Shanghai-style Haircut: Today and Yesterday

First haircut after I moved to Happy Valley, and of course I chose to go to the most locally famous one: the Shanghai Yangtze Barber Shop (上海揚子美髮廳), right around the corner of Sing Woo Rd and Wong Nai Chung Rd.

This Shanghai-style barber shop has been around for more half a century and its guests include business tycoons like David Li Kwok-Po (李國寶) of Bank of East Asia (東亞銀行) and movie star like Tony Leung (梁朝偉), who invited the Yangtze barbers to help to design his hairstyle for Wong Kar-wai’s (王家衛) classic movie “In the mood for love” (花樣年華).

Shanghai was the birthplace of professional modern hair salon in China, since the 1920s when Shanghai became the meeting point for Chinese and Western businesses. At the end of Chinese Civil War, which the Communist Party won, many rich Shanghai families migrated to Hong Kong and they also brought rich Shanghai culture and traditions (not to mention a lot of money) to the British colony in the 1950s, including Shanghai cuisine and Shanghai-style haircut.

Shanghai-style barber shops are now rare to find in Hong Kong. It is said only four or five authentic ones still remain in business including Yangtze in Happy Valley. The decline of the business is mostly due to technological development (while Shanghai barbers all love to do things manually by hands) and lack of interests from the younger generations of those barber shops to keep the old business.

Culture wise, the youth of Hong Kong has been influenced by K-pop and Japanese style in more recent decades, also reflecting in their fashion and hair style.

It’s lovely that I can exercise my Shanghai dialect again as I can chat nicely with my barber while having my hair cut smooth and clean. At one point, I almost fell asleep. “It’s good that you feel sleepy here because it shows your heart can settle down and have less worry at this moment,” said my barber.

Address: Shanghai Yangtze Barber Shop, 1/F, 29, Wong Nai Chung Rd, Happy Valley