SCHWEINFURT, Germany -- Frustration with rising barber costs at community forums here recently prompted a cadre of Soldiers and civilians to field an assessment whose findings will be used to adjust the barber prices at AAFES barber shops, including those at Ledward and Conn Barracks.
For the past two years the cost of haircuts at the two AAFES barbershops on Conn and Ledward Barracks has been a point of contention at the USAG Schweinfurt Army Family Action Plan Conference -- the annual grassroots conference aimed at identifying and pairing solutions to quality of life issues.
Schweinfurt community members who participated in the AFAP Conference last year pegged the price for haircuts on U.S. military installations in Europe at $12, and that the price has increased annually since 2008 costing the Soldiers $24 to $48 per month.
So each year the AAFES service department surveys local barber shop costs to determine the cost of a military haircut at AAFES barbershops. Here in Schweinfurt, two Soldiers, a civilian employee and two individuals who work for the AAFES hit the streets Jan. 22 to survey prices from four barber shops in the Schweinfurt area.
"The survey is about the barber prices. It is a mandatory annual thing we -- everybody in AAFES -- has to do," said Petra Prell, an AAFES service technician and organizer of the Schweinfurt survey.
Prell and her team of surveyors identified four barbershops off-post within proximity that provide comparable services. Schweinfurt's surveyors visited Max and Moritz, Friseur Gessener and Friseursalon Ebner and House of Hair.
House of Hair -- located on Hainlein Strasse in Niederwerrn -- was the only barber to offer cheaper prices than what's offered on-post.
Based on the findings, the average price for a military haircut off-post amounted to ,10.50, which comes out to about $14. The average price for a styled haircut was ,15.50, or about $21.
The price information gained from the survey is sent to the AAFES European regional headquarters where it will be tallied and averaged among other AAFES surveys conducted throughout Germany, Prell said.
AAFES establishes their barbershop price by taking 30 percent off the determined average price of military haircuts and 20 percent off for styled haircuts. If the calculated price is more than the already executed price for a haircut, the cost of a haircut will increase, said Prell.
"New prices, if there are changes to be implemented, will take into effect during March or April," said Prell.
Does AAFES try to offer Soldiers the cheapest military haircut option?
"We don't try, we have to be," Prell said.
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