Wait his face FROZE and he still walked you to your car? That is wild. I would have been replaying that frozen face in my head the whole two hours honestly.

The 6x8 plywood backer is a solid temp fix, but over time that soft pine is gonna crush and cup just like the MDF did since it's still a small footprint taking all the clamp force. Double the size of that plate, like 12x10, and it spreads the load way better so the pressure per square inch drops a ton. If you want to stop messing with it every few months, a solid wood or butcher block top is the real answer since it won't compress under the clamp at all.

...and honestly the first time I tried charging extra for my curly cuts I felt like a scam artist, especially since my own hair is straight as a board and I had to learn everything on mannequins. But the dry shape does hold way better, I've got clients coming back every 8 weeks instead of 5, so the math actually works out for them too. The walk-in places will always undercut you, but they can't fix a bad haircut for three weeks, so I say hold the line and just be upfront about why the price is what it is.