Dear Helaine: Help me out with this one. My salon, like most where I live, charges for a blowout after you get highlights. I do it once every few months as a treat -- it's $40. Or, I should say, I did it occasionally.

I had a big meeting with my boss scheduled the day after my last appointment, so I said yes, I'd love the help, when my colorist asked if I would like to schedule a blowout. When I paid the bill, I discovered I was charged $80. I asked the receptionist to look over the bill and said I thought there was a mistake.

She told me my blowout was done by a master stylist. When I responded that in the past the salon always used assistants for the task, she told me the salon recently changed that policy, and I should have realized I was in the hands of a senior stylist. I told her it was wrong to spring a doubling in price on me or any customer. After another minute of back and forth, she refunded the $40 as a courtesy "just this one time."

I'm now feeling guilty and wondering if it was all my fault for not asking the price in advance. What do you think? -- A Hairy Problem

Dear Hairy Problem: It is customary to send out an email notification of a change in salon prices, as well as to post a notification at the front desk. It doesn't sound like the salon did that in this case. I doubt you are the first person to experience this sticker shock, though you might well have been the first to speak up -- and good for you that you did!

If an establishment suddenly doubles the charge for a service, it needs to tell customers about it before they sign up for it. Springing a 100% price increase on a customer after the fact is not acceptable. Moreover, I know very few people who know all the stylists in their salon, so the idea that it's your responsibility for not recognizing the person is simple excuse-making. You did nothing wrong here. The salon did.

One other suggestion: Get your colorist's contact information. This is such an unusual situation, I wonder if the salon is experiencing financial woes. It's rare to see a price go up by that much, with or without notice. You don't want to be out a prized beautician if the establishment suddenly shuts its doors.

(To ask Helaine a question, email her at askhelaine@gmail.com.)

(EDITORS: For editorial questions, please contact Sue Roush at sroush@amuniversal.com)

Dear Helaine: I’m self-employed and decided to take out some life insurance for my wife that doubled as an investment vehicle. It was explained to me that one advantage of it is that it’s permanent, rather than term, and as someone who is self-employed and in my late 30s, it’s helpful to have this locked in early.

My concern is that this appears to be a pretty inefficient investment vehicle. At the beginning of the year -- my third -- I had an accumulated balance of $566. This year I had a premium of $225 a month, and only wound up with an accumulating value of about $1,500. Is this a foolish product, or should I stick with it while investing in other retirement vehicles, like a Roth IRA? -- What to Do?

Dear What to Do: When my dad goes to a movie and he doesn’t like it, he’s not very patient. He gets up and leaves almost immediately. His reasoning? The money is already gone. He can either waste another hour of his life miserable, or he can get up and leave and get on with his day. I’m afraid you are at the same juncture here.

This is not a good investment, and it’s almost certainly not a particularly good life insurance policy either. If you need life insurance, you should have term life insurance. It’s significantly less expensive than whole life, which is what you are currently paying for.

You can get a term policy for 30 years, which is likely all you will need. Life insurance is meant to replace your work income, and when you retire, that will presumably no longer be necessary. Then take the cost difference on the two offerings and invest that for retirement via a Roth IRA.

As for whole life, it’s pitched as a way of protecting your loved ones while still setting money aside for retirement. In fact, you’ll pay multitudes more money for the protection, the investment options are limited, and it's often loaded with fees designed to make money for the seller and insurance company.

(To ask Helaine a question, email her at askhelaine@gmail.com.)

(EDITORS: For editorial questions, please contact Sue Roush at sroush@amuniversal.com)

Dear Helaine: I’m about to graduate from a master’s program and start a job with a $60,000 salary. Currently, I have a $10,000 student loan with my credit union at a 4.5% interest rate and two federal loans (undergraduate and graduate) at 5.4% and 6.8% interest rates. I am single.

My payments will be about $475 a month, which is definitely doable while still saving for other goals. But ... my parents have let me know they are giving me $10,000 as a very generous graduation gift. Should I (1) pay off my private student loan entirely, which has the lowest interest rate but is the least flexible -- there’s no income-based repayment plan or deferment should I need it or decide to enter a Ph.D. program; (2) put my money toward the highest-interest loan, which is a government loan and does offer flexibility; or (3) put the money in an emergency fund and make my student loan payments as normal? After setup costs (move to a new city, new apartment), I believe I will have $3,000 left for an emergency fund.

Or should I do something different I haven’t considered? I’d love your input on this! -- New Graduate Getting Started

Dear New Grad: First, congratulations on your achievement, for both graduating and already having a job lined up. Second, it’s terrific that you have such generous and loving parents, who gave you a gift you must certainly need on graduation. You should absolutely choose option No. 3.

Life has a way of throwing curveballs at all of us, and it’s best to have some money set aside for when things don’t work out as planned. And, as you said, you do have the ability to save money even as you are paying down the loans. You could choose to use that money to make extra payments on the loans, for other goals (say, money to live on if you do return to school for the Ph.D. so you don’t need to borrow money for that purpose), or simply, sometimes, to have fun.

If you do decide to work toward eliminating one of the loans, I would absolutely start with the privately issued one, which could, as you note, trip you up the most should you encounter a rough patch. Good luck with all of it.

(To ask Helaine a question, email her at askhelaine@gmail.com.)

(EDITORS: For editorial questions, please contact Sue Roush at sroush@amuniversal.com)