What is it about Lee High Road that attracts so many places to get a haircut, a blow-dry or your nails done? We slightly cheated by adding a couple on Burnt Ash Road and Eltham Road, but below are pictures of 38 establishments between Lewisham town centre and Lee Green crossroads.
OK, some had their shutters down and might well have closed permanently. But it is still a mystery how so many salons in one street can all be viable. It’s not as if there aren’t any hairdressers and nail bars elsewhere in the area.
Recently the Times reported on a Welsh town with 14 barbers. The story said: “Salons have become a symptom of a radical shift in shopping habits that have left many councils and landlords desperate to fill vacant properties with whoever will pay the rent.”
Is that the case on Lee High Road? Or is there something else?
Lewisham and Lee are only two examples of of a nationwide trend of an increase in barbers establishments.
Many are apparently officially Turkish but of these, a large proportion actually originate from countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Traditional Turkish barbers have a reputation for high skilled traditional hairdressing and so many other nationalities advertise or imply that they are also from Turkey to attract customers.
Often, many of the shops are closed sometimes because the business has failed or that the owners are not actually barbers but are involved in other business ‘ventures’.
As barbers shops do not normally generate large incomes, there is now a trend for some to divert into cosmetic surgeries as the profits can often be considerably higher.
If this business model continues to grow, the owners of the barbers shops and their employees may be working in the same or similar premises in this more lucrative trade.
A journalist once walked into a supposedly Turkish establishment and insisted on the only member of staff there to give him a haircut.
The ‘hairdresser’ appeared extremely nervous and confused and attempted to oblige with disastrous results!