Locals joke that you never have to queue for a haircut in Porth – the small South Wales town with 14 hair salons.
And they’re not wrong. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find another customer at all.
The Daily Mail went to Porth last Wednesday for a snap survey of its seemingly thriving haircare scene, which has grown to the point there is one salon for every 426 residents – compared to roughly one salon for every 900 residents in London.
It comes at a time of mounting scepticism about the boom in ‘Turkish-style’ barbers, with police believing a minority are being used as fronts for criminal gangs.
Last year, hundreds of barbers were raided in an operation led by the National Crime Agency, leading to dozens of arrests for money laundering and drug dealing to modern slavery.
Cold Fade became the 14th barber to open in Porth 11 months ago despite strong local opposition.
Nowadays it looks impressive, with a row of six £700 bespoke blue chairs facing circular mirrors and a sound system pumping out rap music.
But at midday on a Wednesday there was something missing – customers. Between 9.30am and 2pm, the Daily Mail watched just four men come in for a haircut at Cold Fade.
If each went for the standard £12 option, just £48 would have gone into the till – not enough to pay the only barber on duty who gets more than the minimum wage.
It was the same picture the previous Wednesday, when just one customer went in between 9.30am and 1pm.
Cold Fade became the fourteenth barber to open in Porth 11 months ago in the face of strong local opposition
Today, it looks impressive, with a row of six £700 bespoke blue chairs facing circular mirrors and a sound system pumping out rap music. But it doesn’t seem to get many customers
Other businesses in the street have noticed that the barbers in the plush-looking salon spend most of their days ‘standing around’.
Less than 100 yards down Hannah Street, the situation last Wednesday was similar at Porth Barbers, which welcomed just two customers between 10am and 2pm.
It should be said at this point that there is no evidence that Cold Fade or any other barbers in this article are involved in any wrongdoing.
A staff member at Cold Fade told the Daily Mail Wednesdays were particularly quiet and the suggestion that barbers were linked to crime was a ‘crazy stereotype’.
But the chairman of Porth’s Chamber of Trade, which objected to Cool Fade setting up in Hannah Street, said the numbers ‘don’t add up’.
There were 34 separate letters of objection when a Cardiff-based Kurdish businessman applied for planning permission to turn a former amusement arcade into Cold Fade.
However, Rhondda Cynon Taff Council approved the new barber shop on the grounds that it would bring the property back into beneficial use and would result in a positive contribution towards the wider retail centre.
After next month’s Senedd elections, Dan Parry, chairman of Porth Chamber of Trade, will call on the new Welsh Government to review its planning laws to protect town centres from being burdened by excessive numbers of barbers, nail bars, vape shops and tattoo parlours.
Mr Parry, 26, told the Daily Mail: ‘I would question how planning laws can allow so many businesses to offer the same services. We need more diversity. We have too many hair salons and barbers in Porth and the simple maths do not add up.
‘It’s a cause for concern and you hear people’s suspicions that barber shops are a front for illegal activity but you can’t prove that unless you have evidence to support it.’
Join the discussion
Should councils crack down on barber shops if locals suspect they’re hiding criminal activity?
A barber at Cold Fade giving a haircut – a rare sight on the day the Daily Mail carried out its snapshot survey
At Porth barbers, the single stylist on duty last Wednesday went more than two hours without a single customer
A survey found locals in Porth felt there was already an over-abundance of certain businesses ‘such as fast-food takeaways, beauty parlours, and barber shops’
Our snap survey in Porth found that Lazaro barber shop on Pontypridd Road was busier because it is popular with teenagers wanting the latest styles.
And there were a few customers waiting for haircuts at Yusifs in Hannah Street.
But back at Porth Barbers, the single stylist on duty last Wednesday had gone more than two hours without a single customer.
A businessman in Hannah Street, who didn’t want to be named, said: ‘Sometimes there are three of them in there doing nothing.
‘They sit around a gas fire because it must get cold sitting down all day. If they were on their feet busy cutting hair all day they would generate their own heat and keep warm.
‘But they would have to have customers and you hardly ever see anyone go in there.’
The Government has now promised to hand councils new powers to block unwanted shops in towns like Porth.
While unveiling its plans, ministers namechecked betting shops, vape stores and ‘fake barbers’.
Steve Reed, the Housing Secretary, said locals were often right to be suspicious.
‘In many places in the country, you’ll get people reporting many barbers suddenly opening up and not many people going in and getting their haircut,’ he told LBC at the time.
‘Who knows what they front for, but neither the council nor the community has been able to stop them proliferating, but now they will have the power to restrict them.’
Asked if he thought the shops were being used for criminal activities, such as drug dealing or money laundering, he said: ‘Well, we know that some of them are.
‘I’m not going to say that about all of them, but some are.
‘The key point is that communities need the power to stop them proliferating where that’s a problem.’
