Hair and Make-up questions

pinkshorts27

I'm looking at hair and makeup artists right now because I'm pretty much hair and makeup illiterate. I am wondering a few things.

-What is a reasonable price? Everyone I am seeing online is 300-400 (for both hair and makeup)

-Does everyone have a minimum number of bookings? A lot I have seen online say they require 3 or 4 people to pay them for their services which seems ridiculous, because I would never dream of requiring my BMs or my mother to use the service.

-Any reqs for the Portland Metro Area in OR?

JCbride2015

I think $300-400 for both hair and makeup is pretty reasonable. The place I am looking at does not require a minimum number of people per se, but to travel they require at least $500 total (this is just for makeup, no hair, so that's like the bride plus about 3-4 people).

pinkshorts27

JCbride2015 wow, ok. Thanks that is good to know!!  Thanks for the info

theartistformerlyknownas

HOLY shit. In Detroit I'm paying $60 per service or $100 for hair+makeup, which is right in the middle of the road, price-wise. She's a traveling gig, so she does require a minimum of 10 services booked in order to come out, so I checked with my girls before booking her to see if they wanted to use her team and they all did.

pinkshorts27

lolo883 wow! What I would give for those prices, but I definitely wouldn't be able to book 10 services with only 4 bms (not all can afford/are interested)

Cookie Pusher

I never did hair, but when I was doing makeup, I charged $125+ for the bride - this was inclusive of the trial (which was free if they didn't book me) and travel of up to 1 hour. BMs/MOBs/MOGs were $90 (inclusive of the trial).

pinkshorts27

That was the other thing! None of them had free trials which was odd I thought.

Cookie Pusher

pinkshorts27 said:

That was the other thing! None of them had free trials which was odd I thought.

Most artists charge, especially if makeup is their full time job. There's no stopping someone from calling and claiming they want a trial run of makeup for an event when in fact they're actually getting their makeup done for an event but don't feel like paying for it, ya know? No one wants to give their work away for free. The only reason I was willing to do free trials is because I worked on referrals only. There's more chance for honesty if they think they'll get shamed if it's found out they were just scamming me.

JoanE2012

pinkshorts27 said:

That was the other thing! None of them had free trials which was odd I thought.

No one is going to do a free trial.  Heck, you could say you want a trial each time you have a big event to go to.  That said, you may be able to avoid the "minimum" that most MUAs want when they travel to you if you offer to go to their location.  

In the end, it's not cheap, but when it's one of your most photographed days of your life, it's worth it!

wandajune6

I'm paying $90 for my hair and makeup. She travels to us and charges the same pride for the BMs - which I love! No minimum but I do have to pay for my trial. $50 doesn't seem bad to me.

pinkshorts27

I guess that makes sense. I'm not very dishonest, so I would never dream of doing anything like that so I don't always think of those things.  I just hate to pay 100 for a trial and then not like the artist.

Senecaf

I think that sounds outreagous honestly. Prices around here are more like for makeup up to $145 for hair.

mrscaty

I'm paying 65 for hair and 45 make-up and I have to pay for the trials as well. I thought it as a very reasonable price for each. 

Cookie Pusher

There are A LOT of dishonest people out there, unfortunately. I used to work as a makeup artist/cosmetics manager at a large, prestigious retailer who did not charge for makeup services in the store - we simply had a suggested purchase of 3 products when you had the application done. We had many, many women who came in for the service, bought 3 items, and promptly returned them the next day. Many of the other artists I worked with also did free trials when they did outside events and got screwed by people who would end up not booking them but instead just wanted their makeup done for free because they had somewhere to go that night.

pinkshorts27

It is good to have that perspective because I would never dream of doing anything like that. 

JoanE2012

pinkshorts27 said:

I guess that makes sense. I'm not very dishonest, so I would never dream of doing anything like that so I don't always think of those things.  I just hate to pay 100 for a trial and then not like the artist.

I get it.  It happened to me.  I paid $75 and hated it.  I tried to tell the woman as she was going along but it just wasn't working.  I had to spend MORE money to do another trial with someone else.  Which I loved, thankfully.  In the end, I'm glad I did the trial and spent the money because if I waited until my wedding day I would've been very upset.

theartistformerlyknownas

Yeah I paid full price for my trial. She was very highly reviewed though, and I loved her work. Should have just scheduled it on a night I could go out and show it off, rather than coming home and going right to bed.

jynxiie

I'm paying $125 for the day of. $65 for the trial. (hair/makeup/eyelashes) My BMs are costing my a little less at $90 each.

ElcaB

That seems really steep to me. I'm paying $60 for hair & $45 for makeup ($65 if I want fake lashes).

blabla89

You can save some money by getting it done in a salon instead of having them come to you. I get my hair done at a high-end salon and they quoted me $85 each for hair and makeup, but I researched options for having it done on-site and it was much more expensive.