Beauty / news
China's 10 RMB Express Haircut Stalls Pull in Gen Z as Salons Shut
No-frills 10 RMB haircut booths are spreading across China and drawing long queues in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, as young consumers trade high-priced salons for speed and silence. The trend is gaining ground while more than 213,000 traditional salons closed or changed hands in early 2026.
The format is deliberately stripped down. There is no reception desk, no shampoo basin and no upsell. Customers scan a QR code, take a ticket, sit for a trim and leave, paying a flat 10 RMB for the cut.
The appeal is partly financial and partly psychological. Young professionals describe traditional salons as exhausting, citing design titles such as "Chief Design Director," bills running into the hundreds of RMB for a basic trim, persistent small talk and pressure to buy prepaid VIP cards.
The contrast shows up in the numbers. Traditional salons have been contracting, with more than 213,000 outlets closing or transferring in early 2026, while the budget booths keep expanding. Queues are forming in first-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
The trade-off is a limited menu. The stalls handle simple cuts rather than complex bleach and dye work, and they forgo the extras that full-service salons use to justify higher prices.
For many young customers, the choice reads as a quiet statement against overpriced, over-scripted service. The attraction is not only saving money but skipping the anxiety that some consumers associate with salon visits, sometimes described as run-ins with "haircut assassins."