Barbers using TikTok to build their brands attracting new teen clientele

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MONTREAL — Videos of barbers at work showcasing their talents are plentiful on TikTok, and young clients are taking notice.

The trend on the short-form, video-sharing platform is helping to fuel interest in barbers in Quebec, who say they are seeing more hairstyle-savvy teenagers coming through their doors.

Ophelia-Anna Nagar, a barber based in Quebec City, said she’s been seeing new clientele at her two Quebec City salons. While men of all ages have been coming to the Menz Club since it opened in 2015, it’s only in the past two years that the number of teenagers has exploded.

“We started to go viral among young people with the launch of … our content creation on TikTok with new trends,” Nagar said in an interview.

“There’s a big trend among young people to have very stylized haircuts …. They go to barbershops to see barbers who have experience and who are capable of giving them the haircuts that are viral on TikTok.”

On TikTok, more seven-million videos have been posted using the hashtag “barber.” Instagram also boasts countless barber-related videos, some of which have racked up millions of views.

Pierre-Luc Bergeron, owner of Salon Looke in Laval, north of Montreal, says boys between the ages of 12 and 17 are keeping him busy.

“With social media, they always want to be on top of their hair,” Bergeron said.

At Les Barbares, a chain of barbershops in the Greater Montreal area, the clientele is younger than ever, said owner Mathieu Courtemanche. The company’s largest shop in Laval, Que., has seen a considerable increase in traffic over the past five years among those aged 15 and under.

“Young people are aware of what they want, and they’re looking for a very specific service,” said Courtemanche, a barber for the past 23 years. “I don’t want to take anything away from traditional hair salons, which are so important. But I think that more than ever, young people are looking for a specialized service that’s really specific to them.”

Emilie Drapeau, a barber from a Montreal suburb, also associates the growing number of young people in her Longueuil salon with the influence of social media platforms.

“Whenever young people come in and want to show us a haircut they like, they will go on TikTok,” says the owner of Vinnie’s Chopshop.

When they sit down in the chair, teens already have a very clear idea of the hairstyle they want. The days of parents deciding on the style are long gone.

Young people sometimes even get ahead of their barbers when it comes to trends.

“It’s truly amazing to see how informed they are,” Courtemanche said. “They’re so quick and up to date that they often come up with things that even we haven’t seen yet, or at least haven’t had time to learn.”

The emergence of barber tutorial videos has contributed to the level of knowledge among teenagers, says William Anthony Delorme, who owns a salon in the trendy Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood.

“Young people know the language much better than adults. When we talk about fades, they know all the variables. They know the names of the cuts. Their parents often don’t understand anything,” says the barber/hairdresser.

The cuts they request are more complex and stylized, he adds. That’s good for the profession and highlights the scissor skills, techniques and training to do the job.

Meanwhile, the growing popularity of barber shops is helping to create a new generation of barbers.

Courtemanche, who is also co-owner of five Usine Academie barber schools across Quebec, said about 30 per cent of his next group of students is about 16-or-17-years-old.

The minimum age to be eligible for training is 16, but Courtemanche’s schools often receive several applications from those as young as 13.