Last June, there was an incident in a hair salon in Chungju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do. The hair salon’s owner pushed the handicapped people to pay too much money for a long time. In one instance, the owner of the hair salon served dyeing without saying about prices to the disabled customers until she had finished the service. When it was time to charge, she disclosed to the customer that the final price was 520,000 won. The owner has arrested and finally sentenced.
  After this event, questions about the outdoor price marking system, which has been mandatory since 2013, are becoming serious. The outdoor price marking system for hair salons which have over 66㎡ (20 pyeong) helps people to know the prices outside of the shops by showing the final price table to people before they enter the store. If someone violates this law, fines from 500,000 ~ 1,500,000 won are imposed.
  However, despite the fact that the law was established, hair salons still don’t keep the outdoor pricing, and even if they follow the law, there is a big difference in cost compared to the actual consultation. In order to enforce the outdoor pricing system well, cities, provinces, counties and districts nationwide have to crack down thoroughly. In fact, Jeju-si is one of the typical examples that shows the crackdown has succeeded. 10 hair salons in downtown Jeju-si were investigated, and 8 out of 10 were found out to be violating the obligation of the outdoor price marking system. According to Jeju City Hall, there has been no case of punishment for their noncompliance since the 22nd of June this year.
  Because of this situation, the Ministry of Health and Welfare made advanced information and guidelines about hair salons’ price posts and they offered it nationwide. They have implemented it since the 15th of July this year. One of the guidelines is that before providing hair services, hair salons should make detailed statements of the final payment and show it to customers so they can agree to pay the prices.
  However, although the guidelines have already been implemented, there are opinions that nothing has changed. Park Jang-sun(’13, Dept. of International Business) said, “That incident happened in Chungju-si, which is my hometown, but there are still few hair salons that put prices outdoors. Furthermore, in the case of dyeing services, prices vary a lot depending on the number of bleachings, the length of hair, and colors, so you shouldn’t mistake the price on an outside menu for the actual price. In this regard, I hope every hair salon will display the prices based on specific criteria while displaying price tables outdoors.” The Ministry of Health and Welfare said, “Before hairdressing, a detailed statement of the final payment of price should be written on the menu, but in reality, many hair salons explain it in just a few words.”
  About the crackdown after implementing the guidelines, an official of food and drug safety from the Chungcheongbuk-do Provincial Office said, “There are a number of relevant beauty shops in Cheong-ju City Hall following the outdoor price marking system implementation, but we can’t check them 100% in every quarter, but we try to check at least once a year.”
  The crackdown solution about the hair salons’ outdoor pricing system still needs more measures. It is too early to jump to any conclusions because the guidelines were just implemented in July.
  If the improved outdoor price marking system, especially the crackdown, soon solves the existing problems, it will become a scheme that benefits the consumers.

By Hong Ye-ha
yh37@cbnu.ac.kr