Morning:
9°c
You know things are bad when the stylist rolls up her sleeves and washes your hair herself. Hair salons, as every woman knows, are run along strictly hierarchical lines - I call it the hairarchy. Stylists style. Colourists colour. Juniors humbly sweep, shampoo and bring you copies of OK! magazine. When the natural hairdressing order is upset, the whole world seems to wobble.
I felt the tremors a week ago, too, while expensively topping up my highlights in a Mayfair salon. My colourist performed the complicated process on her own, with no eager junior to pass bundles of foil. It was at once an object lesson in multi-tasking and a worrying sign of the times.
Because juniors don't generate income, they are the first to get the chop, leaving senior staff to do the menial work. Of course, they're doing it without complaint, knowing their own jobs could be trimmed at any time.
Shamefully, I'm part of the problem. Despite visiting two salons in a week, I've spent £50 less than usual on my hair, roughly a junior's day rate. My crime is to get pricey highlights (half-head only) then go local for a cheap cut.
I hear the same story everywhere. Women are leaving longer between appointments and booking fewer blow-dries. There are limits, of course. Grown-out roots might look great on Cameron Diaz at the Golden Globes but us mere mortals need only a hint of grey to resemble a bag lady. It's an irritating truth that expensively groomed hair makes you look 10 times better instantly.
So what can be done about the economic hair crisis? One hairdresser tells me we're turning to stealth solutions. The low-maintenance "wash and go" perm is about to enjoy a renaissance, while every decent London salon is roadtesting the everlasting blow-dry - or "wake and shake". A colleague claims it saves her a fortune - and an hour's styling a day. Even cleverer, she gets it done at home.
That's the beauty of the hair economy: when the going gets tough, it goes underground. Swish salons may struggle to make ends meet, but hairdressers simply make up for lost bonuses and lighter tips by doing homers. It suits us all. Right now there's nothing smarter than having the hottest stylist in town work up a lather in your bathroom sink.
Take it from me: it's hair today, gone tomorrow out there.
