Founded by 20-something “Willy” (Huang Weijia) and 40-something “Auntie” (Guo Yuxiu), Auntie’s Barber Shop is a cross-generational partnership. (photo by Jimmy Lin)
I am sure many men still vividly recall going to a traditional barbershop with their father. Not yet tall enough for the seats in those all-male spaces, they might have found themselves seated on a washboard booster stretched across the barber’s chair, while their father had his hair trimmed and his face shaved by the auntie working there. After the cutting and brushing, the barber would work in a little pomade to make the new ’do look as slick as Tony Leung’s in Days of Being Wild.
But then the younger generation stopped going to male-only shops, cutting Taiwan’s traditional barbering culture off at the root. Fortunately, some people are now trying to bring it back.
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At first glance, the large, colorful painting on an exterior wall in the Yongkang Street neighborhood appears to be a copy of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, but one in which Western suits and slicked-back hair provide a modern feel. The text that stretches across the front of the table at which they sit offers viewers the name and function of the space inside: “Barber’s Select.”
Barber’s Select: A male space
Barber’s Select was established by “Canle” (Xu Youlun), “Ali” (Chen Weili) and a group of like-minded friends. Their common goal: “We wanted to create a space just for men. The guys who come here don’t necessarily want a haircut. It’s a place where they can sip a drink, chat, and relax.”
The interior of the shop is purposefully styled in blacks, whites, and grays to give it a masculine atmosphere. Its exposed brick walls, classic photos of Elvis, ancient game console, and 70s and 80s playlist just add to the male “vibe.” Whether you’ve come for a beer, to watch a game, or to drop a few coins into the “Street Fighter” console, it provides a comfortable place in which to be a “guy.”
The space in which the barbers work is separated from the rest of the shop by a floor-to-ceiling folding gate that creates an almost stage-like effect. We watch while a barber named Esa (Lin Yuxuan) works on a young man’s hair. As she shaves the hair from both sides of her customer’s head, she explains that short hair better suits his sunny disposition. She uses electric clippers to create a taller layer at the back of his head, and then tidies it up and brings it in line with current styles by cutting a careful part into the side.
Barber’s Select’s exterior may look a little out of place in the arty Yongkang Street neighborhood, but many of the shop’s customers in their forties and fifties say they feel as if they’ve finally found a comfortable “male” space. “Seventy or 80% of the people who try us out come back for another visit.” In addition to being encouraging to the Barber’s Select team, that return rate is indicative of a resurgence in Taiwan’s barber culture.
Founded in 2017 as an integrated space providing haircuts and other items, Barber’s Select is a unique new entrant into the market. But if we want to fully explore this new barbering trend, we should look at Auntie’s Barber Shop, which was established in 2013.
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Auntie’s: Reaching across generations
Founded by 20-something “Willy” (Huang Weijia) and 40-something “Auntie” (Guo Yuxiu), Auntie’s Barber Shop is a cross-generational partnership.
The two met when Willy came to her as a teenager looking for a new hairstyle, and they’ve been friends ever since. Though she worked in a traditional barbershop, Auntie’s skills and originality enabled her to create fashionable hairdos that suited her customers well. A unique individual, she was also able to talk to her young customers about virtually anything they had on their minds, and share advice on matters of the heart and life in general.
Willy brought many of his friends to Auntie for haircuts in those days, all of whom went on to become regulars. “Just picture it,” says Willy. “An old-fashioned barbershop with young people lined up outside, often waiting an hour or two for their turn!”
He broached the idea of going into business with her after a trip to the United States, where he saw enthusiasm for barbershops reemerging. When he returned to Taiwan, he realized that Auntie was already doing much the same thing, but that no one in Taiwan was yet correctly packaging her type of service. Feeling that Auntie deserved better working conditions and better pay than she had at that time, he suggested that they start a shop together. The two opened their first Auntie’s Barber Shop in Taipei’s Tianmu district in 2013.
After making it through the difficult early days, Internet exposure and positive word-of-mouth turned their shop into a must-see Tianmu destination. Foreign backpackers even began turning up at Auntie’s looking for a stylish cut.
In fact, demand became so high that the wait time for an appointment stretched to more than three months. Willy began planning a second shop, and found two more “aunties” to work alongside Auntie and extend her stylistic vision.
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Working from the heart
Having just finished styling a customer at their first shop in Tianmu, Auntie sits down for our interview and says: “When people see the shop’s success, they think that I was Willy’s benefactor. But that’s not true. We’ve been each other’s benefactors.”
Auntie’s life has changed a great deal since meeting Willy. She is still cutting hair, but she has become even more skilled and has personally trained nearly all of the young stylists working at their second shop.
Stepping into Auntie’s, you enter a joyful space in which the sounds of conversation dominate those of the music and the hair driers. Willy says that Auntie has a unique ability to remember details about their customers’ lives. When one of them has experienced something particularly momentous, whether the good fortune of having a baby or the misfortune of a car accident, she gives him a red envelope.
Auntie is grateful to all her clients for her hair-cutting skills. “I wouldn’t be nearly the barber I am today if it hadn’t been for all these handsome men letting me practice on them,” she says, then guffaws. Barbering is hard work, but she enjoys it.
She’s also become an influential figure that people listen to.
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“David” (Yan Juncheng), a high-school classmate of Willy’s, is also a partner in the business and manages its non-technical matters. Watching the care with which Auntie treats customers, David has learned to interact with them as friends who he happens to see once a month. They share a cigarette and a conversation, perhaps talking about highs and lows at work. Auntie’s is the kind of place where men can relax and let down their defenses. David enjoys seeing men come in alone to have some time to themselves, and fathers introducing their sons to the barbershop experience and creating treasured memories together. The sincerity of the human interactions permeates the atmosphere at Auntie’s.
The young men who come to the shop pay real attention to what Auntie has to say. In fact, it is her conversation and advice that shape and maintain the shop’s culture.
These good vibes are at the heart of the shop’s success. While barbershop culture is a foreign import, and Tianmu itself a gathering spot for Taiwan’s expatriates, Auntie bridges the language divide and enables non-Taiwanese to experience something distinctly Taiwanese. David says that Auntie’s gives this foreign import back to international visitors in a form that’s even better than the original.
Barbershops fell out of favor with Taiwan’s young people for a time because young people viewed them as old fashioned. But the younger generation’s rediscovery of barbershop culture is preserving and reinvigorating it. The idea to open a Taiwanese barbershop has blossomed into a vibrant barbershop culture, turning these spaces into places that men see as their own, where fathers and sons can forge memories, and men can talk about what’s on their minds.
