Hair today, gone tomorrow

A major turf war is developing in South Korea between barbers and beauticians. Barbers are demanding that their competitors stop cutting men's hair because their business is dwindling.

Figures back up their argument. Thirty years ago, there were about 29,000 barbers' shops nationwide, and that figure has not changed. On the other hand, the number of beauty parlours has jumped from 16,000 in 1975 to 82,000 now.

In every corner of South Korea, beauty salons attract both sexes, while barbers are still used only by men. As a result, barbers are suffering the worst recession in living memory. The Association of Barbers claims that thousands of shops will go out of business in a few months unless some drastic measures are taken.

To protect their turf, the barbers first lobbied against the use of electric haircutters in beauty salons in the hope that it would keep men away.

When their campaign failed, they went to the government for help, asking the Ministry of Health and Welfare to stop beauticians from accepting male customers.

Faced with loud complaints from the beleaguered barbers, the government announced a stop-gap measure. Instead of making a firm order, the ministry 'suggested' that beauticians should not take male customers who used to go to the barbers. After all, in a democratic society, the government could hardly order beauticians to reject men. Beauticians, on the other hand, maintain that it would be difficult for them to turn away customers. And the public mood is also swinging in their favour. People do not understand why the government feels the need to interfere. Most believe that it really has no say in what is a private business matter.