BOGOR, Indonesia: At first glance, Pemuda Barbershop looks like the sort of place customers might avoid.The tiny establishment operates out of a weather-beaten hut on one of the busiest streets in Bogor - about 60km south of Indonesian capital Jakarta - with a warping zinc roof that looks to be on the verge of collapse.Inside, there is no air conditioning. Customers have their hair trimmed while sitting on two decrepit barber chairs with broken backrests, dimly lit by a makeshift overhead skylight which leaks when it rains and a couple of neon lights slung from a bamboo rafter.
The walls are cluttered with Javanese puppets, faded hairstyle posters and weathered stickers - some of which date back to the shop’s opening in the late 1980s.Yet there could be anywhere between 30 and 50 customers streaming in from the moment the shop opens at 10am.The clientele is mostly drawn in by the barber’s skillful hands and a price of just 5,000 rupiah (US$0.31) per haircut, about a third of what working-class barbershops typically charge and around a tenth of the price at middle-class salons in Indonesia."I don't have the heart to raise my prices. Where else will these people go?" the establishment’s owner and main barber, Supriyanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told CNA.He hasn’t increased his charges in decades, since 2008.
