One of the easiest things to find in Japan is a barber shop or hair salon. Barber shops have the old school barber pole in front. Hair salons usually are bright, or trendy, or they have a person outside handing out flyers. I live downtown and a haircut is costs 4000-5000 Yen for men which is a pretty high price for me because I have short hair. I did some exploring and within a 12 minute walk I found a salon for 2800 Yen. Still kind of pricey, but the service is excellent. I did even more exploring and 20 minutes away I found one for 1000 Yen. They’re fast, efficient, and inexpensive which is nice. The more expensive salons take 60-90 minutes to cut my hair because they’re doing it with scissors most of the time and cutting little by little (and that’s fine, because you can always cut shorter but you can’t put it back on!). Here’s a picture outside of my favorite discount barber shop. It seats 3 people inside.
I thought I took a picture of a salon, but I can’t find it. So here’s a repost from my salon that failed post.
I went to the same neighborhood salon for a year and paid ￥2200 a pop, which is cheap for Japan.
However, I found an oyaji barber right down the road who cuts for ￥1200 and I’ve never been more satisfied while living in Japan (3 cities in about as many years)
There are more than 20 hair salons within 500 meters of my home in Tokyo. I counted. here’s the story with pictures: http://tokyostories.pnn.com/4459-top
When I lived in Japan there used to be a 1000 yen 10 minute place in a mall down from my college. Ten dollars and it’s over in ten minutes. For the Japanese man on the go! That is, with the occasional gaijin like myself. I actually enjoyed the place a lot, and they gave awesome haircuts despite how fast they worked.
that’s great ! you will be sure to find a great hair salon!
I’m Black/African American so are there any barber shops where i can stretch my hair or make it straight?? because the ones near my house do not offer those services.
billywest - I could live with ￥1200-2200.
Mark - That’s insane!
Neil - I bet they had a ton of experience to go with their speed, getting the job done without any extra frills. The place I go now vacuums my hair when they’re done. It was strange at first but it’s effective.
Coral Snake - Yeah, I found a one more that’s a little closer and only 1000 yen as well.
Malcolm - I don’t know anything about this because I have really short and straight hair, so I asked a few people and found out there are places that could do this. You’d need to go to a salon instead of straight up barber shop, and I heard there are at least two kinds of ways they make hair straight… one is using a plate to make it straight (called braces, pronounced Kyousei in Japnaese I think, it’s the most expensive), and the other way was using a chemical (called straightening). The prices could run ￥6000-15000 Hopefully my answer helps you out.
Where are the barber shops located? I’m in Osaka-Shinagawa-ku. Thanks.
I am about to try GB(quick barber) shop. It is a chain store around tokyo and maybe elsewhere. The cost is 1000yen. Anyone tried it? I am in need of one bad.