As Lag Baomer approaches and Lakewood gets ready to go back to barbers, I am reminded of the problems in our society.
Why? you ask. Well, when I wanted to book my barber I saw his new pricing. 35 DOLLARS proudly displayed. Right away I was like Oh my! Trying to push it out of my mind, I searched for a different Barber although I’ve been going to the first one for years, hoping that he’s cheaper. Lo and behold 35 DOLLARS proudly displayed. What is happening! How could a 4 minute Haircut cost 35 dollars?
As a Bachur it used to be 5 bucks for a guy in your dorm. So I hear, you’re a professional barber with a storefront, shoin so charge 22 MAX!!
Only Lakewood could get away with this. A goyishe Barber costs 18 dollars (I called a few of them in the area for the sake of this letter) and they give you dedication and more time so as not to lose a precious customer. But in Lakewood where everyone is getting a simple buzz cut, maybe a little scissors in the front, they give you 4 minutes of their time.
This has to end. How could a Yungerman afford 3 haircuts, if for himself and 2 little boys will equal 105 DOLLARS!! Think about that, each month 105 DOLLARS each year 1,260 DOLLARS!! It’s totally unarguably out of whack. If you think you should pay 105 dollars for haircuts then you’re proving my point that Lakewood has a problem.
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How about $250 for an upsherin haircut?
Prices are totally insane
Why does the upsherin cost more then a regular haircut?
Even if it needs to be more, maybe $10. But $250? Insanity.
Because it takes a lot more patience and the kid is squirming nonstop
Not that much. Train your child. Prep your child. My children didn’t have that much of an issue. it appears to be a problem for Lakewood parents to teach their children to sit still for 15 minutes. Maybe cut their sugar intake by a 100%. Insanity.
Yes I agree it is totally out of hand and every 6 months or so the barbers continues to raise the price
That’s why I bought a machine and give my boys haircuts! Paid for itself in 2 uses!!!
If we have a simcha or y”t and I want to splurge on a professional I do- but otherwise their on the house!
Same! Been doing that x5 boys. I should be rich by now
Me too!
Also doing for 5 boys. So worth it. And you can do it at your own convenience. No lines
I was just telling my husband that I guess my boys won’t be getting haircuts anymore because the barber I use for them went up to $35. A girls haircut takes longer and is much cheaper. It’s really crazy!!
Writing a letter wont do anything lol
Feel free to open a barbershop and charge less
you’re clearly a barber who is part of this daylight robbery scheme.
Clearly!!
So use a non Jewish barber what’s the issue
That is insane!
Don’t go to barbers.
Have you and your friend swap haircuts. Clip you own kids’ hair. As the father of 6 boys, I have been cutting their hair for 15 years plus. Saved thousands of dollars.
Wal-Mart Conair $25
Don’t go cheap. Get the fifty or sixty buck one. Its worth it.
You do realize that it’s not a big deal to give your kids a haircut by yourself. We’re not the most geshikt people out there, but we know how to take a machine and in your words “give a simple buzz”. Every once in a while, we’ll go for a professional haircut but generally we’ll give our own
Feel free to rent a space build up a clientele, and charge whatever price you want to.
It’s a business like any other business and they can charge what they want to feel free to open a competition.
You say That there is alternatives for $18 feel free to use them. Unless of course there is a reason you want to use the more expensive one you will pay More for the person that’s in demand
You’re a Lakewood barber. You wont fool me.
Get some clippers and a scissor and learn to do it yourself. It’s not hard.
Or go to a non Jewish barber and tell him how you want it done- that’s what we did in the olden days
Stop complaining
you can take your haircut at home
It’s a free market as long as we keep paying for it why shouldn’t they make as much money as they can? They also have bills to pay. Maybe we should stop paying it
Insane prices and a complete steal from the klal
As a Bachur, it was five bucks for a guy in your dorm because he had absolutely no expenses or experience and that was in a completely different economy. Any yungerman who is getting a simple buzz cut for himself and his two kids should absolutely not pay 105 dollars if he cannot afford it, he should pay 50 dollars for a haircut machine and his wife should give them all haircuts at home. Also, most haircuts do not take 4 minutes and if the goyim are charging 18 dollars, why don’t you go use them?
That’s why my husband learned to cut his own and our boys’ hair!
Agreed!!!! I can’t understand…. I am a licensed professional, and you would cry if you knew what I was making an hour! This concept of charging whatever you want, not specific only to haircuts, is out of control!!
I guess, I understand i…., ie if I need to pay $35 for a haircut, then as a shoe shiner by profession, I need to raise my prices to $50 per shine so that I can afford that haircut…. And the prices just keep going up and up….
Something is definitely amiss.
I just saw an ad from a Frum barber in Baltimore (most charge around the same).
Haircut-$15
Beard-$10
well a house there costs 400,000 and here it cost 1,000,000 if you want to live in baltimore so go
Can you send me a link for this house for 400k? I can’t find it.
the difference is not the house its the experience…
In Brooklyn I pay 30 for haircut and beard. Real estate in Brooklyn is much higher then both Lakewood and Baltimore. The barber probably pays more in rent then the Baltimore guys mortgage. 35 for a haircut is highway robbery. It’s all part of the gashmiyus lifestyle that has become the norm of Lakewood over the last 20+ years. Move back to Brooklyn and save on on your car expenses from day 1. That’s just the start.
I agree 100 percent. I was in Manhattan last week and walked by a Barber Shop in Mid- Town just to check the price it was $27. A store front in Manhattan is probably 4 the price of a store front in Lakewood. This is totally out of control!! I just bought a hair cut machine and scissors from Amazon and will give my boys a haircut on Sunday.
The question shouldn’t be why it’s $35. The concept of supply and demand allows people to charge whatever they can as long as people are willing to pay for it. The idea of a free market is supposed to address this by allowing competition to bring prices down. However, it seems that this is not happening. The question is: why aren’t barbers charging less? The likely answer is that there aren’t enough barbers, so there is still room for more people to enter the market and charge the same price. As more barbershops become available, competition may drive prices down, but until there is a larger supply, people can charge as much as the market will bear.
That’s why I don’t go to a barber shop! Buy your own machine and figure out how to give a haircut, it’s not rocket science.
$35 is a lot. Comes down to question that gets asked a lot, do you charge bec you could or do what’s fair. Supply and demand or yashrus. My barber ( one of the best in town) charges $20. He’s a mentch
Why is it Yashrus to charge less? If someone doesn’t want to pay, they can always learn to do it themselves.
Your barber who’s a “mensch” makes more per haircut then the barber Bec he doesn’t have overhead…and also is probably not available at all times like the barbershops around town at your convenience
How do you know the cheaper barber business deals? Maybe he’s just as good as the $35 guy. Just he’s not part of Lakewood entitlement.
for all you people that are going to buy a machine please buy a good one not a cheap one
There are plenty of guys around Lakewood that charge $20 .not saying that is cheap either but that is very inline.
Honestly there are plenty of barbers charging 20 – 25 for basic non specialty haircuts.
Most haircuts entail 8-15min
For a proper beard trim sometimes as long or longer then a reg haircut
pls post their phone numbers because they dont exist
Community Leaders Meet to Tackle “The Haircut Crisis”
A group of Lakewood community leaders met on Thursday at the home of local hairstylist, Gershon Shnyderman, to tackle the ongoing haircut crisis, an unfortunate situation in which local barbers and hairstylists are charging $35 for a normal, everyday haircut.
“With Lag Baomer on the horizon, thousands of Lakewood residents are now contemplating skipping the annual haircut routine and leaving their unruly locks of hair intact,” said Berel Choopawitz a local community leader who has suggested that the haircut community might be better off declaring itself a “hippie commune” than emptying out its hard-earned cash on haircuts.
“$35 is a lot of money for the average bread winner,” Mr. Choopawitz said, “add the shampoo service and the scalp massage, and you’re looking at anywhere between $45 and $245 for a hair cut!”
“This crisis must be solved now – before Lag Baomer – rather than later,” the veteran community leader asserted, “if not, I’m calling upon all of the local Rosh Yeshivas to enact a takanah that will require all able-bodied males to accept upon themselves a 30-day period of neziris.”
“If after 30 days the issue is still not resolved,” he said, “than all of us might have to accept upon ourselves a permanent neziris!”
In an interesting twist of events, one of the attendees at the meeting suggested that the local Rosh Yeshivas should ship off their talmidim to Israeli yeshivas a year earlier to allow the talmidim to get their coiffures serviced at the much cheaper Israeli rate.
“I quickly shot down THAT suggestion,” Choopawitz said, “because we can’t possibly solve every crisis that comes our way by reducing the time American talmidim spend in American yeshiavas by an additional year, because if we keep following THAT course of action, talmidei hayeshivas will end up in israeli yeshivas before they’re finished being weaned off their pacifiers!”
One local philanthropist has reportedly made a magnanimous offer to distribute $15 dollar haircut coupon vouchers if local barbers agree to cut their prices by 30%.
However, local hairstylist, Abe Snipperman, told the ‘NJ Barber’s Digest’ on Thursday that he earns most of his money from his “Deluxe Shampoo Special” and his “Vitamin-Infused Scalp and Hot Towel massage”, and that the aforementioned coupon vouchers must cover those two specials, otherwise he can’t afford to accept the vouchers.
Mr. Snipperman told the ‘NJ Barber’s Digest’ that his barber shop has a ‘Bash’ four times a year, during which his unique haircuts, shampoo specials and scalp & hot towel massages are slashed to half the normal price.
“I think I’m already doing my part to ease the haircut crisis,” he said. “I mean, I’m not you’re average, Joe the Shmo barber! I’m a professional men’s hair stylist who attended hair styling classes for 4 long years before I opened my shop.”
“I mean, I just finished paying off my student loans last month,” he said, “and NOW you want me to slash my prices?! Come on, man!”
“I’m sorry,” he added, “but I got a wife, three children and six domesticated pets to feed! I can’t afford to slash my prices! Period!”
Mr. Choopawitz told reporters today that a special tehillim session will be held on Friday for the entire haircut community.
“Hopefully our prayers will be accepted,” he said, “and the awful $35 haircut decree will be shred into pieces before Lag Baomer, otherwise it’s neziris time for everyone!”
You really spent a lot of time on that bro… Wow.
I live out of town, $17 for a haircut from a frum barber, $20 with a beard trim. Non Jew is $15-$25 and you risk losing your peyos. I give my own kids for free, but time is money.
I’ve gone to Goyish barbers and never had a peyos problem. If they work with the Frum community, they know exactly what we need.
You lose your tzelem Elokim according to kabbalah.
Oy Everyone stop kvetching! You don’t like that barbers price don’t go to them.
The rents are so high in Lakewood they need a certain amount to just cover their tukos.
You can drive out to TR and find an old fashioned barber for 10 bucks or even go to the BMG dorm.
Why does every nuiance of every complaint of every piece of dirty laundry have to be aired out on here? Is it to replace therapy? I wonder?
Rents in Brooklyn for commercial are much higher then Lakewood. Yet I pay less in Brooklyn for my haircut.
Higher volume in Brooklyn covers the rent.
I thought Brooklyn was empty and everyone moved to Lakewood. That aside, factually not true. Many barbers sit vacant hours daily with no customers.
in Eretz Yisroel barbers have a letter saying that they know what not to cut and are supervised, do all the local barbers make sure avoid cutting the hair around the head too short? and to keep the razor far from the beard hairs? not to cut off payos? and do they know exactly where the payos end?
if it’s 100% kosher it’s worth the expense!
but to pay alot and then get an issur? chas veshalom!?
Been giving myself and my kids haircuts for years. People want expensive haircuts? Gezunte Hait! You dont have to participate.
(Spend a bit more and get an oster 76)
Do it at home and you’ll even get to keep your payis! Shalom Bais tip: Fathers please don’t give haircuts 5 minutes before the zmaan….
It’s not $35 for a haircut in Lakewood. In Lakewood professional frum barbers with store fronts charge between $21 & $29 for the barbers which I use plus a tip. They have regular rent and expenses like all other stores of which business is slow during weekdays and 20% of the time is Sefira, “3 Weeks” , Yom Tovim unlike a grocery etc they are either closed or have zero business during those periods.
Non jewish barbers are Not cheaper: the average haircut chain charges $30 for a basic haircut but the average price for a haircut in NJ is $43 for Men and $69 for Ladies plus a 20% tip.
In Boro Park my worker walks a few blocks away to China Town and pays $12 for a haircut and they do a good job, but I like to patronize frum barbers.
My wife and I baruch hashem have “2 right hands” ,when my kids were little a haircut in Lakewood was $8 but there was a shortage of barbers resulting in long wait times so my wife started giving all of my kids haircuts herself of which they came out beautiful.
In Brooklyn barbers are cheaper. they have the same issues with time off. rent is higher, and my girls haircuts are cheaper the the 35 men are paying in Lakewood.
If your kids are old enough to sit very still all you need is a chainsaw & good hand eye coordination.
I’m so glad that you brought this problem to light. It’s far more important than the raging antisemitism that is spreading across the world. It’s far more important that the war or hunger right here in Lakewood
”Hair raising” is the expression you were looking for.
The barber takes 6-8 minutes for my haircut. $250-$300 an hour cash business does seem kind of excessive.
your so stupid the barber that works there gets like 40 percent if your lucky and the rest goes to rent, electric bill….. and during the week there’s probably 25 people a day and their also closed like on sefirah and 3 weeks so no their not making 250-300 an hour
What? This is what my sheitel macher charges $250 a cut that takes an hour.
YOU ARE ALL FORGETTING that for 32 days these Barbers had no parnassah. And if everyone wants a haircut at the same time (supply and demand) I think once a year this is ok to charge this rate. I say support the Jewish barbers.
It’s not once a year, it’s the daily price. Come out of your shell.
This is why tuition is being raised to $11k because the teachers and rebbeim need to afford the new hair cut prices and everything else that went up in town way more than inflation. Every service provider now has to raise their price so the barber is gonna have to pay double to his morah and plumber and bagel store. We are hurting ourselves
Just saw this ad in an elevator haircuts for men and boys 12$ please call
Same with everything. If you look, you will find options within your financial budget. There are Barbers that charge less – $15-$20 Range. You for some reason want to continue using the barber that raised the price. Why? Obviously you can no longer afford it. Go out and make the proper responsible financial decision for your lifestyle and find the cheaper barber. Problem Solved.
But Wait. Problem is that no one wants to take responsibility for themselves. Nobody wants to cut back. Always easier to be suffering and struggling and blame it on everyone else.
Take Responsibility.
Some Changes i personally made that saved me $20,000.00 + Last Year.
Lease the cheapest car. I just did the electric toyota for $320.00 a Month. They have a Regular Gas KIA for $350.00 a month now as well. My Neighbor who complains to me daily about finances is paying $800.00+ for his car. We Also have a minivan which is not a great price, but was the cheapest available.
For everyday weekday shopping – Kohls, Target, Marshalls, Old Navy, TJ Max, Burlington.
Shabbos Clothing for Men we go to hat box. there are other cheaper stores as well. Marcys & Emporio is just not in the budget.
Shopping for food. MAKE A LIST. STICK TO THE LIST. BUY SALE ITEMS. PLAN AHEAD. I Make a list and choose which stores based on sales. I go Sunday night ,Tuesday Night and Wednesday, each night a different store, for the best priced in each store. Each trip takes me 25 Minutes on average.
Go out to Eat 2 in a Fancy Restaurant 1-2 times a year max.
(doesn’t stop us from going out once a week for a date night for something small ex. Ice Cream.)
Call Up local Insurance agencies and find the best deal for Car Insurance. I save over $1000 annually by making a few phone calls.
Etc.
There are many things to do to continue the trend of living within ones means. Most of the changes will be hard but you will feel better.
Who gets haircuts once a month?
I find it hard to believe that a Jewish barbershop in lakewood charges $35 a haircut.
its cheaper to drive to brooklyn gas and tolls to get a haircut
in the satmar mikveh in rockwell it is $10
Cost of rent is high. Especially lakewood area.
Cost of living jumped up 33%+
Insurance Sky rocketing
Electric increase
Basic supplies Cost more.
Your cleaning lady makes more as she gets $20 cash which is like $30 before tax. The employee cutting also needs to make a living.
For the barbers who take appointments only and spend 30 minutes that is a service and added services. And some are very talented.
And I know non Jewish people who pay 40-75$+
This isn’t Balitmore.
You have your options. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.
Brooklyn barbers are cheaper. Cost of living in Brooklyn is about the same as Lakewood.
The barbers need to charge more to be able to afford the new tuition rates.
If your not getting fancy haircuts. Buy a machine for less then $40 and do it yourself. Give your kids haircuts, send ket your wife give you yours. Its great for shalom basis. 😊
What’s wrong with giving a haircut yourself? I grew up giving my father and brothers haircuts and beard cuts…
Not all barbers charge that much
I do my own hair
learn how to do it yourself. for $30 for the machine, i gave 2 of my kids haircuts and made back my money already.
it’s very easy to do, no special skills required.
Where does a sheep go for a haircut?
To the Bah bah shop! 😂
Everything has gone up. They need to charge more because they are not a chessed org. They’re working to provide for themselves and family. That’s what happens during inflation. Everything has gone up. No one is doing it because they want to. Welcome to the real world where printing money and government debt with terrible administrative policies is the result of a population appointing people that give out free things.