Need a trim? Welcome to the Black Country town with 20 barber shops and salons

Chances are there will be a barbershop or salon near you willing to take on the job.

New hair businesses are springing up across the Black Country. It is, it appears, a growing industry.

The trend for new barbershops has been the talk of social media groups in the town of Sedgley. It is a decent size, but even so eyebrows are being raised as several former shops are turned into hairdressers. There are now around 20 to choose from, the latest being VIP Turkish Barber Club, opening soon on the High Street and adding to two similar Turkish barbers close by.

With a population of 12,087, each barbershop or salon serves around 600 people - but rather than stepping on each others' toes, they all appear to tick over nicely.

A drive into the town on the A459 from Wolverhampton takes in Jonathan's and Mode, as well as the empty building with a sign proclaiming the new Turkish barbers opening soon. Several places are also visible from the Bull Ring Roundabout, while places such as Steel Wolf and Top Turkish Hairstyles can be seen on the High Street and Sedgley Turkish Barbers on the Bilston Road heading out of town. Other places can also be found heading out of the town, with two further down the Bilston Road and Brittany Mills Hair Studio near to the Mount Pleasant Pub.

At Mode Hair Studio on the High Street, which offers hairdressing and a range of hair and beauty treatments, co-owners Sam Bradley and Gemma Smith said the number of hairdressing places in Sedgley was encouraging for the whole town.

Gemma said: "Sedgley isn't a big place and there's not much competition from other places like supermarkets, plus they all seem to work when it comes to staying open.

"We're established here and we've seen a lot of places come and go since we opened, but the ones who have stayed open have found a way of making it work.

"We all provide a service and I think we get customers who come back because they like the service we provide, so that's part of why we are successful and why a lot of the shops here are successful, so it benefits everyone to have these shops here."

At Steel Wolf, there was a steady stream of people coming in and manager Tom Simmons said there were enough people needing haircuts to go around to keep shops like his open and busy.

He said: "We've always joked that that there's enough heads to go around and we all get along, so it's friendly competition and we all get on with what we have.

"Everyone offers different services and has different features, such as we don't have washbasins here, so we can't wash someone's hair, whereas one of the Turkish places can do that.

"It is a bit mad that we have so many places in such a small town, but we all seem to be busy and the fact that we all offer different services means there's enough choice for people."

Analysts say there has been a growth of new businesses dealing with hair and beauty since the lifting of restrictions around the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to an influx of people enjoying being able to go out of their homes.

There are more than 45,000 hair and beauty businesses operating in the UK and more than 288,000 beauticians, hairdressers and barbers working in the UK.

The industry, like many others, suffered from a sudden loss of trade when lockdown was implemented in March 2020, but has rebounded since and has a market size of £2.8 billion to date, with an expected growth of 54 per cent in 2022. While people may be cutting down on large-spend luxuries because of the cost of living crisis, they are happy to find the money to treat themselves to a regular trim.

One of the success stories across the region is the Jimmy Trims franchise, which has four branches in Wolverhampton as well as in Stourbridge, Brierley Hill and Wombourne.

Bally Khatkar is the manager of Jimmy Trims in Castlecroft in Wolverhampton and, like many, has enjoyed a bounce-back in business following the pandemic. He says he has seen a number of competitors emerge in recent months, but sees it as a positive sign that trade is healthy. He said the increase in the number of barber and hairdressing salons came from people looking more after their grooming and the knock-on effect of more people getting qualified to cut and style hair.

"I think a lot of people are thinking more about their hair and taking care of it, so there's a real market for barbers and hairdressers," he said.

"I think male grooming has become a lot more popular, with men taking care of themselves a lot more and, as they are going out, they want to look good.

"The pandemic had an effect on my business as people went a long time without getting their hair cut and when we reopened, it was quiet to begin with as people were still a bit cautious about going out, but we've got back to normal and enjoyed increased sales in some places.

"I think the reason for so many barbershops being out there comes from it being an industry young people are getting into and it's true that in order to open a barbershop, you need to have barbers, so a lot of young people are getting qualified to do it."

Mr Khatkar said Jimmy Trims, which has several shops open across the city, had been open for around 10 years and said that while there was more competition from more shops, the market could take it.

He said: "The number of shops around where we have operated has trebled over the years, yet everyone seems to do quite well with it and proves its own customer base.

"I definitely think there's huge growth in this industry as I see a lot of young people who come into it and want to own their own shops, so I think the industry is in good shape."

The list of Sedgley salons and barbers

Live in Sedgley and fancy a haircut? There's plenty of choice:

• Brittany Mills Hair Studio, 152 High Street

• Jonathan's, High Street

• Vanilla, 1A Bilston Street

• Tease Hair Studio, 25 Bilston Street

• Sedgley Turkish Barbers, Pennyfarthing Arcade

• Salon 117, 117 Bilston Street

• JP's Traditional Barber, 124 Bilston Street

• Mode Hair Studio, High Street

• Menz Barber Shop, 6 High Street

• ReTwisted Hair Design, 8 Bull Ring

• Cutz & Co, 14 Mill Bank

• Splitz Hairdressers, 1 Dudley Street

• Steel Wolf, 8a Dudley Street

• Top Turkish Hairstyles, 20 Dudley Street

• FH3 Barbers Limited, 49A Dudley Street

• Verve 62, 18 High Street

• Hairtech, 2A High Street

• Panache Hair Removal and Beauty Clinic, 13 Bilston Street

• The Beauty Room, Pennyfarthing Arcade

• VIP Turkish Barber Club, High Street (opening soon)