Sheila Tenney has her hair cut by Impulse Hair Salon owner John Sepe, who says some regular customers aren’t getting their cuts as often as they did.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

Rhode Islanders, apparently, are looking a little scruffy.

People are going longer between haircuts, giving up regular facials and skipping “pre-season” tanning sessions, according to salon owners in and around Providence.

“They’re a little bit more reluctant to spend,” said John Sepe, owner of Impulse Hair Designs, on Weybosset Street in Providence. “They’re spending less; it’s the supplemental things they’re cutting out.”

Like Sepe, other salon owners and managers who spoke with a Journal reporter yesterday said business is off from a year or two ago, back when the national economy was strong.

Americans are making choices about such little luxuries with the state’s unemployment rate the highest it’s been in 30 years.

Nearly two-thirds of all adults said haircuts or colorings are expendable in the current economy, according to a survey released in February by BIGresearch, a market research firm in Worthington, Ohio. And about 90 percent, said they could live without manicures and facials.

Those figures can help explain why business at Sepe’s salon is off 15 to 20 percent, where about 10 regular clients lost their jobs at Bank of America’s office just around the block.

“They try to be faithful,” he said. “They come downtown, then they realize the reason they came in before was we were convenient.”

No sense driving into the city for a cut and color when your finances are headed south.

What does make sense is getting groomed less often.

“People are waiting longer between services … they stretch a week or two,” said Lina Vessella, co-owner of Pino’s Hair Studio, on Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence.

When they do come in, they’re spending less money.

“Product is not moving as quickly as it used to,” Vessella said of the shampoos and conditioners she sells.

It’s the same at Sun Sational Tanning, farther east on Mineral Spring, where manager Tammy Simpson said even regular customers come in less often and buy less suntan lotion and skin crème.

“People have cut back on the luxuries,” Simpson said. “People can’t afford to vacation this year, so forget about that before-vacation tanning.”

She’s had to spend a lot of time convincing reluctant customers that a package including multiple tanning sessions is a better deal than paying for sessions one at a time, Simpson said.

Raising prices is not an option on an avenue where the competitors range from the ethereal to the spectral — there’s Cyber Tans, Exotic Tans, Mystic Tans and Spectrum Tanning, and many more on nearby Smith Street.

“We’re boxed in,” Simpson said.

Salon owners are reluctant to raise prices even as they face rising costs, some said.

Edward Catanzaro said utility bills are up sharply at his salon at 1903 Mineral Spring — the oil bill spiked nearly 50 percent in February, to $578. The bills add up even on rainy Thursdays, when he waited alone for a customer running late for her appointment.

Some salon owners rent chairs to other beauticians to make extra money.

Catanzaro rents spots to two hair stylists, as does manicurist Lisa Ciccone at Salon Karizzma.

“I don’t think anybody could make it by themselves,” Ciccone said.

And nobody can go for long without getting rid of the gray hair and split ends, said Catanzaro, not even the unemployed.

“I have had customers that have gotten laid off come in because they’re out looking for work,” he said.

pgrimald@projo.com