How I Score Free Haircuts and Rarely Pay for Drinks

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Today's guest post is brought to you by Rachel @ It's a Hero...she is a fantabulous blogger and hopefully will be par-taking in the "joy" of running the 1/2 marathon with me in March 2010. She just moved to NY and had to leave her BF in Ohio, I'm sure she misses him terribly so please visit her blog and show her some love...
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I've never considered myself to be frugal. I often drop money (money I don't have, mind you) on things that I don't really need (for example, my recent purchase of two Starbucks Iced Coffee Tumblers). I wish I could be one of those people that prides themselves on being a bargain hunter. BF can sniff a deal out of anywhere. It's amazing. I, on the other hand, see a messy discount rack in a store and I turn the other way. You'll find me paying full price before you'll find me digging through piles to find my size for $2.99.

This being said, if a good deal falls into my lap (as in, I don't have to search for it) I'm all over it. I guess I should start with my definition of the term "good deal." Good deal = Free. Free as in no money. No bartering. Nada. I love me a good steal deal. Good deal does not mean tiny shampoo bottles from hotels and other minature sized samples. Thanks but no thanks. A good deal is a free deal. Not a 'crap-I'll-never-use-but-will-take-up-lots-of-space' deal.

The good deal that I favor most is my free spa haircuts and treatments. I am very picky about who does my hair. I only go to Aveda salons (for real, probably the most and only semi-high maintenance thing about me). They just treat you like you should be treated.... Royally. :)

So how do I score the royal treatment at my local Aveda salon, you ask? Easy. A lot of these salons take recent beauty school grads and put them through an apprenticeship process. Which basically means they work for free for the salon, practicing and building a clientele. This means Rachel gets free luxury haircuts. Free!! These free haircuts come with complimentary Starbucks coffee, desserts, and a head and hand massage. Heaven...

Is it risky trusting a newbie? Sure, but they made it through beauty school, right? And these girls have a teacher looking over their shoulders for the entire 2 hours. Yes, I said two hours. Part of the process is for them to learn so it takes a little longer than your average haircut. But this haircut also saves you eighty-bucks. Worth. It.

If your hair is long enough, many of these salons will have their more experienced employees cut your hair for free if you will donate twelve inches to locks of love. I have done this before and it was, again, the royal treatment. Cut. Style. Pamper. Love.

So which ever way you get your free haircut, you'll then want to show it off. So why not get someone to buy you free drinks when you go out with your girls that night. Impossible, you say? Nope. Entirely possible I assure you. I generally go out for karaoke nights with my best gals, so it really sets things up for me. I'll sing a song. Scope out the bar for a man that is at least 20 years my senior and with a group of other older men (obviously this doesn't work if they are there with a group of women who could either be: a) their wife, or b) their daughter). Say hello. They'll say something about the song you just sang. And you say "Buy me a drink." Nothing more. Nothing less. This. Always. Works.

Even if they don't particularly want to, they will because they are surrounded by their other older male friends and they don't want to be "that guy" that doesn't by a younger woman a drink.

Ahhh the perks of being a woman. Free haircuts. Free drinks.