Competition Makes Cutting Hair a Tough Business

Carlos Gramajo's clients used to drop by his Tweedy Mile barbershop often, but that was before the economy took a turn for the worse three years ago.

“The clients that came every eight days for a hair cut, now come every three weeks, and those that came every three weeks, now only come every month and a half,” said Gramajo, 65, owner of the

Gramajo and his wife Vicky have operated the business since the mid-nineties, when he would serve as many as 250 customers each week. They now get about 85 clients weekly, he said.

“There is hardly no one spending money every eight days for a haircut.”

Hair salons and barbershops make up one of the few industries that has grown during these tough economic times. Licenses issued to barber shops have increased across the country, suggesting that cutting hair is one of the few recession-proof trades.

“We have survived the depression and recession better than most trades,” said Charles Kirkpatrick, executive officer of the National Association of Barber Boards (NABB).  “We have been growing since Desert Storm,” said Kirkpatrick.

About 250,000 barbers hold licenses in the United States. The number is expected to rise with barberschool attendance expanding at a steady 15 percent a year, according to Kirkpatrick.

Growth like that would be a boon for most communities.

But in South Gate, the prospect of more hair-cutting businesses has the owners of the city’s longest established barbershop warning that additional competition would only hurt their operation.

“The competition is enormous here in South Gate,” said Marcos Mosqueda, 41, owner of in Tweedy Mile. “In every block of Tweedy Mile, you are going to find a barbershop or hair salon.”

An estimated 30 or so barbershops operate in South Gate and roughly 100 beauty salons are listed with the South Gate Chamber of Commerce. Many of them sprouted in the last two decades.

“There were only two or three barbershops close to 25 years ago,” said Mosqueda, whose business was started by his mother 23 years ago. “We were almost always full,” he said.

The stiff competition coupled with the struggling economy has cut into the shop's bottom line—and its staff.

Since 2009, yearly revenue at Marco’s Barber Shop has decreased by roughly 25 percent. Mosqueda now employs only four barbers, having been forced to let go of three others. Their hair-cutting spaces now stand unused.

Despite the difficulties faced by older barbershops in South Gate, at least one new shop owner feels optimistic about his future.

“I just need to target the schools,” said Omar Monzon, 29, co-owner of the year-old Custom Cutz located in Tweedy Mile. The shop employs young barbers. It colored its walls with graffiti, operates a clothing store and plays hip-hop constantly in the background.

All of it is designed to attract a young clientele. “That is our future, the youngsters,” Monzon said.

Monzon combined two smaller barbershops to create Custom Cutz. He said his revenue has grown by around 25 percent a year since he first began three years ago. He is looking to add another full-time barber to the seven who already operate in his shop.

Monzon credits his decision to market only to the youth as the reason for his claimed success.

“When you cater to a specific group of people, they are going to come back,” said Monzon. “[If] you are open to a general population, when the economy drops, you will feel the drop.”