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Disappearing Barbershops

Posted March. 07, 2006 03:35,   

한국어

A barbershop in Guro-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul, recently reduced haircuts by up to 2,000 won. Despite lowering the price, there are fewer than 10 customers per day on average who get haircuts at this shop.

“My income has sharply dropped to 10-20 percent of that of the 1980’s. Two barbershops around here shut down last year and this year respectively,” deeply sighed Mr. Nam (64), who has cut men’s hair for 40 years.

A Series of Shutting Down-

According to the status report on the Public Sanitary Business released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of beauty salons and barbershops are drastically decreasing. Last year alone, the number of barber shops operating was 26,904, and the number of beauty salons was 81,663. The number of barbershops and beauty salons which shut down last year has reached 5,300 and 2,100 respectively since 2000.

There are a series of barbershop closures because middle aged men have started to haircuts at beauty salons, and barbershops have been affected by depression. The number of barbershops is less than that of beauty salons while the sharp reduction in barbershops is much larger.

Since beauty salons reached its peck and flourished in 2002, 5,200 beauty salons have closed down over the past three years. Even some started to cut prices from 40,000~50,000 won to 10,000~15,000 won in the downtown area of Seoul.

“Neon Signs”-

Korea Barbers Association announced a novel plan on March 5 to “request the Ministry of Health and Welfare to revise the Public Health Law aimed to have the right to use neon signs only for barbershops.”

“Massage parlors and resting-tels for men are attracting customers with neon signs,” an official of the association said and argued, “For this reason, the image of neon signs is damaged. So many customers are reluctant to visit barbershops which are a good model.”

“Neon signs are the international symbols which represent barbershops. In this regard, the government should impose legal controls on the reckless use of neon signs,” he said.

Last year, barbershops and beauty salons discussed the debate over whether men are legally allowed to visit beauty salons or not.

“There is no regulation to prohibit men from visiting beauty salons. But if the issue on the exclusive use of neon signs is formally submitted, we will review this,” the Ministry of Health and Welfare official said.

Live Together-

“As long as barbershops do not make an effort to remove their shady image and move toward satisfying customers, they will experience more difficulty than ever,” another official of the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.

“One of the reasons for beauty salons closing down is the economic depression. Because skin care becomes separated, customers decrease,” another Korea Barbers Association official said.



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