Hair Raisers: Daczong, Founder and Top Stylist of Wukan

Hair’s a big deal to most people. (That’s what our balding friends tell us.) The problem in Beijing is that hair care, with its myriad local providers and the language barrier, is just another reason to pull your hair out. We rounded up some of the city’s most respected friends of the follicle and asked them everything you’d ever wanted to know about getting a good haircut. Here's what Daczong had to say about some hairy topics.

All our customers tend to follow the suggestions of our stylists. For men, we like to recommend more hairstyles from the ’50s and ’60s (e.g. rockabilly). For women, New Wave styles from the ’70s and ’80s.

To evaluate another stylist’s ability, I would ask: “Do you know about recent music history?” And I would watch to see whether they can design a hair style with just a pair of scissors and a comb.

The best part about my job is being able to work all day in natural sunlight with green plants and good speakers and music. What’s not ideal is the noisy environment.

The biggest mistake that customers make is being afraid to show their face because they think it is too big.

The biggest mistake I’ve ever made is overestimating the customer’s aesthetic standards.

The most challenging thing I’ve ever done for a client was to shave off all his hair except what was on the crown of his head. The hair left on the top of the head then “umbrella-ed” over the shaved scalp, like the reverse of a monk’s tonsure. Picture a young boy’s bowl-cut placed on the head of a very large man – it looked like that.

The longest I’ve ever spent on a haircut is ten hours.

The easiest type of hair I ever worked with was long hair that had been bleached four times. The most difficult is hair that has been straightened.

I’ve been cutting my hair since I was in the fifth grade.

I had three years of training for hair design at Beijing Minzhu Professional High School. In 1998, I first came into contact with Vidal Sassoon’s techniques. In 2010, I had the good fortune to work with the international hair stylist Suki, from whom I learned a lot.

Cutting hair is like Chinese kung fu. If you devote yourself to it for ten years, you will naturally see results.

Wukan 芜衎 Daily 11am-late. East of Beixinqiao intersection (Exit C of Beixinqiao subway stop), Dongcheng District (138 0135 2593) 东城区北新桥十字楼路口东南角

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