What’s the difference between barbershops in the US and Japan?
Barber shop in the US
I went to sports clips most of the time when I lived in the US. The atmosphere of sports clips is like a sports bar. Sports videos like basketball games or baseball games are played in the shop. I thought they loved sports so much. Interestingly, courses of cutting are named based on baseball rules like “MVP” or “Triple play” or “Double play”. You can enjoy it if you love baseball. However, you do not have to tell which orders do you like at the reception desk. Why? The IT system is introduced in the shops, we can reserve haircuts quickly using apps. We can choose not only a time to cut but also a barber who you prefer. Because it is based on an IT system, an order of hair cuts is systematically decided. This is interesting for me because I had not seen this sort of system at that time. But it is also sad, I wanted to say like ‘ Hey, Double play please’.
In my experience, barbers sometimes do not treat our hair politely in comparison to japan’s barbers.
I couldn’t understand why they washed my hair before cutting. Cut hair left on my head after her work.
The fee is more than $25-, Tip should be added.
Barber shop in Japan
As for barbershops in Japan, there are many Manga books equipped in the bookshelf at waiting for space.
Yeah, we love Manga. Look at my picture, this flag of pirates is coming from Manga “One Piece”, maybe. And many of the customers were reading “the attack on titan” today. You should go there when you want to read. You can read it by free.
And about IT systems in Japan, there is almost nothing.
Interestingly, the shop is not managing customer orders at all.
All customers remembered their turn and managed by themselves unbelievably. If someone’s haircut is ended, the next customer names his turn to the barber.
Public order has been kept by general people. The discipline is naturally created.
A bad aspect is that you cannot reserve your turn in advance. But, you can get a glimpse of social norms rooted in Japanese society. In terms of knowing Japanese characteristics, it is so interesting.
Barber’s skill is better than barbers in the US in my experiences. But these differences might be coming from our hair characteristics. The hair characteristics of US people are somewhat different from Asians.
The fee is more than $20-, Tip is NOT needed.
