Recession Leads to Epidemic of Horrifying Home Haircuts

The downturn has created a nation of cost, and hair- cutters. To help pare their budgets, more Americans are bypassing the salon and opting to lop off their own locks. The results, can be shear disaster -- clogged drains, fresh cowlicks and crooked trims.

"It may look easy, but it's not," says Gordon Miller, executive director for the National Cosmetology Association, which represents more than 10,000 U.S. salons. He says that middle- and high-end shops are feeling the pinch, as consumers come in less frequently or go to lower-priced salons. In a January poll of 600 salons, about 72% said they have seen a dropoff in customer spending.

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"I've seen women come in, crying hysterically," over things like too-shorn bangs, he says. "It's a big deal." Sometimes, the scene at his eponymous salon, located on the penthouse level at Bergdorf Goodman on New York City's Fifth Avenue, can resemble an emergency room: Clients with hair-dye hazards, wrecked layers, and visible signs of emotional distress. "It's a psychological disaster," says Mr. Barrett, who caters to socialites and "America's Next Top Model" contestants.

A few blocks away, at the Minardi Salon, co-owner Carmine Minardi warns against the "at-home" method. "We get a lot of people who screw up their hair," he says. He estimates that roughly a third of all business now consists of "corrective" styling. There is no mercy reflected in the bill, which dings clients as much as 50% more for a corrective color than a regular dye job. In Idaho Falls, Idaho, Melodie McBride's salon handles three or four repair jobs a week. One client "looked like his head had been through a thrasher," she says. Another man came in with an eyebrow that had been mistakenly shaved off.