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enismirdalBeing a frugal creature by nature, I don't particularly like spending money on stuff in general. However, I have discovered over the years that a wonderful resource to get Good Stuff For Cheap is colleges.
By allowing myself to be a practice dummy for students, I have enjoyed a couple of services that would normally cost lots.
These include:
- the most thorough dental checkup I've ever had. (It took over 2 hours, but I felt at the end that not a square millimetre of my mouth had gone unchecked!)
- haircuts
Today, I had my hair cut. In a normal salon (I just checked a variety of local ones) this would cost around £15-£50, depending on the complexity of the cut and the seniority of the stylist. I paid...£3. For a simple trimming of split-ends, no blow-dry...£1.50.
The local college (right behind the university campus!) trains hairdressers, and therefore needs hair models for them to learn. They are VERY careful, with a teacher hovering right over them to make sure nothing goes wrong. It takes longer (1 hour rather than 20 minutes), but the quality is just as good and the prices...wheeeee! So I am very happy, and my hair is around 8 inches shorter, I think. The teacher seemed pleased with how well the student did, so hopefully she'll get lots of course credit and a gold star.
I have also found out that the college has its own restaurant (two, in fact, as some of its classes are taught in the next town along, and they have a restaurant there too), which serves three-course gourmet meals for £12.50. They also have a florist's shop and a travel agency, all helping to train students and as a result offering rather reasonable prices for high-quality service. Ultimately, as long as you have a bit of patience, everyone wins: the student gains experience, you gain a nice haircut/bouquet/meal/etc. at low low prices, happiness abounds!
And my hair has now been cut from mid-back length to shoulder length.
By allowing myself to be a practice dummy for students, I have enjoyed a couple of services that would normally cost lots.
These include:
- the most thorough dental checkup I've ever had. (It took over 2 hours, but I felt at the end that not a square millimetre of my mouth had gone unchecked!)
- haircuts
Today, I had my hair cut. In a normal salon (I just checked a variety of local ones) this would cost around £15-£50, depending on the complexity of the cut and the seniority of the stylist. I paid...£3. For a simple trimming of split-ends, no blow-dry...£1.50.
The local college (right behind the university campus!) trains hairdressers, and therefore needs hair models for them to learn. They are VERY careful, with a teacher hovering right over them to make sure nothing goes wrong. It takes longer (1 hour rather than 20 minutes), but the quality is just as good and the prices...wheeeee! So I am very happy, and my hair is around 8 inches shorter, I think. The teacher seemed pleased with how well the student did, so hopefully she'll get lots of course credit and a gold star.
I have also found out that the college has its own restaurant (two, in fact, as some of its classes are taught in the next town along, and they have a restaurant there too), which serves three-course gourmet meals for £12.50. They also have a florist's shop and a travel agency, all helping to train students and as a result offering rather reasonable prices for high-quality service. Ultimately, as long as you have a bit of patience, everyone wins: the student gains experience, you gain a nice haircut/bouquet/meal/etc. at low low prices, happiness abounds!
And my hair has now been cut from mid-back length to shoulder length.
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no subject
Date: 9 Jun 2011 23:33 (UTC)Did you get your head x-rayed as well?
no subject
Date: 10 Jun 2011 06:54 (UTC)no subject
Date: 10 Jun 2011 04:07 (UTC)I have been meaning to check for dental schools here. A friend of mine priced out treatment for something and found it was 40-50% cheaper and she got very thorough bids on her work ...like super bids.
Good post!
no subject
Date: 10 Jun 2011 07:03 (UTC)I am definitely a fan of hair and beauty colleges. The girl who did my hair yesterday was very sweet, although not terribly chatty (presumably because she was concentrating, I guess!)
It was quite disconcerting seeing the lengths of hair underneath the chair at the end. (Although the actual volume of hair wasn't that much - which probably goes to show how much it needed cutting, having become all rat-tailed at the ends!)
no subject
Date: 10 Jun 2011 07:53 (UTC)