Turkish barbers

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 charliesdad 18 Feb 2020

I live in a small market town, population about 30,000.

In the last two to three years, four (!) Turkish barber shops have opened, doubling the total number of barber shops in town. I like these shops; they are cheap, friendly and do a great job. But every time I get my hair cut, two unrelated questions spring to mind;

1 Have my neighbours decided to get their hair cut twice as often as before...and if not, where is the extra demand coming from?

2 Each shop has a staff of 2 or 3 very polite young men. But it’s a different set of young men every time I visit. (Monthly). Is this some elaborate immigration scam...or are they murdering the staff periodically in some Royston Vaseyesque manner?

3
Moley 18 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

My rare visits to big towns I have noticed a big increase in the number of barbers, they all look a bit trendy and the barbers all have little beards. I suppose it is linked to male grooming, a subject I cannot even b******t my way through.

I have my hair cut in Taffy's  barbers in Swansea market, cheaper rates for OAPs and women without beards cutting my hair, very efficiently.

 TobyA 18 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

There was an article about this in The Economist a few weeks ago. Supposedly many of them are Kurds of various different nationalities but tend to call themselves Turkish! I'll see if I can dig it out because it had something about the economics of it.

 deacondeacon 18 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

I go to a Turkish barbers and wondered the same thing so I asked him

1. Young men tend to get there hair cut more often than they did a few years ago. 

2. Beards are trendy currently, particularly neat and tidy beards. Many men go to barbers to have there's tidied up. 

Can't help with the immigration scan side of things. Mine has two lads who have been there since it opened. 

1
 TobyA 18 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

Part 1

Why Turkish barbers are taking over Britain’s high streets

Last year, 675 new barbers’ salons opened, making them the fastest-growing independent sector

BritainJan 16th 2020 edition

Jan 16th 2020

MELKSHAM

Melksham, a sleepy town in Wiltshire, is not generally thought to sit at the apex of gentlemen’s fashion. Yet a stroll down its high street reveals a tonsorial revolution deep in the heart of Britain. A coincidence of economic, cultural and political factors has transformed Britain’s barbershops, once the preserve of staid men demanding a uniform “short back and sides”.

Inspired by “Peaky Blinders”, a bbc period crime drama, there is a vogue for complex hairdos—in particular, harshly shaved backs and sides topped with a pompadour-style quiff. Combined with the persistent popularity of beards, which look suave rather than shaggy only if properly maintained, this has fuelled the growing market in male grooming

1
 TobyA 18 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

Part 2

Richard Davies, an economist, and formerly this newspaper’s economics editor, regards the boom as the masculine equivalent of the “lipstick effect”, whereby in periods of economic uncertainty women forgo luxury items for cheaper, eye-catching goods. “We have very weak wage growth. People can’t afford a house or a new car, and are falling back on pampering themselves with a small treat.” Rising demand and falling rents have led to an invasion of the high street by men armed with clippers and razors. Last year, 675 new barbers’ salons opened, ranking the business as the fastest-growing independent sector.

Many of them are Turkish. Thanks to a barbering tradition natural to a hirsute region, and a more liberal visa regime than Middle Eastern countries, Turkish barbers have established a potent brand in Britain.

At Moredon Turkish Barbers in Swindon, Mustafa Can explains their success. “People like that it’s traditional, that we burn the hairs out of the ears and nose, that we use a cut-throat razor and a hot towel.” Barbering comes naturally to Turks, says Mr Can: as a boy, he combined his schoolwork with training in the trade. But although all barbers from the region tend to call themselves Turkish to benefit from the power of the brand, success has brought competition from farther afield, and with it echoes of regional tensions.

“A lot of Kurdish are freedom fighters, they like the gun,” says Ramzi Mawloud, an Iraqi in Swindon. “So when…they see that I’m making money, without any respect, they open a shop next door.” Aziz Buyukertas, a Turk operating in Melksham, says, “Kurdish barbers are going everywhere, some of them are taking the piss. Every town there are three, four, five of them.” Mr Can warns of newcomers’ suspect scissoring. “They don’t have a clue. They are going to burn your ears or cut your skin.” Fresh locations, he says, are drying up. “I google other places and see that they have one already. There is nowhere left to go.”

Competition is forcing British barbers to change their practices. “The Turks keep us on our toes,” laments Gary Hatto, who has a chain of barbershops. “Turks are willing to work seven days a week and you’ve got to admire a man who does that…we’ve started trying to do that now.” But Mr Hatto is unlikely to be put off by intensifying competition. Four years ago, he was jailed for biting a rival barber.

1
Moley 18 Feb 2020
In reply to TobyA:

You've convinced me, I'll stick to Taffy's in the market.

4
 Yanis Nayu 18 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

I’ve noticed the same and wondered. There’s a trend of certain occupations being associated with certain nationalities - Vietnamese nail bars, Albanian car washes. They’ve certainly been targeted by police and other agencies looking at modern day slavery and illegal immigration, but I’m not sure if that’s what’s going on. 

 marsbar 18 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

Maybe they are training and saving to open their own shop if there are so many shops opening?  

I'm not sure that all of them are actually Turkish, I know one of the ones near me is actually Albanian/Bulgarian.  

 snoop6060 18 Feb 2020

I go the Turkish barbers (all of which are kurds). It's great. I get a haircut (well, sorta as I have long hair), the inside of my nose waxed and some weird ear fire thing for £9. It's been the same fellas for years. Can't fault em. Well the music they listen to is probably the worst I've ever heard. It's some weird garage / RnB combo that they swear is in Spanish. Fairly sure it's Portuguese. Apparently it's really popular. It's properly bad whatever it is. 

 bouldery bits 18 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

Is it a town that starts with a 'K' per chance?

An acquaintance of mine observed that Turkey must presently be full of unkempt, long haired gentlemen as they seem to have exported all of their barbers!

 Big Steve 18 Feb 2020
In reply to bouldery bits:

You can spend hours in a barbershop in Turkey, by the time you have had a dozen glasses of tea, had a shave, had your haircut, had your ears massaged, discussed politics and football, half the day has gone, and you usually have an awful haircut.

 LastBoyScout 19 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

I've sort of noticed the same. In the village where I live, there are now 5 barbers, not including a couple of the chain ladies salons that also cut men's hair - 2 are Turkish, at least in style, 1 seems to be generally mostly Middle Eastern and more of a unisex salon, but not specifically Turkish, the other 2 I'm not sure about.

None of them ever seem to be very busy, so I'm not sure how they are managing to afford the apparently extortionate business rates that have forced a few other businesses to close down.

Although they seem to be a friendly bunch, I haven't been that impressed with hair cuts at any of the ones I've been to, partly I think there's a bit of a language barrier in explaining what I want every time, and generally get mine cut by a very nice Lithuanian lady in the next town.

 dread-i 19 Feb 2020
In reply to TobyA:

>Mr Can warns of newcomers’ suspect scissoring.

I took my youngest to the new one thats opened up down the road. They were doing fantastic things with clippers, 'zero fades' and the like for other customers. When my lad had a '3 short back and sides, trimmed and thinned on top' it was less fantastic. The clipper part was good, but they left a visible step, when they came to the scissor part. It wasn't immediately obvious as they used product and styled it. Mrs took him to her hair dressers the next day, and they said it wasn't the first time they needed to do some repair work.

 Andy Clarke 19 Feb 2020
In reply to Moley:

> You've convinced me, I'll stick to Taffy's in the market.


Is your profile shot a Before or an After?

 earlsdonwhu 19 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

The rise in barbers, nail bars and take away food shops makes me wonder about all that austerity stuff. Having a haircut on a weekly basis suggests plenty of disposable income....or just that most people have plenty of hair which I no longer have!

3
 Hat Dude 19 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

Leamington Spa town centre is now pretty much alternate barber shops and coffee shops.

Any barber shop hoping for my money will be sadly disappointed as I haven't visited a barber since 2007.

I use clippers and have perfected the look of Abel Magwitch in the graveyard at the beginning of David Lean's "Great Expectations".

 Neil Williams 19 Feb 2020
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

> The rise in barbers, nail bars and take away food shops makes me wonder about all that austerity stuff. Having a haircut on a weekly basis suggests plenty of disposable income....or just that most people have plenty of hair which I no longer have!

I'm lazy and go about once every 2 months.  I do have a reasonable amount of hair but it grows quite slowly, which is good.

I've tried clippering it myself (I just have the clippers anyway) but it's a faff.

Post edited at 11:46
Rigid Raider 19 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

I did once wander into a barber in Istanbul, for want of anything else to do. It was alarming when in the mirror I spotted the bloke lighting a flame just behind me but the ear-burn was swift and painless.

The Turkish barbers in the UK are probably part of the same phenomenon as nail bars, car washes and vape shops; set up as loss-making businesses by drug dealers to launder criminal money using cheap illegal labour to generate apparently legitimate income. 

8
 Bacon Butty 19 Feb 2020
In reply to Rigid Raider:

You missed kebab shops, chicken joints, Chinese takeaways/restaurants etc etc etc off your money laundering/processing illegal immigrants establishments list.

Post edited at 14:10
2
russellcampbell 19 Feb 2020
In reply to Hat Dude:

> I use clippers and have perfected the look of Abel Magwitch in the graveyard at the beginning of David Lean's "Great Expectations".

You got me laughing there. About 40 years ago, before short hair was as common, a teaching colleague of mine described a pupil as having a Magwitch haircut. The pupil was in one of my classes and sat at the back of the class doing virtually no work. I took the "let sleeping dogs lie" approach. I didn't like the look of his big stick with the nail in it.

 Timmd 19 Feb 2020
In reply to Rigid Raider:

> The Turkish barbers in the UK are probably part of the same phenomenon as nail bars, car washes and vape shops; set up as loss-making businesses by drug dealers to launder criminal money using cheap illegal labour to generate apparently legitimate income. 

My local one seems to be legit, in being run by the same fellow all the time since it's opened, and being busy enough to stay in business. One's perspective colours everything perhaps?

 PaulJepson 19 Feb 2020
In reply to Timmd:

Or perhaps one's colour colours some people's perspectives?

1
Moley 19 Feb 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

> Is your profile shot a Before or an After?

Aaah, you've caught me out there

In fairness that photo was 6 years ago  trekking in new Zealand and I was going through my "I've retired  now so can grow long hair" stage.

I am back to normal hair.

 marsbar 19 Feb 2020
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

I work with several women who pay £20 a time to get their nails painted every couple of weeks.  Madness in my opinion, but each to their own. 

 Toerag 19 Feb 2020
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

> The rise in barbers, nail bars and take away food shops makes me wonder about all that austerity stuff. Having a haircut on a weekly basis suggests plenty of disposable income....

They're spending £xx a month on pampering instead of £xx,xxx on a new car or third holiday.

 Blue Straggler 19 Feb 2020
In reply to TobyA:

Is Mustafa Can the Turkish version of 8 Ace from Viz?! 

 dread-i 20 Feb 2020
In reply to Blue Straggler:

> Is Mustafa Can the Turkish version of 8 Ace from Viz?! 

Nah, that's just a recycling of the slightly racist joke from Carry on Follow that Camel; there's a prophet of that name. The locals arab types, all fall to their knees and bow down whenever his name is mentioned. The cunning British use that weakness to outwit the arabs.

Nothing dodgy to see here, move along now.

 girlymonkey 20 Feb 2020
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

My husband is a landscape gardener and works alongside a guy who in his evenings and weekends plays football for one of the bigger minor teams. This guy gets his hair cut every week before match day because he reckons you won't get picked for the team with messy hair!! 

My husband is baldy and beardy and gives himself a trim with the clippers once every couple of weeks, and cuts my hair (with scissors!) once a year for me. Our hair cuts are not priorities for us!! lol

 1234None 20 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

A vaguely related anecdote, as it is about barbers...

When I lived in Kuwait, barber shops were everywhere as the young guys over there like to have well-grommed beards and hairdos.

I used to go to a Pakistani barber in Hawally and on arrival he'd always put on a brew (superb milky chai) then pop out to a shop up the road for some veggie samosas.  We'd talk football, politics and discuss the weirdness of life in Kuwait while eating some of the finest samosas I have ever eaten and sipping chai.  He'd then cut my hair and do some sort of Indian head massage, all for the princely sum of 2.5KD, which was about 5 or 6 quid at the time.  I had to plan 3 hours for a haircut, but it's one of the more positive things I remember about Kuwait several years after leaving

Post edited at 10:32
GoneFishing111 20 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

Definitely a trend for barbers (either being one or getting nice haircuts) at the minute, two local brothers opened a shop in my local town not long ago, you have to pre-book or endure a two hour wait. Amazingly busy shop and do a great job.

Similar thing in the next nearest towns.

 earlsdonwhu 20 Feb 2020
In reply to Toerag:

My perception is that lots of people on relatively low incomes spend a lot on this 'pampering' which is, of course, their prerogative but it seems an odd priority to me. 

3
 Babika 22 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

Is it Ashbourne by any chance?

I was there yesterday walking and slightly boggled by the amount of Turkish barbers - all of which seemed to be full of customers on a damp Friday afternoon.

 GrahamD 22 Feb 2020
In reply to Babika:

I think its symptomatic of pretty much any town up and down the country.  My local town is Saffron Walden and its sprouted at least two Turkish Barbers in the last year or so.

Wish I had enough hair left to be able to use them.

 Bulls Crack 23 Feb 2020
In reply to charliesdad:

Good luck to them. I visit  a Turkish/Kurdish barbers in Manchester Northern Quarter,  which is rammed with trendy, eye-watering expensive hair cutting emporia, and for £10 I always get a great cut ftom a range ofvery accomplished cutters..doesn't seem to matter which; they can all cut hair brilliantly. Meanwhile in the small town where I live not one of the barbers does a decent job of it.

Andy Gamisou 23 Feb 2020
In reply to Neil Williams:

> I do have a reasonable amount of hair but it grows quite slowly, which is good.

Sure it's not a wig?

 Neil Williams 23 Feb 2020
In reply to Andy Gamisou:

I'm sure people who actually do wear wigs would love to know where you can get one that grows!

 Gone 23 Feb 2020
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

> My perception is that lots of people on relatively low incomes spend a lot on this 'pampering' which is, of course, their prerogative but it seems an odd priority to me. 

I read an interesting essay about this. If you are middle class and middle income and generally successful, people won’t care much what you look like, and put it down to personal choice.

However if you are from an underclass, what you wear and look like becomes important, partly for your own peace of mind (you may feel that you are living precariously close to homelessness, but if you have a haircut you can distance yourself from what you are scared of)  but possibly more importantly it will reinforce other’s stereotypes  if you are scruffy, and cut through them if you are displaying your financial success. The example in the essay was a young black American woman living in poverty who finally gets a foot in the door in a prestigious industry when she takes a designer handbag to her job interviews.

The other consideration is that everyone needs to spend a bit of money on themselves for mental health reasons, but if you are poor, you probably have experience of big bills coming in and wiping out your savings, so spending little and often on treats is seen as a safer bet than saving all year for a holiday that won’t happen if the car breaks down again.

 Glyno 24 Feb 2020
In reply to girlymonkey:

> My husband is a landscape gardener...

best beginning to a post on a thread about barbers! :-D

Post edited at 06:59

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...