Korean Hairdressers

I have great respect for Koreans. Wherever they go, they quickly form communities, organise and group themselves and help each other out. They are also very quick to start businesses where they see an opportunity.

Since the Korean community is so strong here in Chatswood (the suburb of Sydney I am residing in), opportunities to sell Korea-related products and services are numerous.

Hairdressers are perhaps a field where Koreans are not expected to become so active. However here in Chatswood, I saw only one non-Korean hairdresser shop and about eight Korean ones.

Shops selling products and services owned by immigrants often target a specific community, mostly the home country of the immigrants. There are Thai grocery shops mostly frequented by Thai people. There is a Filipino Sari-Sari (variety) shop here in Chatswood where the local community meets and exchanges the latest gossip.

Korean hairdressers however do not fit into this category. They are not only targeted at and frequented by the Korean community, but also by other people. They are relatively cheap, abundant and usually offer good and reliable cuts.

The workers in these shops however sometimes hardly speak English and probably just come to Australia to earn some money for a few months.

The fact that Korean shops are far more frequent than other Asian shops not just regarding to hairdressers but also in beauty, skin care and partly also in fashion might be reflecting wider trends in Asia.

Recently, Korea has been dominating in terms of pop-culture in nearly the whole of Asia. Teenagers in Jakarta, Bangkok and even in China aspire to Korean boy- and girl groups and watch Korean TV drama series. In wishing to look like their idols, boys and girls across Asia emanate their idol's styles and generally become very receptive towards everything from Korea.

The Korean government, wary of the positive side-effects of a domination in pop-culture smartly uses this situation as a way to increase its reputation and influence across the wider Asia-Pacific. Riding on this wave of popularity, Korea has also turned into an Asian powerhouse in fashion and beauty.

It might then actually be that this Korean dominance is also reaching Australian shores. Far from suggesting that the "average white Australian" might suddenly become infatuated with Korean pop-culture, it is however likely that Korea is also dominating the large Asian communities within Australia's urban centres in these industries precisely due to the "Korean wave" of pop-culture.

Korean hairdressers are therefore, I believe, a sign of the integration of urban Australia in Asia. Australian towns may often have Chinatowns, Korea- or Thai-towns but really, the urban centres of Australia are little Asia-towns in their entirety, where the adoption of Asia-wide phenomena can be observed almost immediately.