Should I tip my hairdresser and how much? 

Thinking of getting your hair done for a Valentine's date? Caroline Delaney helps you figure out if you should tip your hairdresser or not

Pic: iStock

What's the deal with tipping? I know it's pretty much mandatory in the States but does everyone tip every service provider here in Ireland? When I go to the hairdressers do I tip the stylist who does my cut and colour? What if that's the salon owner, is that weird to tip them when they have their own successful business? And should I tip the worker who washes my hair as they are often new and younger and might need the money more? Is it always 10% I should tip or is whatever change I have handy at the time ok? Do I put the tip on the counter or into my stylist's hand? And how do I manage a tip if I'm paying by card and don't have any cash on me?

We spoke to Greg Clarke who has been in the hair industry for 20-plus years. He co-owns Amica Eco Hair Salon in Castleknock and is on the board of HABIC, the Hair and Beauty Industry Confederation of Ireland which represents 2,500 members.

He says the most important thing is that if you want to give a tip it should be "whatever you feel it was worth — and what you can afford".

"And it could be a euro and that's perfectly fine. And the person who gives a euro gets the exact same reply as the person who tips €20 and that's 'Thank you so much for that, I really appreciate it'."

"Some people do ask me if it is ok to tip the owner and I would just say 'yeah of course it is if you want to but it's not expected'."

And with fewer people carrying cash and with card payments preferred in many businesses, there's the issue of what way you give a tip if you want to do that.

"At the moment, the big issue with tips is the fact that 'cash does not exist'. What I mean by that is that many people don't carry cash and don't pay in cash. I was in the bank this morning making a cash lodgement and I even said to the cashier, 'this is six week's worth of cash and that amount used to be one week's worth of cash — nobody is using cash at the moment'."

"What we now have is a tipping card. Basically, a clever company set this up: you can have an actual card or on a phone, there's a QR code and the client who wants to tip can use that QR code. And that's anonymous too."

Greg notes that some stylists would like to know who's tipping so they can thank them but a client can always opt to let their stylist know in person if they have tipped anyway.

But the 'old-fashioned' cash is also still great if you want to give separate tips to the person who washes your hair and the person who styles it.

One may be more junior and on a lower wage so if you want to make sure that the money gets to the right person then bringing along the cash if you think of it in advance is handy for this.

Every euro adds up, notes Greg — "that's the power of compounding". Those tins you can get in the euro shop, the sealed savings tin, they're great and the excitement when someone opens it and sees how much they've saved since Christmas or last summer..."

And staff know that tips are not guaranteed here unlike other countries and customers should be aware of this too, says Greg: "I'm a good tipper — but only when I receive good service. I won't tip just because 'you're meant to'. I've often had that issue in America. But a tip is what I feel it's worth."

Scan a QR code to tip using your smartphone

We just had to give the 'clever company' a call too: it's StrikePay an Irish financial technology company with a patent-pending technology allowing any business or charity to be tipped or paid or donated to instantly.

Founder, Oli Cavanagh, says this is their solution to issues that arose as people began carrying less cash in recent years: "This allows 'team tipping' or tipping to individuals. When you scan the QR code it brings up the names and pictures of all the people working in the salon and you can click on any of the people you want to tip then."

So do men tip more than women or vice versa?

"Well, one thing we have noticed is that it's often women are tipping three people — the person who washes their hair, the person who colours their hair, and the person who cuts their hair. And men would mostly just make the one tip to their barber."

This system allows the recipient to set a 'suggested' amount to tip but people can make their own choice as well.

So, does this create a new potentially awkward etiquette moment then? What if you accidentally swipe an extra zero or two and tip €50 or €500 instead of a smaller amount? Is your money gone or is it easy to recover it?

"Well, across many millions and millions of euros of tips it has only happened once, to a taxi driver actually. Someone tipped him something like €2,900 and it was very obviously a mistake and of course we refunded it straight away," says Oli.

So, for the 'too long, didn't read' crowd, tip if it's deserved and if you can afford it. And you have options between going high-tech and tapping a photo to pay or discreetly palming over a high-value note or saying 'thanks' with some coins. The bottom line is it's all very welcome by the recipient so say thanks in whatever way works for you.