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Pompadour or just a trim? It’s the customer’s choice
New look: Barbers cut their customers’ hair in Jatinegara, East Jakarta
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ew look: Barbers cut their customers’ hair in Jatinegara, East Jakarta. The price of a haircut for men is Rp 10,000 (72 US cents), while a child’s haircut is Rp 8,000.(JP)
A small 2-by-5-meter, non-air-conditioned barber shop faces a narrow road on the outskirts of Jakarta.
The service is limited to purely hair cutting — no cream baths or massages — but for only Rp 15,000 (US$1.05), a customer can get one of the most trending hairstyles: the pompadour.
Dozens of pictures of hairstyles are displayed on the wall, but stylist Didan, 20, said he was familiar with only five of them, one of which is the pompadour.
“Quite a few people choose the pompadour style,” he said while pointing to a model on the upper deck of the posters.
Marked by hair brushed backward to look denser and more sleek, the pompadour was picked by menshairstylestoday.com as one of today’s 21 top men’s hair trends — from the comb over to the quiff, the textured crop, slick back and faux hawk.
“By combining a fresh fade or undercut on the sides with longer, textured hair on top, guys are sure to rock a stylist look. This is because the most popular men’s hair trends at the moment are messy, textured hairstyles, including spiky hair, cropped styles and long fringes,” it says.
Having to share half of his daily intake with the barber shop’s owner, Didan finds his job to be a matter of survival.
Tamala Barbershop only gets five clients a day at times, although on the weekends there can be six times as many.
The barbershop has several competitors in the neighborhood, all charging higher prices, but complementing their services with air conditioning.
Didan, who has engaged in the profession for the past year following a two-year apprenticeship in his hometown of Tasikmalaya, said customers came to him mostly simply asking for a neat trim.
Some, especially teenagers, prefer old-school haircuts, old-fashioned and retro styles having made a comeback in recent years. Undercut and spike are two other styles Didan seems to be skillful at.
For those who go into detail over what suitable hairstyles they need to have, barbers may cut hair by what face shapes their customers have: oval, long, round, square, diamond or triangular.
“It depends on the shape of the face: oval or round. I will do accordingly, but much of the time I will carry on with the shape of what is left, unless the visitor has a request for a new one,” Surip, a stylist at Pax Wijaya, said.
Pax, which is located in South Jakarta, charges Rp 75,000, excluding cream bath and massage.
Prices vary between barbershops with different service packages. They can be lower or higher than Pax.
A barbershop that has outlets in several places in the city will force the visitors to dig deep into their wallets for the available services, including for haircuts, shaves, back and face massage, black face masks, nose wax, hair coloring and ear singeing.
A haircut stop in Kemang, South Jakarta, even charges up to Rp 1.5 million, with customers reportedly being celebrities.
People like Hartoyo, however, will go nearby barbershops where they have become loyal customers.
The 54-year old usually has his hair simply trimmed and dyed at a barber shop he has frequented for 20 years, which charges him Rp 60,000 for the services.
