Hong Kong’s old-school barbershops captured on camera by Dutch photographer before they die out
The city’s backstreet barbers provide a glimpse into the past, along with the haircuts and shaves, Saskia Wesseling finds as she searches for ‘glamour in the unglamorous’
It had been a frustrating day of trying to find “anything appealing to the eye” before Saskia Wesseling stumbled across Chun Kwai-bo’s shop, in the backstreets of Mong Kok.
“‘Shop’ is a big word,” says the Dutch photographer, who was searching for inspiration for an upcoming exhibition in Sai Ying Pun. “I found the two square metres where he works as a barber in an alley. The first thing that caught my attention was Mao on a shower curtain. I started to take photos and Mr Chun helped me by hanging the curtain straight.”
“What I did understand was that he had been an actor but that he gave up his career to make sure his dad’s barbershop could stay open. Their family moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong in the ’50s,” she says.
“I tried to get more information, but he had a customer, and he kindly asked me to leave.”