A great haircut? At $624, it had better be

Then Laurent arrived, wearing an untucked striped shirt, baggy pants and bright green sneakers. His multicolored hair was spiked in sixteen different directions.

"So tell me what you want," he began, massaging my shoulder-length hair as if tossing a salad.

"Well, it's very fine," I said, "so I know it might be good to cut it shorter. But I don't want to look old."

The salad tossing stopped and he met my gaze in the mirror. "Does Sharon Stone look old?" he asked with the gravity of someone whose living is based on making sure Sharon Stone doesn't.

"No."

"Well then, let's do it! It will be very, very sexy!"

He seized a pair of scissors and snipped off a single lock. "Do you want to keep it?" he asked. "You know, when Gwyneth first came here, she was dating Brad then, and when I cut the first lock of her hair he asked to keep it. He put it in his wallet."

That's what the common folk pay $600 for, I realized — to feel for a moment like they've got something in common with a screen goddess.

"It's not the haircut you're paying for. It's the experience. You're paying to be on Rodeo Drive or Bond Street or in the Chanel building in New York," says Gordon Nelson, international creative director for Regis Salons, a chain found in shopping malls across the country. Its standard cut — with highlights — runs $90.

Laurent began to cut. Within seconds, clumps of hair were falling in my lap. Breathe, I told myself. In five minutes it was done, and he needed only a minute to blow dry what remained. It was wonderfully messy — as if I'd just spent an hour in bed with my teenage gardener.

"I don't like short haircuts to look neat," he said. "It should look almost like you need another haircut very soon, you know?" I could hear my mother in my head: "Three hundred dollars for a haircut that makes you look like you need another haircut???"

Um, that's Tar-zhay
I stared at my reflection, loving my hair but realizing it looked far more glamorous than the rest of me. My $40 jeans and Isaac Mizrahi for Target suede jacket suddenly seemed shabbier. I tried to act casual while signing the credit-card receipt ($624).

I do feel more glamorous, and everyone tells me I look wonderful. But when I mention the cost, people seem disturbed that it's possible to pay this much for something that won't exist two months from now.

For celebrities, the fringe benefits justify the price. With those paparazzi on your heels, there's comfort in knowing that you're trusting your appearance to an expert. And in an industry that's all about who you know, a Laurent cut puts you on a short list of clients that includes major stars.

Like businessmen-golfers who pay ridiculous greens fees, an aspiring actress is buying access to the most successful people in her industry — and perhaps impressing them with the fact that she can afford the same things they can.

Last week, a co-worker peeked over the wall of my cubicle to praise my new look. I told him the price, and his mouth opened. When he found words, they were these: "You could actually buy a crappy car for that kind of money."