Snip, snip, snip went the shiny pair of scissors in the aged hands of 82-year-old barber Po Ting
Pang as he trimmed off sections of his client’s whitening hair, gripped gently by a faded red plastic comb.
“I started working in this barber shop in 1947,” he said, adding that his “eyes are still sharp” and his
“ears have no problem hearing”.
In more than six decades as a barber at Ko Tang barbershop, now partially hidden behind a bustling food stalls in the Chinatown area of Glodok, West Jakarta, Po Ting Pang has gained a legion of long-time, loyal clients, the more so as the barber also offers services such as ear-cleaning and massages.
“Some of my clients are more than 80 years old and one of them is in his 90s. Now that they are too old
to travel, they call me to their homes,” he told The Jakarta Post, adding that he went as far as Muara Karang in North Jakarta and Tomang in West Jakarta on his monthly house calls.
“They pay my taxi fare or send their drivers to pick me up,” Ting Pang said.
“I meet with their families when I visit,” he added.
Po Ting Pang, who charges Rp 35,000 (US$3.90) for a haircut, also offers a traditional shave using
soap and a razor as well as a traditional ear-cleaning with a wooden stick for cleaning ears, feather, or cotton swab which runs Rp 70,000 for the works.
“I suppose they feel comfortable with the way I cut their hair, so they do not want another barber,”
he said.
Po Ting Pang says he learned to cut hair at the age of 20 in Su-rabaya and left for Jakarta three years later to work at his current barbershop.
It is commonplace for barbers, especially old ones such as Po Ting Pang, to grow a faithful client
base. Yet the number of clients who frequent his establishment is quietly decreasing as young men head in droves to the seemingly trendier salons to get their beauty fix.
“Some of my older clients have died and young men hardly come here,” he said.
Another veteran barber, Muhammad Nasib, 70, who established the Pax Barber Shop in the 1960s, said his clients were mostly his contemporaries although some teenagers and young children, dragged in by their fathers, visited him in Keba-yoran Baru, South Jakarta.
“Some of my clients have been with me for 45 years,” he said, adding that some of his regulars included celebrities.
The aging clientele is definitely a threat to the existence of barbershops, which mainly focus on classic hairstyles.
“I’m not sure what will happen,” Nasib said about the future of his barber shop.
“This barbershop has been around for a long time and cutting hair is the one thing I know how
to do.”
He added that to attract younger clients, his barbershop offered newer styles, such as “the one where all the hair stands in the middle”.
Cleanliness, he said, was important as well.
“We also offer foot massages,” he added.
There is a widespread perception that some men prefer going to barbers because barbers tailor their services to men’s needs whereas they feel that salons are “too fancy” since they focus more on fashionable hair cuts, especially for women.
“I feel uncomfortable going to salons since most of the customers are women,” Hendra, 60, said.
He said that being a regular for almost 20 years at his barber shop in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, was best for him since the barber knew exactly how to cut his hair.
“I just sit and everything is taken care off. I get my hair cut exactly the way I like it,” he said, adding that he favored the overt masculinity of barbershops to the androgynous unisex appeal of salons, mostly directed at women.
“It’s just how I’ve had my hair cut since I was a boy,” he said. (gzl)
Some men prefer going to barbers because they tailor services to men’s needs.
