Guy in my chair laughed when I quoted $35 for a fade, then paid $60 somewhere else
He sat down, I gave him my price for a skin fade, and he actually laughed and said his old shop in Dallas did it for $25. I let him talk and found out that $25 cut came from a guy renting a chair with no license and no clippers that could zero gap, so the line work was garbage after two weeks. If we keep racing to the bottom on price, who is left to teach the next guy how to blend a hard part?
The $25 guy in Dallas was not unlicensed though, that part is a stretch. Plenty of shops charge cheap and still have real barbers with real papers, they just run on speed and volume instead of skill. I have seen guys crank out a decent fade in 15 minutes flat because they do 40 heads a day. The thing that kills the trade is not the price, it is the shops that hire anyone breathing and never make them practice on a mannequin first. Low price and bad work are two different problems that just happen to show up together a lot.