Despite high rates of unemployment and an uncertain economy Black barbershops and hair salons are booming, according to BlackNews2.
In a time where it seems most businesses are on the decline, hair salons are on the rise. The Census Bureau recently noted their jump in an otherwise glum report about mom-and-pop businesses, stating that the number of hairdressers and barbers and the shops that employ them grew by about 8 percent from 2008 to 2009.
Apparently, getting a haircut is one of the last expenses that consumers are willing to give up. And people who run salons never have to fret that their work might be outsourced. “We don’t have to worry about someone flying to China to get their hair cut,” said Charles Kirkpatrick, director of the National Association of Barber Boards of America. “Barbering is not going away.”
Mr. Kirkpatrick muses that the rising number of haircutters could be the recession. “There are people saying, ‘I got to look good, I’m trying to get a job,’ ” he said. “And you know, a bad attitude with a good haircut can fool you sometimes.”
He is not very far off in his assumptions, people who were battered in the economic downturn have definitely turned to haircutting as a quick career change. Fabulocs, a hair salon in Capitol Heights, Maryland, employs several refugees from the recession. One has a master’s degree in education. Another worked as a manager at a Circuit City store. Seven of the nine stylists there have been to college.
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article courtesy of Newsone.com/blacknews2.com
