The tide of immigration in Hong Kong has reached a peak again. The Security Bureau estimated that the number of immigrants in the whole year of last year exceeded 10,000 for the first time since 2006. Just as some Hong Kong people rushed out, some chose to return.
A hair stylist who worked in the industry for 41 years, emigrated to Australia during the 1989 student movement, and then returned to Hong Kong to re-development. The store business expanded to foreign countries. Despite experiencing SARS, the 2008 financial turmoil and the many lows of social movements in the previous year, The number of regular foreign customers has decreased by more than half, and the scale of business will also be reduced. However, he believes that the tide will see the truth. In recent years, he has been actively training apprentices and opening classes for non-governmental organizations. The girls learn to wash their hair and highlight their dyes, and one less person will be sold as a prostitute in the third world."
Twice experienced the impact of Hong Kong's immigration wave
"The 1989 student movement is not the same as the emigration wave of the social movement the year before." For Louie, the founder of Beyond the Fringe, a local high-end hairdressing salon who has moved to Australia and returned to Hong Kong, he has a different feeling.
He started his career at the age of 17. He started his own business in the mid-1980s and opened the first Western-style hair salon in Wan Chai. He is mainly engaged in foreign business. It happened that the Australian consulate in Hong Kong was his regular customer. In 1989, he was recommended to enter Australia as a skilled immigration. Five years later, he rushed back to Hong Kong due to family matters, and decided to stay in Hong Kong and reopen at the original site in Wan Chai. As a result, the scale became larger and larger. During its heyday, it had four branches in Central, Wan Chai, Tin Hau, and Mid-Levels, and its business even rushed out of Hong Kong. Successively opened hair schools and hair salons in Australia, the United Kingdom and India.
Compared with the two waves of emigration, he believes that Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s was a big stage for all countries in the world. Whether it was hair cutting or other specialized skills, as long as immigrating to foreign countries almost became a target for people: "The locals cannot serve the Chinese. If the industry is not yet prosperous, many bosses will ask you when they hear that you are a Hongkonger. Basically, they will hire you."
Many people go abroad impulsively, until they do not return to the business, waitresses, wash dishes, super market, they all fight for a meal, carrying old money in the past makes almost the same, especially the professionals are very unhappy, some people returned last year port.
He Demin, founder of Beyond the Fringe, a local high-end hair salon
On the contrary, the social movement immigration wave of the previous year, whether it is the hairstylist or the friends of professionals who moved to another place, the feedback is a completely different world.
"Many people go abroad impulsively, until they do not return to their own business, waitresses, wash dishes, super market, they all fight for a meal, carrying an old money in the past makes the same thing, especially the professionals are very unhappy, some people returned last year Return to Hong Kong."
Cooperate with NGOs to train newcomers into the industry
Moving to another place is not a taste, but the local economy is also affected. Taking the hair salon he runs as an example, regular foreign customers account for 70% of the total business. With the new crown epidemic coupled with political issues, foreigners have moved to Singapore and returned to their home countries one after another, and the passenger volume has plummeted At 60%, the ratio of Huayang customers was reversed from 3 to 7 to 7 to 3. He also decisively ended the Tin Hau branch last year after completing the contract in the Mid-Levels and Wan Chai stores in the early years, focusing on the business of the Central Headquarters in order to stabilize the business. And source.
Seeing that other peers withdraw their rents and business, coupled with the impact of the fast-cutting culture and minimum wage, fewer and fewer young people are willing to enter the industry, but he always believes in the value of Hong Kong people as a brand and actively trains local hairstylists, such as with non-governmental organizations ( In cooperation with NGOs, young people who are recommended by the organization to be hair stylists as apprentices start from the bottom, and the hair stylist who "learns full stylist" in the hair salon can also be arranged to teach volunteers to cut hair in the church, and then go to the hospital in the future. , Nursing homes and other places provide voluntary scissors services to give back to the society.
The pastor said that Cambodia is already in contact. I am willing to go to a development-oriented school. As long as one girl is taught to wash her hair and highlight, one less person will be sold to Thailand and other developing countries for prostitution.
He Demin, founder of Beyond the Fringe, a local high-end hair salon
The key point of choosing a hair stylist: how humble can be a person
In the economic downturn, he can still keep his business on track. Louie said that he doesn’t need to worry about business development, and he puts his mind on emigrating abroad again. However, his ideal is not Australia, the United States and Canada in the eyes of outsiders, but the third world. "The pastor said that Cambodia is already connected. If you are willing to go to the development-oriented school, as long as one girl is taught to wash her hair and highlight, one less person will be sold to Thailand and other developing countries for prostitution."
Louie believes that when choosing a hair stylist, he does not care how many celebrity looks the other party has cut, but whether he can put down his figure and be a man. Even if he is the founder, he will clean up broken hair in the hair salon.
(Photo by Mo Jiawen)
As the speaker of the high-end hair salon, Louie with white hair is still like a sweeping monk. During the busy period of the shop, he personally sweeps the broken hair on the floor. If you have a figure, my master can do it, but other people can't do it?" Louie slowly expressed his vision of choosing a hair stylist. It is not how many celebrity artists have been cut, but how humble a person can be.
Art Director｜Inspired by Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Mosquito made an aesthetic film with independent director Yun Xiang. Intermediate Art Director｜Yau Ma Tei is like a Hong Kong movie pulse. Zhang Mo’ai went to Temple Street to buy young and Dangerous costumes. "Pet groomers use every minute to be an infantryman
01Community