Tipping

I'm all for tipping in the service industry.  I used to work in the service industry.  You literally live off your tips, because your pay is crap.  You're treated like crap.  You have to put up crap.  It's an all around crappy job.

However it seems like everywhere you go now, you are expected to tip.  Like my hairstylist, whom I love. It's $35.00 for a trim or cut.  At her old salon it was only $27.00.  There I would just give her an even $30. I felt like $3.00 was a good tip.  I mean all she does is stand there for like 30 min (if that), chit chat, blow dry, and maybe curl.  All that for 27 bucks plus a $3.00 tip seemed pretty reasonable.

Now $35.00 is an odd amount.  It's not like $27, where I could just give her a 20 and a 10.  If I was going to continue giving her a $3.00 tip, that's a lot of different bills I'm using.  It would be a 20, a ten, a five, and 3 ones.  It's just so much easier to give her 2 twenties.  So not only is she making an extra $8.00 on the cut itself, but another $5.00 for a tip.  But to me, $5.00 is a big tip.  Especially when I feel like $35.00 is already a lot to be spending on a hair cut.

With this situation, I feel like I shouldn't even have to tip.  I feel like $35.00 is an expensive hair cut.  She's already making a lot of money off me, why should I have to tip on top of that?  With 2 hair cuts in one hour, she's making more in that short time than I make in practically an entire day.  And I don't get tipped to do my job.  I'm in the wrong business...