You're listening to Roundtable with myself, He Young.
I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Yu Shun in the studio.
Coming up, a fresh haircut doesn't always have to come with shampoo, blow dry or small talk.
The 10 Yuan haircut strips things down to the basics.
10 minutes, one barber, one price.
It's efficient, cheap and increasingly popular. among young urbanites.
I thought only my dad went for those haircuts.
Your dad and your co-host.
I love these places.
Okay, well, a revered member of today's roundtable.
And does this trend show how today's customers are prioritizing time and cost about everything else?
And need a boost to crush the week?
Our special segment.
Motivational Monday is your ultimate adrenaline shot to kick things off strong.
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Now let's switch gears.
I once read in Vogue that a good haircut is the cheapest facelift you can buy.
A trim, a fringe or a fresh set of layers can instantly change how the world sees you and how you see yourself.
For young city dwellers, hairstyling captures style, ambition, and mood all at once.
But sometimes a haircut is less about looking good and more about getting it done.
After a rocky few years through the pandemic, the salon business is bouncing back.
And the hottest trend isn't luxury blowouts.
It's the 10 yuan speedy supercut.
Talk to us.
You should.
Or should I go to Steve first?
Anyway, you guys decide.
I am taking my gold medal victory lap right now.
Because about two months ago, I sat in the chair where you are sitting today.
Hooyoung and I bragged about this amazing hair salon.
Well salon shop that i found where you could get your haircut for 10 yuan, and i told all my co-workers at the office and they all said haha steve, nobody likes that because it's too affordable.
And i said well, everybody's crazy if you're not going there for a haircut.
And then fast forward to today.
It's the hottest trend with gen z.
According to my research, This kind of a new type of barber shop has been popping up like strands of hair.
The quick cut barber shops.
So they're usually small storefronts or tucked into a corner of a supermarket with just a few chairs and one barber in there.
But the point is no hair washing, no blow drying, just straight to the cut.
And the signature feature is the vacuum hoses hanging from the ceiling and sucking up all of the falling hair.
Hold on, vacuum.
So isn't that for the carpet?
Typically.
My shop has one chair only.
Yeah, that's it.
And there's only one barber in there.
And it is in the basement of the supermarket.
You scan the QR code outside.
You get your number, you pay and then, when it's your turn, then there's like a little number system outside.
And on your phone, it shows you what number you are.
Then when it's your turn, you go in, you show the barber your number.
He scans your barcode to show that you've paid.
And you said, what did you say, 10 minutes?
No, I could get my hair cut three times in 10 minutes.
It takes about three or four minutes.
And the last step.
Yeah, I think it's hanging from the ceiling.
It's this vacuum contraption contraption.
And then yeah, he turns it on and he runs it over your head and your neck and your shirt and to get all those little tiny hairs off of you.
Fantastic.
Yeah, these shops attract attention with their rock bottom prices, typically 10 yuan, sometimes 15 yuan, like 140 to 2, with some generating up to 20000 yuan or 2800 in monthly income.
That's according to an article on a domestic media outlet, the Cover.cn.
And the numbers of these kind of shops is just increasing.
Data from Chichacha and Enterprise said Info consultancy platform shows that by July 2025, China had more than 5000 registered quick cut businesses, with more than 750 new ones added in the first half of 2024.
That's an 8.2 percent year on year increase.
Yeah.
Jokes aside, I mean, I was and I am being serious when I say about the price comparisons.
I was going to a place before that cost me 88 yuan.
Oh, i think we we went to the same, exactly the same price.
It's nearby here, right?
Yeah yeah um, and it was, it was fine, i was happy with it.
I suppose 88 yuan is about what like 16 dollars, 15 dollars, something like that, which is your pretty standard price, and i was.
I was okay with it.
The service didn't blow me away.
It's just a normal haircut, But when I found this place for 10 yuan, is the quality as good.
Honestly speaking, not quite.
But it's a lot faster.
I'm in and out of there.
Honestly, I wasn't joking in about four minutes.
And I think the reason why these places are successful is There's got to be a lot of customers out there like me who don't need a five-star red carpet hairstyle.
I don't care.
I don't care.
And is it perfect?
No, it's not.
But it's so affordable.
Why would I go to a place that charges eight times as much for something that looks at least somewhat similar?
Can I say this is something that I am jealous of a lot of men out there?
Because you guys have short hair and usually... there's limited room for creation.
But with women's hair... Yeah, and also it's just...
Maybe there's some kind of pink tax there as well.
With women.
There are just so many more variations of hair styling and so many excuses to put an extra price tag on the service.
And we kind of happily or not, but do pay for it.
And you know, your hairdresser says something like oh, i'll try this like new uh, really popular technique on you and He'll whip out the iPad and show you that this is what the hottest K-pop star is wearing.
And you're like, OK, I'll try that.
And then 100 yuan extra.
And so for us or for people like this.
And actually, this is not strictly divided men and women.
There are a growing number, however maybe small, of men who want to style their hair nicely, and it cannot be done with the vacuum cleaner or a three-minute haircut.
So with those who want more with their hairstyling, then we are not the target audience or customer base for this kind of place.
But you can see that the 10 yuan style, the 10 yuan hair barber shop is still on the rise and it must say something about the market today.
Yeah.
I thought this was kind of surprising and not surprising, it's just.
I guess i had this thought in my head but i'd never seen it written down before.
This isn't a statistic from china.
This is from the united states.
There's a haircut company there.
They surveyed 2 000 men and they found this 21 feel nervous asking their stylist or a barber for a new hairstyle.
And 23% have been afraid to ask for specific haircuts in the past, even when they really wanted it.
So that's, that's exactly me.
Yeah.
I every time the hairdresser will ask me okay, what do you want this time?
Actually don't even know what do I want this time and I don't know what hair style is actually fitting me or is the best for me.
So I think, as a good hairdresser, you need to understand or know what kind of haircut is suitable for my like features, face shape or my hat shape, that kind of thing.
So when they asking me, I was like, isn't that your job, to analyze my, my hat shape and uh, give me a good or suitable haircut.
Yeah.
But, but it's, I, I'd never thought about that before.
Uh, that people would feel nervous about asking for a new style.
I think there's a flip side to that coin that you were talking about.
You know, you said when you go into the salon they'll whip out the iPad and say Oh here, you have this option.
Let's try this.
Like your head is like a canvas almost.
Well, please finish your sentence and I'll jump in.
So that there are possibilities.
I saw a picture of my dad in 1972.
This is when I was in high school.
I remember this.
I looked at the picture from 1972.
Then I looked at my dad.
Then I looked at the picture again.
I said, have you changed your hairstyle since 1972?
This was in the mid-1990s.
He said, nope.
Never.
There's another statistic.
Men change their hairstyles three times.
This is from Cosmopolitan.
Three times in their lives.
Three times.
That's it.
Because we don't feel like we have a canvas.
And if we feel like we want to do something, we just feel weird about asking about it.
So you said you're jealous of people who don't have to go through that process of picking out styles and all that stuff.
I would say we're jealous of you, too, at least to a certain degree.
The grass is always greener on your neighbor's lawn, right?
Well, that's why we pay our hairstylists more.
That is...
You find the person that knows your head and personality style well, and you stick with that person.
And then you go through.
Well, OK, you should.
I understand that the. a top hairstylist should have good suggestions, but it's also whether you're going to like it or not.
So you guys need to be talking.
I think ideally and come up with, because that's also the least favorite part.
100%, 100% talking to the hairdresser.
I tend you on a hair hairdresser and I have never said, uh, three words to each other.
It's a beautiful relationship.
Great, Steve.
But then you'll never get to experience or explore the best hairstyle for you out there.
Sorry, I can't hear you over the vacuum sucking the hair off my head.
And that's when you pay 10 yuan and I pay 100 or more.
Yeah.
The hairdresser's or the hairdressing sector hasn't really grown all that much overall, but digital platforms are booming.
For first timers at a new hair salon.
Grabbing a coupon and checking reviews has become second nature for digital natives.
So what does this shift towards?
You know sort of this kind of business model?
Tell us about how city dwellers choose their barbers.
Well, I see that for 33.6% of young customers, they cut their hair every one to three months.
And that's according to Meituan, a giant lifestyle app in this country, and 36 KR media outlet.
They conducted this survey and came up with some numbers.
And some of them even cut their hair even more frequently, 22% do it monthly.
And the demographic of these hairdressing users, or the do their hair.
Higher income groups with more than 15000 yuan per month salary, or that's more than two thousand dollars of their salary, cut more often, which means uh, of course, obviously this group of people spend more money on cutting their hair or like spending on their hair, so are um, in many ways, they are treating these kind of area as a kind of third space.
They, They can socialize in this space.
They communicate with people.
They make friends with people.
At the barbershop?
Yeah, that's what these kind of reporters are saying.
So these barbershops have become places not only for grooming, but also for socializing and also self-expression.
They talk to people out there.
Just like visiting a cafe or hitting the gym, going to a barber shop can become part of their lifestyle routine, not because you have to, but because it feels good, giving you a moment to refresh your look and lift your mood.
I understand that part.
When you're getting out of that barbershop, you have a new look.
I think most of the time these barbershops will say good things to you when you're doing the haircut or doing your hair, no matter if you're dyeing your hair or getting a curl or something.
Yeah, I mean, I get it.
I get it.
And the reason why I feel so strongly about not caring now is because there was a time that I did try to care.
I went to a salon.
I paid $120.
I dyed my hair all blonde.
I looked like Eminem's failed cousin.
Yeah. like someone who tried to make it in the rap industry but never got there.
And I thought, what am I doing?
I just spent $120 on this, and from that moment on, that's when I decided to just go wherever.
I'm the type who will go wherever, but these statistics tell a different story.
Almost 75% of customers trust the stylist more more than the salon itself.
So they find a stylist they like, and then they stick with that stylist.
Is that you, Helia?
That's definitely me.
And I've seen...
I've been through thick and thin with my hairdresser.
I've seen him rise through the ranks.
And during the height of his business, he had three hair salons.
But COVID hit and now he only has one.
But this one's going steady.
So I think maybe we're seeing the market differentiating in the sense that you've got the steves and you fall, and uh, you shuns.
And also you've got the he yang's, you know, and uh, we can make peace and business keeps going, which is good news.
Coming up next motivational monday motivational.
Coming up next, we have our motivational monday, and you should.
What do you have for us?
Yeah, so today i, um.
Previously i, i i read an article about you don't need to chase after anyone's validation, and um.
Some of the questions were listed in this article.
Have you ever sent a message and then waited endlessly and then overthought, what went wrong?
Did I do something that They're messed up or something like that.
In the text message itself.
Yeah.
So in life, we sometimes feel lonely and then longing to be understood or accepted.
So we try hard to get closer to others and seeking responses, hoping for understanding and striving for maintain that kind of relationships and then wanting to see our value reflected in others' eyes.
Yet often, the harder we chase, the harder we do this, the more powerless we feel.
And behind this pursuit usually lurks a subconscious belief of, I am not good enough.
And low self-acceptance is the root of such or much suffering.
So often we tie our self-worth to others' replies. adjusting our words and actions to please others.
But in doing so, we lose ourselves.
So not chasing after others' response is being responsible to yourself.
Actually, others have their own paths, right?
And you have yours.
So focus on doing what feels right and true to yourself.
When you stop depending on others' reactions, you will live with greater strength and then naturally earn respect.
A good friend of mine told me I don't know if I've brought this up on the show before or not, but he was very honest and he said you know, when I was in high school I wasn't the cool kid and people often wouldn't invite me to do stuff with them.
And in his adulthood, in his mid-30s, he said that When he gets an invitation from people to go hang out, his auto instinct is to say yes every single time, because it's linked to his childhood or his teenage years, when he never got invited to do stuff.
So he found that kind of validation.
But he said it doesn't make him feel good to say yes to every single invitation, but for some reason he can't stop doing it.
So when we had that talk, he was like, I got to stop.
I got to stop trying to find validation in that.
Right.
Right.
So that's exactly what you're talking about there.
Yeah.
Well, ultimately it's only you yourself can truly validate you and it's self-sufficient.
You don't need to depend on other people for that.
And that's perhaps the healthiest relationship to have.
And that brings us to the end of today's show.
Thank you so much, Steve Hatherly and Yu Shun for joining the discussion.
I'm He Yang.
We'll see you next time.
