One local recently posted a simple request — does anyone know a reasonably priced hair stylist in the city? — and was promptly roasted by fellow San Franciscans for having the audacity to not want to drop triple digits on a pixie cut. As the original poster put it: "I'm lowkey getting cooked by people reminding me that brokies like me don't deserve cute stylish affordable haircuts."

Let that marinate. We live in a city where asking for a budget-friendly trim is treated like a personal affront to the professional class.

Look, no one's saying stylists don't deserve fair pay. Cosmetology licenses, chair rental, product costs, years of training — it all adds up. But when a basic haircut routinely clears $100 before tip in this city, maybe the problem isn't "entitled" customers. Maybe the problem is that San Francisco's cost of doing business — sky-high commercial rents, endless permitting, and a regulatory environment that treats every small business owner like a suspect — has made even simple services unaffordable for normal people.

This is what happens when a city prices out the middle. The barber shops and no-frills salons that used to anchor every neighborhood get replaced by "hair experiences" with $18 lattes in the waiting area. And anyone who pushes back gets told they're being cheap.

To their credit, the community eventually came through with actual recommendations, prompting the original poster to update with a gracious: "Thank you for restoring my faith." So the goodwill is still there, buried under layers of San Francisco cost-of-living trauma.

But the bigger picture remains: when a haircut becomes a luxury good, your city has a problem that no amount of shaming budget-conscious residents will fix. Maybe instead of dunking on people looking for a deal, we should be asking why it costs so much to operate a pair of scissors in this town.