A hairdresser explained why highlights don’t cost £60 anymore.
Not because of the cost of living.
Not because salons have suddenly become more expensive to run but because no one is asking just for highlights anymore.
They’re asking for something that sounds simple – but isn’t.
Effortless colour Soft blends. Something that grows out naturally. Something that still looks good in six months. What used to be a single technique is now a combination of several. More time. More decision-making. More skill.
Same head of hair. Different expectation.
A nail technician said something similar.
“Where have the £10 nails gone?”
They haven’t disappeared. They’ve just been replaced by something else.
Intricate designs. Specific colour palettes. Clean finishes. Precision. What used to be maintenance is now expression and expression takes time.
Then there’s Pilates.
Not the method, the version of it we see now.
Socks pulled over leggings. Hair done.Skin glowing. A kind of curated effortlessness. And, almost inevitably, the matcha afterwards.It’s not just exercise anymore.It’s a mood board.
Thats the thing. Pinterest, Instagram, all of it , it doesn’t just influence what things look like. It shapes what we think they should feel like.
Yoga hasn’t escaped this.People don’t just come to a class anymore.They come with something in mind.
Fix my back. Improve my posture. Make me more flexible. Help me switch off. Make me feel better.And…do it fast.
None of that is wildly unreasonable lots if it is human nature but it does create a tension, mostly because the expectation has evolved but the understanding of what it takes… hasn’t.
The outcomes people want from yoga and Pilates are often layered.
Less pain, but also more strength.More flexibility, but also more control.Calm, but also energy.All of that, ideally, within a life that’s already full.Oh and results in an hour please.
So here’s the question I keep coming back to:
You like that?
Or do you like the idea of that?
The reality of those outcomes is rarely as clean as the version we’ve been shown.It’s slower. Less aesthetic. More repetitive. Sometimes frustrating.It doesn’t always feel like progress.It doesn’t always look like improvement – it almost never fits neatly into a few weeks.
This is where things have shifted for teachers.The job isn’t just to deliver a class anymore. It’s to navigate expectation.To recognise what someone wants and gently explore what that actually involves.
Not shutting it down. Not dismissing it but staying curious about it.
“You like that?” isn’t a challenge. It’s an invitation.
To look more closely at the gap between what we want and what we’re willing to do and often, that gap is where the frustration lives.
Not in the method.Not in the class.Just in the mismatch.
Like with hair, or nails, or anything shaped by taste and trend, the outcome has evolved.The expectation has risen.
But the process?That’s still doing what it’s always done.Gradually.Without much concern for how it looks on a feed.
Which leaves us with a choice. We can chase the version we’ve been shown.
Or we can engage with the version that actually works or we relate to.
Most people want both.
Few people realise they’re not quite the same thing and that’s where the mood board ends and the work begins.
