Barbers and female hair dressers offer a service and sell an experience. That's why you get coffee and magazines and all that. And that's why he has a van he drives his tools around in.
Thing is, all you need for the job fits in a bag, and barbers have been mobile forever. Sure, you had to sit on your own chair in your own living room listening to your own stereo. Another bonus is that it's one of those rare trades where you make things disappear instead of creating stuff, so the tax man rarely catches you.
Source: My father did everything hair related for 40 years on multiple continents.
I always found it strange that services like doctors, dentists, barbers, etc. are generally open the same hours as the majority of their customer base (9-5ers).
If a doctor, barber, dentist wanted to win my business literally all they would have to is shift their hours to accommodate office workers (e.g. like boutique fitness class hours open before work, after work, and lunch hours) and weekends.
> "I always found it strange that services like doctors, dentists, barbers, etc. are generally open the same hours as the majority of their customer base (9-5ers)."
In find this true for nearly all mom & pop doing retail. At least be open a little later a couple evenings a week so those who want to support SMB's can. I mean, you can't scream "Support us" and then be closed when I get off work. It's bad enough most towns have parking meters.
The mall / strip mall is open later and there's no charge for parking.
Obviously, the internet is even better in terms of convenience.
I’m not sure what the point of supporting most small business retail is. If you are just selling things I can buy online, you have no reason to exist, and are just taking up space that can be used for other service like businesses.
I wouldn't say they're counterfeit, assuming you mean the ones I'm thinking of. They're branded as produced by third-parties, so it's clear that they're not an OEM product. There's nothing wrong with selling replacement supplies for devices.
Fair with 2) and 3), but for 1), it's actually easier to buy X in bulk from an on-line wholesaler (especially if X is food) then it is to make a SMB business to stock it again. This may be a privileged position, but my favourite products disappearing from local shops is what made me discover that if I can afford one X every couple days, I can afford 20 X on-line, delivered; hell, it sometimes actually saves money.
Depends. Develop a good relationship with the proprietor and you'll often find yourself paying less than the price tag, especially on expensive, relatively high-margin items like musical instruments. Sometimes even less than online prices.
> It's easier to influence a local business. "I don't like that you've stopped stocking X."
But if you're buying online, you don't need to care that much if one particular company stops stocking something, because it's almost as easy to buy it off any other company online.
>> I’m not sure what the point of supporting most small business retail is.
> 1) It's easier to influence a local business. "I don't like that you've stopped stocking X."
Doubtful. Businesses everywhere care about making money.
> 2) You may rely on the local business in some situations (urgently need something), but it can't survive on this type of custom alone.
The local part is true, although becoming less true with Amazon et. al. providing faster and faster shipping. The small part is either irrelevant or an anti-feature. Local big businesses typically carry more stuff, and hence are more likely to carry the thing you want.
I understand that there are small specialty retailers who carry goods big retailers might not, but that seems like a pretty niche case: needing something very rare right away.
> 3) The profits are much more likely to be fairly taxed and then spent in the local economy, which is positive for the community.
Probably not. If the difference in price is greater than the total tax collected, the community is better off buying as much as it can online.
I've yet to experience a small business that can keep its prices within 10% of Amazon.
I bought a bike pump yesterday from the bike shop around the corner
I checked Amazon first to have a price in mind (12€), I paid 13€
1€ to not have something shipped to me & convenience of getting it immediately, plus helps keep the local bike shop around in case I need a repair I felt was worth it
Amazon is great if you know exactly what you need, or what to compare a few, well-defined options (especially for something like a technical book, where the reviews often highlight subjective things rather than "quality").
For a lot of things, however, I don't know exactly what I want going in. In principle, Amazon's recommender system could work here, but in practice, it hews really closely to authors, series, and topics I've already bought, with a dose of total randomness (what on earth is a "Chinchilla Lava Ledge?"). There's none of the serendipity of looking for one thing and finding something similar but better.
For a lot of products being able to touch the thing makes a huge difference.
Most obvious is clothes. In a store you can feel the weight of the fabric, see the color in real life, hold it to your body, or just try it on to find a shirt that really fits you.
Sure, free returns are a thing, but trying more than two or three sizes to find the one that really fits you is a major hassle if you need to send packages back and forth.
Ok. How many of those times were you swayed by an actual, local business instead of a chain?
Do you happen to have mom & pop clothing stores? Can a local place - not just a local branch of a chain store but an actual local place - provide benefits over a chain?
I was thinking more of physical stores in general, obviously chains are just as good for trying on stuff.
I think the biggest benefit of small stores is specialisation. For example, we have a jeans store in our town -- they sell nothing but jeans, and they have a huge selection. Much better than any of the chains we have here. They are also the only store that stocks my size. I really like that I can buy a pair of jeans there and don't have to shorten them.
Another thing that's really nice with small stores is that they can offer services that the chains cannot. Very often when I go to a store they just don't have my size any more. If it's a chain, they can sometimes check in their inventory system and see if a different store still has it in stock. But more often then not, it's the end of the season or something, and they're out, and there's no way to order it anymore. When the same thing happened to me in a local store, I was totally surprised when the sales guy just told me he'd call the seamstress and ask her to make another one in my size. A few days later I picked up my newly made shirt.
Obviously, not all small mom-and-pop shops are like that -- but some are really great.
Pretty funny that here we are asking for businesses to work extra hours for our convenience, while at the same time bemoaning excessive hours and demanding workloads in our own industry.
In Croatia, doctors and dentists usually work in alternating hours. Odd dates mornings till 1400, even dates 13/14 until evening or something like it. That way, people that work 9/5 can make it, but also other shifts.
Private clinics and barbers work morning to evening, except Saturdays (usually up to 1300/1400) and a strong no for Sundays.
I'm in the US. The after hours fee is definitely a thing at my kid's pediatrician practice. It ends up being something we pay out of pocket. And yes we have insurance and the docs are in network.
I've thought the same, but it's usually pretty easy. Just tell your boss you need to go to the doctor or dentist, and they'll usually let you off for a couple hours. What's difficult is barbers (where Trim-It might come in handy, or barber shops open until 7 or 8pm) and banks (which are increasingly moving to online-only but might still require a visit to wire money or set up a new account). These are more unusual services to ask work time off for.
Hmm, all of my friends in nontechnical 9-5 jobs (factories, bank tellers, car mechanics) are able to have a couple paid hours leave with a doctor's note or signed appointment slip. Except for one who's a restaurant shift manager. I'd imagine this is more the case with smaller companies. In Tennessee, US.
Works for serious illneses, not much for anything else. You won't get extra time off (which doesn't cut into your paid leave) for dealings with your bank, barberer, vet, HOA, etc.
Yeah it’s less about being concerned about taking a few hrs off here and there and more that it’s inconvenient to have to do so. Would prefer to do these kinds of things in the AM but again a lot of these places don’t open til 9 or so.
I once broke my tooth while traveling in NYC. I pulled up Yelp and just started calling down the list until I found someone who was open past five. Ended up getting an appointment for 7pm. Paid cash because he didn't take my insurance, but basically he won my business simply because he was open late.
Haha no. I broke my front tooth only 1/2 way. I was talking normally. In fact, I wasn't even going to see a dentist that night, as I had dinner plans, but my wife insisted I fix it that night. Ended up making dinner anyway since people eat really late in NYC.
You're really misunderstaning the power balance here: when you go to a doctor or a dentist you are not a customer buying their services, you are a supplicant begging for their mercy :) That's why they work the hours they find convenient, and you have to go through the hoops to make it on time for your appointment.
I’ve talked to my barber about this. His personal experience with more accommodating hours over the experiment was no gain in income and increased headache from his family. Even being open on Sundays (rather than the usual Tuesday - Saturday) didn’t change things as the clientele is accustomed to fitting themselves into the regular schedule.
Depends where you live I guess, here in Egypt barbers are usually open till midnight (and even till the next morning in Eid eve). Private clinics usually work evening hours as well.
It’s even worse in Germany, especially in my town. Governmental offices are open 8-14 on Monday, 8-16 on Tuesday, closed on Wednesday, 8-18 on Thursday and 8-12 on Fridays.
At least for doctors and dentists they are better paid than most of their clientele. So they wouldn't see the need to serve customers beyond their normal comfortable hours.
Self employed doctors and dentists (e.g. those with their own practice) are just like any other business and need to attract new customers. If you’re established and you have a full panel, then sure there’s no reason to change things, but if you’re new and looking for ways to attract new customers the first thing I would personally consider speaking from the customer POV is have hours that accommodate 9-5ers...
My kids dentist is closed Thursday and Friday, but open Saturday and Sunday. While this is great, the downside is it is you have to schedule well in advance and even still there is always still a wait. The plus side is they will work until all patients are seen that day. The convenience factor alone is a huge driver for their business.
My mum basically did this for her restaurant, its only open around 12pm for preparing the ingredients and is open until 11pm in the night, nobody comes to eat breakfast at a fine dining restaurant anyways.
That's because your spouse isn't at home to do these things for you as they're either working or don't exist. Blame the concept of the nuclear family or rather the death of it.
Yeah blaming the customer instead of better accommodating them is not the answer. If I were running a dental practice I’d open at 5am, close for a few hrs mid day and reopen at 5-7 and be open Sat.
It's tough to imagine finding qualified employees who will tolerate a split shift like that, or who want to only work part time and take one shift or the other. So the dental practice would, almost by definition, be made up largely employees who couldn't secure employment in a business with traditional working hours - maybe even making it the least skilled dental practice in the area. In order to attract workers who can work at 9-5 dental practices, you'd have to pay more than those businesses, given the awkward opening hours. And then you'd hope you got enough patients out of the shift in hours to make some extra money. But a little extra money wouldn't be enough to go through all the trouble... there's no point opening weird hours and then doing "about as well as other dentists" because the weird hours introduce various overhead. So you have to somehow figure out how much more profitable the weird-hours business needs to be in order to deliver a profit that's significantly more than a traditional dentist. And if that profit difference is worth the extra hassle (in its various forms) to you as the owner of the business, sure go ahead.
Of course he/she can. How often do you see the dentist? Twice a year max. Instead of asking their boss: can I come in late tomorrow or work from home, they expect an industry to shift their hours. Not just all the dentists but their assistants and admin staff.
However, he is not alone being stuck at work 9 to 5, and the dental practice wouldn’t just accommodate him by shifting their hours but the majority of the workforce and thus win business and make everyone happier.
For sure, but you're asking someone else to shift their hours, are you happy to shift yours.
Whilst there's an economic element there's a large social/family element to the consideration which is why, IMO, you don't see many services time-shifting: particularly dentists where they are relatively well paid and usually able to direct their own hours.
Example I work in an SME that could make much more money working Sundays, but we choose to close and be with Church and family. Same sort of consideration; valuing social aspects far beyond their monetary value.
Not everyone will be happier with business hours expanding, especially low-wage workers I expect as the expanding hours will lead to lower QoL.
When my mother was too unwell to go to the surgery (she had cancer and was approaching end of life, but still at home), her GP made house calls as needed.
My grandfather routinely has nurses make home visits (including for blood tests), and I'm fairly sure he can request a GP's visit if one were necessary (NHS).
Not for the hn user base maybe, but for a lot of people it is. I worked part time out of college, only job I could find, worked 36 hours a week, anymore and they'd would have to give me benefits. If I had to take time off that came out of my pocket. This is a reality for a lot of people.
This exactly. I haven’t had to take time off work for any personal reason or because I was sick in years - and then I was actually in the hospital. I can work from home, catch up on the weekend etc. But my wife can’t exactly work from home as a special needs bus driver.
It kind of is, especially if you're imapired by not owning a car/driving license.
I usually have to take time off work or at least make my time up if I need to visit one of those places as it's an hour + half train journey after to get back to work.
My work starts at 8:45am and those places open at 9am usually too so I can't just pop in before work etc.
For most of us here, probably not. For shift workers or those who otherwise work a strict schedule, it at least requires a fair bit of advance planning if not close to impossible.
that is true, but even that i find that frustrating. the reality is what it is but it bothers me people working shifts don’t have sick hours or the mobility to take care of themselves during the day like this.
No, but taking a few hours off is annoying if it means you have to reschedule a bunch of things. I would much rather run “errand” type things like this in the early morning before work.
No, nothing is critical, nobody will die when I'm not there. But those meetings are basically the core of my job, so it would be really weird to not prioritize them, they are the main reason why I'm getting payed.
I also do accommodate if I need to work outside of normal working hours, if I work with India or the US if the customer needs me earlier or later.
I guess that is why I kind of expect others who provide services also sometimes to go the extra mile, and to be honest most of the time you can find someone who does it.
Then pay for it and stop with arguing with me and my staff about your insurance plan. I am a practicing provider and I struggle with this. People, on one hand, like a doctor that takes their insurance plan. Did you want a boutique provider, after hours from where you work, I can guarantee there won’t be any network with your insurance plan and you will pay top dollar for this. In my experience, people do not want this.
This goes to a lack of understanding of how the 24 hr body clock works and what the cost is when everyone is functioning out of sync.
In the search for efficiency, we make people go out of sync with the rest of herd all the time.
This has consequences to their lives, their families and sooner or later the cascading consequences lead to things like 3 mile island, chernobyl and bhopal. Check what time they happened.
> sooner or later the cascading consequences lead to things like 3 mile island, chernobyl and bhopal. Check what time they happened
It doesn't work like that; You are ignoring all the other accidents that happened during the day and refusing to account for other factors (such as less staff during off-hours).
Some fields, especially medicine, take this to extremes, but I’m having a hard time imagining that switching a few days a week from from 9-5 to 12-8pm would be disasterous. Plus, the stakes are pretty low at barbershops.
The parent comment mentioned 3 mile island, chernobyl and bhopal, which seemed to be suggesting that shifted hours would lead to...i don't even know what.
I switched to cutting my own hair about 6 years ago. My cut is a simple #6 clipper on the top (#5 in the hottest part of the summer) and #3/#2 on the sides and back. (The numbers are "how many 1/8 inches?")
I can cut my own hair at home anytime I want (the real benefit/driver behind it) in about 7-10 minutes, including cleanup. Because it's at home, I cut it right before a shower (dry), sweep up with my hand and dispose of the hair, and take the shower.
I bought Amazon B001JJBC9Y ($60) and B001T0HHB0 ($25) and am happy with those.
(Unless I told you, you'd never know I cut my own hair.)
How are people getting their neckline? I've done it almost myself for 12 years, but I've always needed someone else to drive the clipper blades directly into the base of my neck with no comb to get a clean edge. Looks unfinished if I don't do it, seems impossible to get a nice straight line myself from that angle. Any ideas?
I self cut and fade at the edges, but I think the keys to doing this correctly are:
1. Good visibility of the back and sides of your head. Either a 3 way mirror, or some kind of video setup with your phone and a laptop.
2. Patience and practice. The muscle memory and hand eye coordination needed to handle the clippers correctly takes some time. If you cut your hair once every couple of weeks, that's approximately 25 reps per year, which really isn't that much considering the spacing between reps is so long.
Edit: I missed that you have been doing this for 12 years. That's longer than I've been at it ~3 years.
Another thing that helps is watching YouTube vids of legit barbers. There are a ton of different techniques that accomplish the same thing, you might find some new insights into ones that work for you.
(Right handed) I place my left hand, thumb down, index finger horizontally along the line that I want to cut and with my right hand, use the clippers (no comb) to set the line beneath my index finger.
Watched some videos on youtube, #4 tapered down to skin on sides, scissors on top.
I'm envious of 7-10 minutes though, usually I'm ~30 between detailing and cleanup. Still beats trip to barber though.
I like it because always had trouble getting cut how I wanted before. Sometimes it turns out better than others, but never had it look bad after a week or so worst case.
Likewise people are always surprised when I tell them I cut my own hair. GF didn't even believe me the first time until I showed her hair in trash.
My biggest difficulty was balancing my fade on both sides and also somehow managing to fade the back effectively. I used to love cutting my own hair but going to top quality barbers has the perk on convenience, socialization (especially at black barbers) and quality. I'll go maybe once or twice a month depending on what's going on with work/events so it's not too expensive.
Last time I was at a barbers was 2003, after that I just grew my hair long and really seldom cut it a little bit myself.
In 2013 I bought a hair trimmer and just cut everything to 0mm. Like you just before the shower, takes me too about 7-10 minutes. Sometimes I left a short mohawk just to mix it up.
My brother was once getting made up for a magazine photo shoot. The stylist complimented his haircut, and he said that he did it himself. They complimented the product he used, and he said it was a no-name brand from the supermarket. I always found that funny. I also DIY, but there's less for me to deal with these days - currently using Wahl clippers and B076GR634L.
I'm curious if anyone knows whether its safe to put a strong EM field so close to your brain, so often — evidence one way or the other. I use a battery powered clipper, in hopes it would have a weaker field than one powered by 120VAC.
As a physics smell test, TMS seems to be performed using quickly releasing a capacitor to create a 1-10 (order of magnitude) Tesla magnetic field over a very short period of time. 10T is similar to the magnetic field generated by an MRI. For comparison, a toaster produces a 100 nano-Tesla field, about 7 orders of magnitude smaller. So supposing TMS causes real effect, the clippers are so weak in comparison that I would think they are harmless.
In terms of electricity, which people have more intuition about, 7 orders of magnitude is the difference between a studio camera flash and a lightning strike
.
This is a good comment, but I think it's worth emphasizing that this is the difference between "7 orders of magnitude" and "6 orders of magnitude". It doesn't in any way invalidate the point in the comment it is replying to.
Consider learning to cut your own hair with scissors if your hair type allows it.
I've done haircuts for myself for 15 years with only a pair of thinning scissors. I have never once used a clipper. I'm Asian with straight hair so this is possible. The sides and back are hard at first but thinning scissors make the cutting very mistake-tolerant. You can cut at any angle, roughly around the place that needs it, and it cuts some layers of hair off. You just repeat cutting and feeling the length with your hands and eventually it'll be at the right length. It takes me about 30-45 minutes including everything from cutting, showering after, vacuuming and clean up. I only recent stopped (and went back to a barber shop), only because I have a baby now and I really need every bit of energy and time I can get back in my life.
I second the recommendation for the Oster 76. Having used both, it is much better than the cheaper Wahl clippers. And compared to the price of having someone else cut your hair, it will pay for itself in a very short time.
I used to go to a hair stylist who was a friend from church. After I switched to a very short cut, she told me "I don't want to lose business, but I have to tell you that you could do this yourself."
So I got the Wahls and they were fine. Some time later I got the Oster Classic 76, and they were much better.
I tried a few different blades and settled on the 1 1/2. Takes 5 minutes or so, and like another commenter I do it right before getting in the shower.
Sometimes I miss a spot and notice it later sticking out a bit. No big deal, since I have the clippers I can fix it in seconds!
Other things to get with the Oster are the Blade Wash and Kool Lube. They also have some grease and oil for the gears, but I don't use those much. Maybe I should open it up and clean and re-lubricate the innards, it's been about 10 years since I've done that.
I use the free grocery circulars that invade my mailbox to catch the cut hair. Layer them over the bathroom sink and chop it all off. Cleanup is mostly crumpling up the papers and a little bit of wipe down.
How did you learn? Is there a youtube tutorial? I tried to cut my hair once and things turned so bad ( uneven, botched, etc ) that I just ended up shaving my head.
To be honest, I just jumped right and in and figured it out. I was having the local chain do #3 on sides and back and scissor-cutting the top "finger length". I paid a little attention to what they did and then tried it myself, guessing what finger length was in clipper combs. I also have a hairstyle that is semi-chosen to be compatible with this DIY cut in that as long as I remember which comb I have on the clippers, I pretty much can't screw it up. If the clipper can reach the hair, it's supposed to cut the hair. With the #3, I just go over the sides and back until it (largely) stops cutting. With the #6, I go over the top until it stops cutting. Then I go back to the #3 to redo the intersection between side and top, then take the comb off to do around the ears and neck. (This is the most likely place to make an error of cutting too much off, but your hair will grow back if you make a mistake.)
I saw these folks at AfrotechFest[1] in London last year, which one of my colleagues helped organise, talking about their entrepreneurial experience. Really great to see them getting mainstream media coverage, and I wish them all the best. The idea of getting into a van full of blades with strangers was definitely joked about on stage, and if they can salve that concern then they must be doing a good job!
> The increasing number of black professionals may mean that the relatively high cost of a Trim-It cut - £25 - is not an obstacle to growth.
As with every Uber for X thing, price is not a problem for winners of knowledge economy. For the rest it might be cheaper to do it themselves specially since trimming kits are quite cheap nowadays.
In the US there is https://www.getshortcut.co/ - which has a slightly different model. They'll come into your house with a setup to cut your hair, clean up, etc.
IIRC their prices are significantly higher ($50-$75) but they pitch themselves more for the "you have a big presentation tomorrow at 9am and we'll come to your house tonight at 10pm" crowd.
There's probably a niche for a business that comes and cuts kids hair. The person can do each kid while the others just play. Instead you usually have to take them to the place separately, or make the other two wait while one gets their hair done (if you can't book appointments all together).
I could certainly see this catching on. We've got mobile dentistry, mobile car detailing, mobile restaurants, this is just one more thing.
It cuts down on facility overhead, it opens up a wider base of people you can serve, and I can see no reason people wouldn't like to have their stylist come to them rather than go to them.
In the time it takes to drive to a customer, park, and set up, a barber could probably do 3 or 4 haircuts if he were working in a shop. Are customers willing to pay 4x or more for that convenience? Probably some are, but enough to sustain the idea?
I could see the food truck approach maybe working better. Set up for the day or a few hours in a commercial area, and let local customers come to you.
What does it cost to rent a chair in a salon? (what is the operational expense (opex) of the current method)
What percentage of time that the salon is open, is the chair in use? (what is the haircut operational time)
What percentage of customers don't use your chair because they can't get to your location? (substitution value of stylists in a free market)
What percentage of your customers are 'regular' versus 'walk in'? (opportunity cost vs monthly recurring revenue (MRR))
I haven't done the research but I could certainly imagine in places like the Bay Area where rents are high that this could be a better system for a stylist than the traditional one.
Agreed, all of that matters. Also, another big difference from Uber is that the vast majority of adults can drive, so their pool of potential drivers is large. Barbering is a niche skill and in many areas is regulated. I can't just download an app and start working unless I'm already a trained and licensed barber. Then I'd need to own or rent the van outfitted with the chair and other equipment. The scaling model is vastly more constrained than Uber.
It's only about 2x because their overhead is cheaper (no rent, only car maintenance).
But yeah, what you suggest is exactly what happens here in Silicon Valley. We have the haircut group that spends one day a week at eBay, one day at Google, one day at Cisco, etc. Same with the dentist and the car wash folks.
he is saving around 4 haircuts kind of money because he isnt renting a seat in a salon. worth it for higher end clientele who doesn't want to waste time driving to barber shop
What makes this idea interesting is that it may be frequently possible for him to line up several clients at the same location (at an office, etc) at the same time increasing his efficiency.
I would love it if a haircut van came to our office once a week.
A guy I was working with in San Diego was doing this 5 years ago. In the office we used to make fun of the idea because we thought it was terrible: Who wants to get a haircut in the parking lot and then go back into the office with little bits of hair all over your head and neck?
Doesn't Google offer haircuts on campus? Seems like the cleanup of a fresh haircut is likely a solved problem for anyone that knows what they're doing.
My godfather was doing this in the late 90s. He took an RV and retrofitted it to be a salon. His problem is that his (white collar) clientele didn’t want to pay the premium to be on site, and the driving time ate up his margins. I think, had he been younger and had more room to pivot his business plan, it might have worked.
The travel time versus a stationary area is the hardest to overcome.
> The travel time versus a stationary area is the hardest to overcome.
I think you have hit the nail on the head there. I have seen the hairdo-in-a-van in LA so the idea is far from novel, it is new to the UK though.
I actually can't think of anywhere in the UK where parking up in a van is that easy. There isn't the zoning in the way that the U.S. has it. Parking is always going to be tricky.
The workaround is to drive your customer from outside his house (on a steep hill) to some car-park or layby. But you have lost ten minutes at best doing that. A pro barber shop can make good money in that time.
There is also a restriction on how far the service can go. You are not going to be washing hair unless you are spending time filling and emptying tanks of water.
The trick is probably to get industrial estate businesses. An out of town industrial estate might lake a decent high street near by. If you can rock up there and get half a dozen or more customers done then that cuts down on the travel time.
The 'app' aspect doesn't cut down on the fundamental travel time problem. Most hairdressers have some type of trainee able to do phones, sweep the floor, wash the towels and be more versatile than an 'app'. I am therefore not sure how valuable the 'app' can be.
I think the RV is a better starting point than a Transit. In the UK market a camper van with some pop up top and some windows would be a better starting point, e.g. a modern VW rather than a retro one.
In all seriousness, it's about time that prostitution was examined with the same critical eye we've finally started to turn on cannabis prohibition. The results may (and should IMO) be similar: ater criminals are cut out of the loop, both the dealers and customers end up better off, as do the tax authorities.
In that eventuality, yes, mobile service would obviously be at least as lucrative as van-based barber shops, probably far more so.
The reality in countries that have legalized it (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, and others) seem to be the opposite.
Prostitutes are still for the most part desperate immigrants, held hostage in various ways, and exploited by the companies that traffick them in and run the brothels. In other words, legalized prostitution still consists for the most part in paying money to shady people to be able to rape some poor girl.
Sounds like a failure of regulation, if that's indeed correct. I disagree that exploitation and trafficking are necessary or inherent properties of the 'profession.'
I cut it myself. I started about 2 years ago. I wish I would have done it years ago. Long on top,short on sides and back and I am done in less than 20 mins including clean up. I found a clipper that vacuums as it cut so there is not much hair to clean up when done. It rocks.
By "Uber for X" do you mean "services that can only be offered in person and come to you"? Because that business model was present long before Uber and will likely be present until the extinction of mankind. Just because you've associated it with a meme doesn't make it a phase.
> will likely be present until the extinction of mankind
I agree with most of your comment except this. Are you really saying that you don't think we can eventually automate on-demand services in every domain we can conceive?
This isn't the right question since any answer you get today is probably not going to be how it's done in the eventual future when it actually is solved. "Nano drones with scissors" is exactly what someone in 2019 would say. The point is that it's a known unknown.
Thing is, all you need for the job fits in a bag, and barbers have been mobile forever. Sure, you had to sit on your own chair in your own living room listening to your own stereo. Another bonus is that it's one of those rare trades where you make things disappear instead of creating stuff, so the tax man rarely catches you.
Source: My father did everything hair related for 40 years on multiple continents.