Economy Is Bad — And It’s Hugely Popular Now
When money is tight, low maintenance becomes a priority.
hedgehog94 / Shutterstock A hairstylist identified how the specific hairstyle many women have been requesting relates to the financial struggles many of us are currently facing.
A stylist took to TikTok to share her theory on how the economy impacts beauty and hair trends.
Daisy Gowin shared a video addressing the hairstyles she has recently noticed many clients asking for and what she concluded about this trending choice.
“So we’ve all heard that strippers are the first people to know when the economy is getting bad, and there’s a recession coming or whatever because nobody’s giving them business because they don’t have any extra money like that, right?” Gowin began her video.
She shared her own theory related to this concept for the hairstyling industry, claiming that women who start resorting to more natural styles, such as low lights, smudge roots, and most of all, “old money blonde” or low-maintenance blonde, are doing so to save their time and money and reduce the cost of higher-maintenance styles.
“It’s not just because they don’t have enough money for maintenance,” Gowin explained. “But they also don’t have enough time to come in the salon and get their highlights touched up every four weeks because they’re working or they’re stressed or busy.”
Gowin sympathized with women’s collective redirection to more natural looks due to financial struggles, but she argued that they are doing a disservice to themselves by neglecting their stylistic preferences. However, she reasoned that this is understandable, seeing as “nobody is making any money."
Many women have underemphasized the importance of self-care as a means to save money.
Due to the costly prices of maintaining their hair, nails, and skin care, among other things, in addition to unwavering high costs and insufficient wages, women have either begun choosing lower-maintenance styles, learning to provide these services for themselves or sacrificing them altogether.
In short, women have less time for self-care because inflation doesn't seem to be getting any better. And unless women are significantly wealthy and have the funds to maintain their self-care services, they’re finding more affordable ways to maintain their beauty.
“I can’t pay $500 every 4 weeks anymore; it’s so expensive, it’s wild,” one person commented on the video.
According to a survey by StyleSeat, the top five beauty items, and services women are willing to cut back on in times of financial hardship are:
- Makeup
- Nail Salon Services
- Hair Salon Services
- Hair Care
- Skin Care
“I’m too poor to be blonde anymore,” another woman commented. “I can’t even afford to get my nails done. I’m more concerned with affording food.”
For a vast majority of the country, basic necessities are becoming more challenging to afford, and these individuals are resorting to making sacrifices to save time and money.
“I have been doing my own hair old money blonde for years,” someone else shared. “I save thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours a year. I hated going to the salon — it was overpriced and the results were inconsistent.”
More people are learning how to do their own hair to avoid paying expensive prices in the salon.
Some individuals have used their access to free knowledge on social media to their advantage, learning how to cut and style their hair by watching instructional videos on YouTube and TikTok.
While the results may not compare to the quality one can receive in a hair salon, learning how to style your own hair is certainly worth considering for many if it means saving a significant amount of money on a regular basis — and it’s not that hard to do.
However, an even larger majority of working women have given up on hair care altogether, realizing how much cheaper and less time-consuming it is to simply embrace your natural hair.
As much as women love getting their hair done, many have realized they need to make certain sacrifices in order to afford the rising costs of living in an inflated economy.
Francesca Duarte is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team based in Orlando, FL. She covers lifestyle, human-interest, adventure, and spirituality topics.