What does a mobile hairdresser actually cost?

"How much do you charge to come out?" is the first thing most people ask me, usually before they have told me anything about their hair. It is a completely fair question, and it is also the one that almost every mobile hairdresser's website dodges with a line about every client being different.

So let me do better than that. I am not going to type my prices into an article, because a number written in September is a number that misleads somebody in March. Mine live on Fresha, where they stay accurate, and they are all there to look at before you commit to anything. But I can tell you exactly how mobile hairdressing pricing works, which is far more useful than a figure you cannot apply to your own head.

The structure, in one paragraph

A home visit costs the price of the service, plus a call-out charge. That is the whole model. Mine is ten pounds, it covers the travel anywhere inside my usual area, and it is already built into the Home Visit versions of each service on Fresha, so the price you see when you book is the price you pay. There is no mileage added afterwards and no surprise at the door.

The part that surprises people is that the service price itself is not inflated for being at your house. A wash, cut and blow dry in your kitchen is the same appointment it would be in my home salon in Yelling, done with the same kit, so it is priced the same. You are paying a small fixed amount for the travel, not a premium for the privilege.

What actually drives the service price

Time, far more than anything else. Hairdressing is priced on the clock, because it is almost entirely skilled labour. This is why nobody can quote you properly without knowing something about your hair.

Length and thickness. A colour on hair past your shoulder blades genuinely takes about twice as long as the same colour on a bob, and uses roughly twice the product. That is not a markup, that is the appointment being twice the appointment. The same applies to blow dries, foils and anything else where the hairdresser has to physically work through the whole head.

What the service involves. A dry cut is a dry cut. A full head of foils involves sectioning, weaving, processing time, a rinse, a toner and a blow dry. People sometimes compare those two numbers and conclude a salon is expensive, when really they are comparing forty minutes against three hours.

Whether anything is bundled in. Ask whether a blow dry is included in the price of a colour, because sometimes it is and sometimes it is a separate line. This single question explains most of the gap when two quotes look wildly different.

Is mobile more expensive than a salon?

Not usually, and often the opposite, though the honest answer is that it depends what you are comparing.

A mobile hairdresser has no rent, no reception desk and no shop front to heat. Those costs sit in every salon price whether you notice them or not. That is why the call-out charge can be modest rather than punishing: it is covering fuel and travel time, not a second premises.

Then there is the cost that never appears on any price list, which is your own time. A salon appointment is the appointment plus getting there, plus parking, plus getting back. For a lot of the people I see, particularly parents with small children and anyone who does not drive, that is the real saving. One client books me because a salon trip is a two hour operation with a toddler in tow and a home visit is just the appointment.

Things worth asking any mobile hairdresser before you book

These are the questions I would ask if I were booking somebody, and I would rather you asked me them than found out afterwards.

Is the call-out charge included in the price I am seeing, or added later? Mine is included. Not everybody's is.

How far does the call-out charge cover? Mine covers Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, roughly a thirty to forty minute drive from Yelling. If you are further out than that I will tell you before you book rather than after. Anywhere further is often still possible, particularly for colour or a group, but it should be a conversation first.

Do you bring a backwash? This one matters and almost nobody thinks to ask. I do not carry a hydraulic chair or a portable backwash. I wash and rinse at your sink or in the bath, which is completely normal for mobile work and does the job perfectly well. But if you are picturing a reclining basin arriving in the hallway, it is better to know now.

What do you need from me? A chair near a plug socket, a bit of floor space, a couple of towels and a sink I can get to. The kitchen is usually easiest. I bring everything else, including the dryer, the tongs, the colour, the foils, the gowns and a dustpan, and I sweep up before I leave.

Is there anything I need to do in advance? For any colour, tint or lash treatment, yes: a skin test at least forty eight hours beforehand, which I can post to you or drop round. Colour cannot go ahead without one, and finding that out on the day is nobody's idea of a good afternoon.

The situations where a home visit is worth more than it costs

I do not want to oversell this, because for plenty of people a salon is perfectly convenient and that is fine. But there are cases where the maths is not close.

If getting out of the house is hard, whether that is age, mobility, illness or recovery, a home appointment is not a luxury version of a haircut, it is the only version that actually happens. A fair few of my regulars are in exactly that position, and the appointment matters to them for reasons that have very little to do with hair.

If you are booking several people at once, a home visit gets better value with every head. Weddings, proms, birthdays and mother-and-daughter appointments are some of my favourite bookings, and one call-out charge covers the visit rather than each person paying for their own trip into town.

If you work hours that do not fit a salon's, evenings and Saturdays are a normal part of my week rather than a favour. They go first, which is the one bit of pricing advice I will give you plainly: book the next one before I leave.

How to get a real number for your hair

Everything is on Fresha, with the salon and home visit versions listed separately, so what you see is the price for the appointment you are actually booking. The full list of what I do is on the services page, and there is more on how a home visit runs, step by step, on the mobile hairdressing page.

If you are not sure what to book, send me a photo of your hair and tell me what you are after. I will tell you what I would do, roughly how long it would take, and whether I think you need the thing you asked for at all. That conversation costs nothing and it saves both of us a wasted appointment.

I am Vidal Sassoon trained with twenty years behind the chair, I work from a home salon in Yelling near St Neots, and I travel across Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. If you want to know what other people made of it before you ring, the reviews are here, and there is more on why clients make the switch to mobile and exactly what happens on a first home visit.