What's with all the Barbers in town?

[Freddie1980]

Seems to be the little old ladies getting their hair done demographic in the shops nearest to me. It's roughly a third hairdressers, a third estate agents and a third takeaways. It's the estate agents survival that amazes me most.

I don't know, I was in Chelmsford city on Saturday and there's an area of the town were all the estate agents have setup shop and quite a few of them had permanently closed. In fact Birstow Thieves moved out early last year the unit was let out to another estate agents and they have closed their doors within a year of trading.

 

[esoteric]

The shopping precinct where I live has 3 long term hairdressers, I've been using the same one and the same woman has cut my hair for about 30 years. Shops keep coming and going but eventually a hairdressers gets in, there's about 10 down there now, a precinct of about 40 units and 10+ vacant.

 

[Andy__C]

Modern hair-styles for blokes..... these "fades" need tightening up every couple of weeks apparently.

"Bed Head" is long gone, plan old long hair (without some kind if undercut) is out, beards needing trimming, lines in partings need shaving etc are all more barber intensive. And the fact you can charge £20 a cut and not £6.... pretty sure thats added to it and its not soley driven by drugs

 

[dirtychinchilla]

Money laundering.

My barber did offer me steroids every day...

It's probably all of the metrosexuals wanting to keep their hair a static length and going in for a trim every 1-2weeks, me I just get it cut down and then let it grow for a few months but I'm not too fusses about the way I look.

Sounds like it. You must look like Shaggy from Scooby Do. There's nothing wrong with caring for your appearance, though I admit it can go too far.

 

[MrRockliffe]

Could do with more of them round by me. There's only 1 decent one within walking distance, and they're only open during odd hours (i.e. not when I'm not working). There's another one local, but he was so rude and annoyed that I turned up for a hair cut 30 mins before closing, I'm not keen on going back.

 

[jpaul]

The inconvenient truth ?

Scientists have uncovered an evolutionary paradox where men damage their ability to have children during efforts to make themselves look more attractive.
Taking steroids to get a buff physique or anti-baldness pills to keep a full head of hair can damage fertility.
It has been named the Mossman-Pacey paradox after the scientists who first described it.
....
Dr Mossman suspects "thinking you're more appealing to the opposite sex, but killing your fertility" is probably unique to humans.

 

[2013]

Shops that sell things that can be bought cheaper online are gradually disappearing. You can't buy a haircut online(!) so there are proportionally more barbers on the high street now. Same goes for takeaways, beauty salons, cafes etc.

That's my theory anyway.

Operating costs are low, I guess - a cheap CMS website, some pin-boards for the window and one-time purchase from the IKEA office furniture range. After that it's the commerce equivalent of deer-hunting. No regular success, just skulking around for the big kill that you can live off till the next.

Have you ever tried to go to your fav barbershop on a Saturday morning and be seen to right away? Barbering is serious business. My local is at the end of my road and the guy does an amazing job, knows his stuff and does it right every time. Naturally his store is always busy and sometimes the wait times are an hour+, people were being told 2 weeks ago who walked in that the wait is up to 2 hours!

Knowing that, it's understandable why barbershops are cropping up everywhere. Everyone has hair (unless you're bald LOLOLOL) and needs it cut once every few weeks. They're the new kebab shop for Friday night drunk yoofs.


BMW's what though?

The above plus you can learn from a experienced barber for a bit which a few near me did over the year, so have no need for school or something like that and when your ready you can open your own, you dont need any education to become a barber, you can even pass with little to no English, start up cost is very little, you get payed cash, you have demand because hair grows back and people will come to you, plus its one of them businesses that that always has a demand and you cant get online.

 

[ianh]

Burslem here in Stoke has a rather large number of "Cash Only" businesses such as barbers, kebab/curry take-aways etc with the vast majority having very nice new Audi's (mostly the "S/RS" ones) parked outside and the number of those type of businesses, compared to more traditional shops, is increasing rather quickly.

Yeap, definitely doesn't look odd at all

 

[Zenduri]

Theres 13 barbers/hairdressers on mansfield road in 1/2 a mile. Some seem legit but i suspect the rest are fronts for laundering money as they are cash only mainly and no way to prove you didnt cut x amount of hair equal in sum to the laundered money

 

[Rroff]

Theres 13 barbers/hairdressers on mansfield road in 1/2 a mile. Some seem legit but i suspect the rest are fronts for laundering money as they are cash only mainly and no way to prove you didnt cut x amount of hair equal in sum to the laundered money

Not just cut x amount of hair but all they need to do is say x customer wanted some specific cut/style that costs more such as the people that want their head shaved in a pattern of their favourite football team's logo, etc.

 

[labcoattech]

Theres 13 barbers/hairdressers on mansfield road in 1/2 a mile. Some seem legit but i suspect the rest are fronts for laundering money as they are cash only mainly and no way to prove you didnt cut x amount of hair equal in sum to the laundered money

lol in some areas you have 3 or 4 next to each other.

 

[koolpc]

Cash only, approx 15 in a small area here.

Then there are the numerous hand car washes!

 

[ianh]

Theres 13 barbers/hairdressers on mansfield road in 1/2 a mile. Some seem legit but i suspect the rest are fronts for laundering money as they are cash only mainly and no way to prove you didnt cut x amount of hair equal in sum to the laundered money

In a single 500m stretch of road leading to Burslem (from my post above) - so NOT the centre but the outskirts from "The American" club to "The George Hotel" - there is the following:

9 "Middle Eastern/Asian" food places (Indian, Pakistan, Afghan etc)
1 Chinese takeaway
1 "local" food place (Oatcakes)
1 Polish takeaway
5 Barbers
6 Supermarkets/Wholesale

Only the supermarkets and the Chinese takeaway accepts cards and this isn't even the actual town centre but 1/2 a mile away on a busy road where few people stop and virtually no drunk people use (the town centre is where the taxi's are). Not that the town centre is any better but where do these businesses get their "footfall" from?

What's worse for the locals is that the actual town centre only has 1 "pay to use" cash point after the towns 3 banks all closed their branches.

 

[ron3003]

Cash only, approx 15 in a small area here.

Then there are the numerous hand car washes!

Doorway to claiming working tax credit innit, HMRC bought in rules that say self employed claimants must turn a profit in order to qualify. Trying to stop people making out they're self employed rat whisperers or some other such rubbish when really they're just avoiding having to jump through the hoops associated with claiming JSA.

 

[koolpc]

Guys from the car wash were telling me they get cash in the hand. They are Romanians

 

[labcoattech]

can understand car washes being cash in hand, every other week they have new staff

 

[dan958]

You can't buy a haircut online(!)

Why not? You set up some scissors on a moving arm on your side, and I'll control it my side, Surgeon Simulator style.

 

[labcoattech]

Until it gets hacked and someone gets poked in the eye with the scissors.