What It Actually Costs in Miami Beach

At McAllister Spa a women's haircut with a stylist blow dry is $125 with a Senior stylist, $145 with a Master and $165 with a Director. A men's cut is $65, $75 and $85 at the same three levels. Those are the same haircut at three levels of experience, not three different services — for a straightforward cut the Senior rate is the honest recommendation. Every other salon service we sell is published the same way, which is unusual here: most salons in Miami Beach quote by phone only.

Here it is $125 with a Senior stylist, $145 with a Master and $165 with a Director, and that is the cut and a stylist blow dry together. The "should" is the harder half of the question. It is the same haircut at all three levels, so the level is the only thing you are really choosing, and for a straightforward shape the Senior rate is the honest recommendation. Whatever you book, the number you hear at the free consultation is the number you pay.

We are not going to quote one, because a single average for a whole city is not a number anybody can book with: the spread inside one salon — a men's cut against a full head of highlights, a Senior stylist against a Director — is wider than a city average ever moves. What we can give you is ours, in full. A women's haircut with a blow dry is $125 to $165 and a men's is $65 to $85; single-process color starts at $110, partial highlights at $205, balayage at $240 and keratin at $275. Those are what the front desk charges, not an estimate of what somebody in this city might.

Not here, and we would rather say so than dress it up: our prices are published so you can decide before you call, and they are not the lowest numbers in this city. What we can tell you exactly is where ours start — $45 for a children's haircut under eight, $65 for a men's haircut and styling with a Senior stylist, and $125 for a women's haircut with a stylist blow dry. A shampoo and blow dry is $70, which undercuts the women's cut, but it is styling and not a haircut at all — if a low number you have been quoted somewhere is for that, it is not the same service.

Ours starts at $240 with a Senior colorist, $270 with a Master and $300 with a Director. Sombré starts from $210, traditional ombré from $250, partial highlights from $205 and a full head from $270. Plenty of salons on this island start well above those numbers. What a higher price should buy is a colorist who does this every week and bond protection built into the service rather than sold on afterwards — not a surprise at the till.

Because no two corrections are the same job, and anyone quoting one over the phone is guessing low. It is priced individually after a free consultation. For reference points on our own menu: single-process color from $110, a gloss or toner overlay from $65, partial highlights from $205, and the Olaplex Bond Multiplier at $50 during any lift. Send a daylight photo and you will get an honest answer the same day.

Placement runs from $499 to $1,099 depending on method and length, and maintenance from $399. The number most quotes leave out is the hair itself, which is charged separately at wholesale cost plus tax and varies by color and length. A salon quoting you one low figure is either excluding the hair too, or using less of it than your head needs.

An Express Keratin Blowout starts at $275, a full keratin treatment or a Brazilian Blowout at $350, and KC Max at $380. Length and density set where yours lands. It is the highest-leverage booking most people make, because the twenty minutes saved every morning for three months is worth more than the frizz reduction that sells it.

Classic manicure from $23, gel from $49, powder dip from $65. HydraFacials from $185 across seven treatments, SkinCeuticals facials from $140, and resurfacing — dermaplaning, peels, microdermabrasion — from $100. Eyebrow threading from $40, brow waxing $25, lash lift $65. Airbrush tanning from $59. PhiBrows microblading is $750 including the follow-up that completes it.

Eighteen to twenty percent of the service price is customary, the same as everywhere else on this menu, so on a hundred-dollar haircut that is eighteen to twenty dollars. Work the percentage rather than a flat amount you are used to leaving: a cut here runs $125 to $165 depending on the level you book, and a habit formed at one level lands short at another. Consultations are free, so there is nothing to tip on one.

The same range, because it is a percentage and not a flat figure: eighteen to twenty percent of the service price, which on a seventy-dollar ticket is thirteen to fourteen dollars. Nothing about it changes with the size of the bill. On our own menu a men's haircut and styling runs $65 to $85, and a women's haircut with a blow dry starts at $125.

The customary range does not move with the size of the ticket: eighteen to twenty percent of the service price, whatever the number is. The honest part of the answer is that we have never charged twenty dollars for a haircut, so we cannot tell you what is normal somewhere that does. The least expensive cut on our own menu is a children's haircut, under eight, at $45, and the least expensive adult cut is a men's haircut and styling at $65.

Because the alternative is asking someone to call and be told a number they cannot compare. Publishing means we have to be honest about the range and about what moves it, which is harder than quoting privately and is the entire point. Every figure on this page is read straight from the same menu the front desk uses, so it cannot quietly go out of date.