The London Turkish barbers men travel to for miles out of their way to get their haircut – My London

When it comes to who to go to for a good trim, many Londoners will tell you to go to a Turkish barber
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No one likes to stereotype others, but let’s face it, we all do it. Need to unwind in a pub after a long hard day’s work? The Irish will take care of you. It’s the unspoken code on the streets of London.
It’s what stops you from walking into a halal restaurant and ordering a pork sausage, or asking for Moroccan tea in an Algerian café (okay you can be forgiven for that one).
But when it comes to who to go to for a good trim, many Londoners will tell you to go to a Turkish barber.
They have developed quite the reputation in and around London over the past couple of years. When you go to a Turkish barber shop, you can be assured that you won’t just be getting your standard in-you-go, out-you-go kind of service, that leaves you feeling like a sheared sheep afterwards.
No, when you go to a Turkish barber shop, you can expect a high quality service that leaves you looking, feeling and smelling great.
READ MORE:The London street with 14 chicken shops that people drive across the city to visit
There are of course some barber shops that have really flourished since opening in London, including Ted’s Grooming Room which boasts of 19 barber shops around the capital, which is quickly followed by Adam Grooming Atelier, which has nine shops in London and has just recently expanded to New York and Paris.
But the majority of Turkish barber shops are still small businesses with only a handful of staff, yet their flattering ratings and reviews on Google would have you thinking that they were working on a grander scale.
Speaking to My London, Turkish barber shop owners and managers have given some of their insights into what makes their style of hairdressing so popular.
“At Adam Grooming Atelier, the philosophy is to take care of the customer first and treat them like nothing else exists,” says Sait Koca, who is head of staff at his company.
“It’s all about quality and attention to detail. If the haircut is almost perfect but there are one or two strands of hair out of place, the whole thing could be ruined,” he adds, arguing that barbers who prioritize the quantity of haircuts they do a day tend to overlook the importance of quality.
Koca, who is 41 and migrated to the UK from his hometown of Mus in Turkey, also says he believes that the reason why Turkish people are so good at cutting hair is because many of them grew up in tough circumstances.
“The older generation had to learn how to cut hair from a young age," he said. "They didn’t have many opportunities in education, so they needed a trade.
"A lot of them chose hairdressing and so had a lot of time to practice, not just in cutting hair but also running a business. But nowadays younger generations think they can just go do a six-week course and start cutting hair.
"Their businesses tend to shut down quickly, because cutting hair and running a business are two completely different things."
Yasar Balcik, 47, runs his own barber shop in Holborn called The Ottoman Crew.
He has been living in London for 10 years, and has been cutting hair in his shop since 2014. He was previously living in Istanbul.
“We have brought to this country everything we have learned in Turkey,” he says. “Most importantly we understand the importance of being friendly, providing the highest quality service, and knowing your customer. You need to know exactly what they want and combine what they want with your skills and experience.”
Like most Turkish barber shops, The Ottoman Crew doesn’t just offer your standard hair and beard trim package.
At most Turkish barber shops, you’ll be washed both before and after your haircut. Some offer head and shoulder massages using hair tonic, or a special lemon-scented Turkish cologne.
Others might even burn your ear hairs off for you using a special technique with a candle or a lighter. Just make sure they do that before, not after they’ve applied the cologne as it contains alcohol.
It’s also common to be frequently offered free beverages, including Turkish tea, Turkish coffee or cold drinks during your stay.
The luxury treatment one receives in a Turkish barber shop for prices usually ranging from about £15 to £45, depending on what service one is looking for, even attracts the likes of stars and celebrities.
“Once I was cutting someone’s hair and I had no idea who he was,” says Balcik. “Nobody said anything until the customer got up to leave. Another customer who was waiting then asked me if I knew who the man was, but I didn’t. ‘That was Andy Carroll, the footballer,’ the customer said.
"I really didn’t know, but after that he returned many times and even brought with him some of his footballer friends.”
Asked about other famous people who have visited his shop, Balcik simply replies, “too many – footballers, holding bosses, billionaires, artists, actors – you name it.”
Isar Hair Gents owner Ismail Arslan, 40, also says that his small barber shop in Spitalfields receives many famous celebrities, but he prefers not to name any of them.
“I do not advertise myself based on the famous people who come here,” Arslan says. “I’d rather people know me for my hairdressing skills and ability to make them happy. Even when someone famous comes over for a haircut, my sole focus is on them and their needs and leaving them satisfied.”
Arslan, who said he started cutting hair 25 years ago in Istanbul when he was just 15, says he has been living in London for 18 years and has owned his shop for 12 years. “Turks are very talented people and they take this line of work very seriously in Turkey,” he says.
Small businesses like Arslan’s have done very well to weather the storm during the pandemic, and are for now content with just staying afloat as Covid restrictions ease up.
Balcik says that he has just resumed operations after being closed for over a year. He says that he might like to open another shop in London in the future, but he has no desire to go big if it means having to detract from the quality and care he is able to personally give each and every one of his customers.
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Adam Grooming Atelier, however, still has big dreams of opening more branches, not just in London, but around the world.
“We originally set up in Canary Wharf with just one shop,” Koca says, “but we’ve now got several shops in London and we’re thinking about expanding to Manchester, Liverpool and other major cities nationally. We even have an ambition to grow globally, perhaps in LA or Dubai.”
Regardless of the size of the company, all Turkish barber shop owners who spoke to My London consistently emphasised on one thing that they do that leaves all of their customers happy.
They all focus on the quality of service they provide. And there you have it. The mystery of why Turkish barber shops in London are so popular. So now how about an article about where not to ask for Moroccan tea?

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