Stay in Vietnam long enough and there's one problem you can't dodge: your hair grows.
In Japan you just go to your usual salon and that is that, but the moment you decide to get your hair cut in a foreign country, the bar feels surprisingly high: which shop do you walk into, how much will it cost, and will anyone understand you in the first place?
To give away the conclusion first,Get your hair cut in Vietnam and you somehow end up with a Vietnamese haircut. This has nothing to do with a lack of skill; it comes down to a difference in culture. In this article I sort Vietnamese barbershops into four types, then tell you exactly what I experienced at the ones I actually went to.
Vietnamese barbershops fall into roughly four types
“Vietnamese barbershop” covers a lot of ground in practice. As I see it, they break down into roughly four types.
| Type | What kind of shop it is | rough price range |
|---|---|---|
| ① On the street | Cutting hair literally on the street or under a roadside tree. A mirror hung on a wall, and that is the whole setup | 50,000–60,000 VND (about 250 yen / figure reported in 2021) |
| ② The ones with a roof | Basic, but it does at least have a roof and walls. They are everywhere in town | 50,000–90,000 VND (around 500 yen) |
| ③ An actual shop | A properly fitted-out barbershop. Clean, with real equipment | From around 100,000 VND (1,000 yen will cover it) |
| ④ Japanese-run and foreign chains | A salon run by Japanese or other foreigners. Almost the same as a salon in Japan | around 2,000–3,000 yen (more, depending on the shop or the package) |
* 10,000 VND is roughly 58 yen (100,000 VND is about 580 yen). It changes with the exchange rate and the shop, so please treat these as rough guides.
Of these, the ones I go to are ② and ③. ① on the street takes more nerve than I have, and ④ is certainly reassuring, but part of me thinks it would be a waste to have the same experience I could have in Japan while I am here in Vietnam. Below I write about ②, ③, and ④, the ones I have actually visited.
Incidentally, the street barbers in category ① are still a common sight if you walk around the Old Quarter of Hà Nội. A single mirror propped against a street tree or a wall, one chair set beneath it — a truly bare-bones ”shop”.
This isn't simply unlicensed trade; in Hà Nội it's talked about as one of the street scenes that emerged from the late 1980s into the early 1990s. According to news reports, many of the barbers are military veterans or pensioners. A local paper in 2021 put the price at VND 50,000 to 60,000 for adults (about 250 yen at the time). The feel is less tourist attraction than a place neighbors use day to day, so it's worth a look simply as a slice of Vietnamese street life.
Why you end up with “Vietnamese hair”
Let me start with the most important point of all. When I get my hair cut at a local barbershop,the thinning step that Japanese barbers do is almost entirely absent. That step where they adjust the volume with thinning shears.
What they do instead is run the clippers first, then take the whole thing shorter. Two stages. In other words, rather than thinning out the volume, they drop the length and tidy it up. As a result, the thought you walk out with tends to be "it's shorter" rather than "that feels lighter." And in fact, plenty of times I've noticed that while my hair was definitely shorter, the sheer amount of it hadn't really gone down.
At first I assumed they just didn't have the technique for thinning hair, but looking into it, the story isn't that simple. Vietnamese has a word for thinning shears (kéo tỉa) and a term for the thinning technique itself (tỉa mỏng), and both are taught in hairdressing training.
What is interesting is that local barber training schools“With the coarse hair of Vietnamese men, thinning it too much only makes it stick out more as it grows. Use thinning shears with extreme care.”is what they are taught. In other words, it is not that the skill is missing; a deliberate judgment is at work, to ”not thin on purpose” according to the hair type. When I, as a Japanese customer, feel that “the volume has not come down,” it is because the goal being aimed at was different in the first place.
With no thinning step, the range of possible designs narrows on its own. Short on the sides, and what to do with the fringe——you finish the cut out of that combination, so things inevitably converge on similar haircuts. That is the real explanation behind “get your hair cut in Vietnam and you come out looking Vietnamese.”
④ Japanese and foreign-owned salons are almost the same as in Japan
Let me start with the one that's easiest to settle. A salon run by Japanese owners turns out to be almost no different from a hair salon in Japan. There's a consultation, there's a thinning step, and the result is what you pictured. As I recall, a cut ran about 2,000 to 3,000 yen.
Being able to talk things through in Japanese with a Japanese stylist is a big reassurance, so for anyone who does not want a bad result or who has something important coming up, I would honestly recommend this option. In terms of the experience itself, though, options 2 and 3 clearly win.
② ③ What happens when you walk into a local barbershop
Now for the main point. The flow is roughly the same at the bare-bones shops of ② and the proper shops of ③, so I will describe them together. In a word,rough around the edges, in the best sense。
It's different from the moment you sit down
When you sit down, they wrap paper around your neck and put a cape over it. So far, the same as Japan.
Here is where it differs: there is no step where they wet your hair with water.the moment you sit down, out come the clippers. Even when clippers are not used, they mist your hair lightly with a spray bottle and go straight into the cut. If you are used to the Japanese order, where your hair is wetted carefully at the shampoo basin first, it throws you a little at first.
The chair goes up and down on a foot pedal
One quietly memorable detail is the chair. Vietnamese barber chairs are often the kind you raise and lower with a foot pump, and the barber works the pedal mid-cut — thump, thump, thump — moving you up and down. That sound and rhythm stay with you as part of the memory of a Vietnamese barbershop.
The shave skips the cream entirely and goes straight to
The shave is pretty bold too. There is no lathering up shaving cream; instead,they wet your face with their hand and start shaving straight away. And rather than shaving the whole face, the idea is to do only the parts that need it, such as the sides of the face and around the beard.
The shower is used as is
The hair wash is distinctive too. They basically don't put anything protective over your clothes, andthey spray you with the shower just as you are. Sometimes they lay a towel over your face, sometimes they do not. After that they scrub your hair with shampoo and it is done. Then they dry it and even style it for you.
Side by side with how it goes in Japan
This is hard to picture from words alone, so let me line it up against the usual flow at a Japanese barbershop or salon. This is a comparison based purely on what I have experienced.
| Process | Japan (typically) | A local Vietnamese barbershop |
|---|---|---|
| Consultation | After a careful consultation | show a photo, or explain briefly with gestures |
| First step | Wet the hair at a shampoo basin | Straight to the clippers, or a spray bottle |
| Thinning out the volume | Thinned out carefully with thinning shears | no thinning step; they adjust with length |
| Chair | Raised and lowered with a hydraulic lever | Foot-pedal type. You pump it, thump, thump |
| Shaving | Hot towel plus lathered cream | Water splashed on by hand, then shaved as is |
| hair wash | Clothes protected at the shampoo basin | Straight to the shower. A towel may or may not appear |
| Time required and atmosphere | Unhurried and relaxing | Brisk and lively |
Incidentally, the shop I went to did not include it, but at barbershops in VietnamEar cleaning (lấy ráy tai)is often on the standard menu. The biggest men's chain in the country builds its flagship course around a set of cut, shampoo, and ear cleaning. At some shops a head and shoulder massage comes with it.
What runs through all of it is that this isn't the quiet, relaxed stretch of time you surrender yourself to in Japan. The shop is lively and the work moves briskly. It might feel closer to a 10-minute cut chain like QB House. Not "a time to be pampered" but "a place you go to get something done." That clear-eyed framing is, if anything, easy to be around.
What I like most about local barbershops is that “thunk, thunk” of a foot pumping the chair. It's a foot pedal rather than a hydraulic lever, so every height adjustment mid-cut sends a light knock through the shop. The place is noisy, I'm sitting there barely able to communicate, and before I know it the clippers are in, water is sprayed on, and about 20 minutes later they hold up the mirror and tell me we're done. It threw me the first time, but after a few visits I came to enjoy the bluntness of it. I end up with roughly the same haircut every time, and these days I think even that is part of what makes it Vietnam.
Barbershops these days are starting to mix with youth culture
There is one more shift I have been noticing lately. In central areas of Ho Chi Minh City such as Thảo Điền and District 1, it feels like there are more and more barbershops run by sharp young owners, sitting somewhere between ③ and ④.
On the technical side, Vietnamese people are dexterous to begin with, so there is not that much difference in the finish. What does stand out, once you take in the interior, the music, and the atmosphere of the shop, isThe barbershop itself is turning into a piece of youth culture, is the impression I get.
この体感は、数字を見ても外れていないようです。ベトナム大手紙の報道によれば、メンズ専門チェーンの最大手は創業4年で84店舗まで広がり、2019年の年間利用者は約400万人に達したとされます。創業者は1990年代生まれの世代。「路上の小さな店が中心だった業界が、専門性を持つ大型のメンズサロンへ移りつつある」と報じられていました。私が街で感じていた変化は、業界全体で起きていたことだったわけです。
The most telling example was a shop I once walked into in Hà Nội. Believe it or not,there is a craft beer bar attached, so you get your hair cut with a beer in handstyle. It is an experience you rarely get in Japan, and it brought home to me that the barbershop culture here is quite different from Japan's.
And this does not seem to be a case of the shop I happened to walk into being unusual. In Ho Chi Minh City too, men's salons in District 1 and Thảo Điền advertise “have a craft beer or a chilled whiskey” on their official sites, and bars and tailors share the same building. The place where you get your hair cut is edging closer to a social space a man drops into on his own——that current really does seem to be there.
Thinking about it, this may make perfect sense. A barbershop is somewhere men go regularly, and go alone. Add beer, coffee, and music, and it turns into "a place to spend time while you happen to get a haircut." Vietnam has a deeply rooted cafe culture to begin with, so that sensibility seems to have flowed into barbershops as well. It connects to the select-shop story I wrote about in another article: young people in Vietnam are good at turning "a place to get something done" into "a place to spend time."
If you're getting a haircut mid-trip
At a local shop of type 2 or 3,about 1,000 yen will usually cover it. At a cheap place you can get a cut for about half that. Since a shave, a wash, and styling all come with it at that price, by Japanese standards you almost feel guilty.
How to choose a shop
If the sign says "Hớt tóc」「Cắt tóc” on the sign, that is a barbershop. More and more places now put up “Barber” in English as well. For your first visit, the safe bet is a shop you can see well into from outside, that looks clean, and that already has customers in the chairs. If you are uneasy, checking the photos and reviews on Google Maps before you go will settle your nerves.
What to know before you walk in
- Know what the finish will tend to look like: since there's no thinning step, saying "I want it shorter" gets your intent across better than "I want it lighter"
- Showing a photo is the fastest route: even if you cannot communicate in words, showing a photo of the style you want settles things fast
- watch what you wear: they may spray water on you just as you are, so it is safer not to go in clothes you would mind getting wet
- It does not take long: it moves briskly, so it's easy to slot in between sightseeing stops
If your hair starts bothering you mid-trip, or if you weren't happy with the cut you got back in Japan, go ahead and walk into a local barbershop. You'll come back looking a little more “Vietnamese,” and I think that's not a bad souvenir to take home.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does a barbershop in Vietnam cost?
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At a local shop, reckon on around 100,000 VND (about 580 yen); 1,000 yen will almost always cover it. A no-frills place runs about 50,000–90,000 VND. At a Japanese-run or foreign-run salon a cut is around 2,000–3,000 yen, and higher again depending on the shop or the package.
- Is it all right if we do not share a language?
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Showing a photo of the haircut you want is the surest approach. Fine nuances are hard to convey in words, so I recommend bringing an image with you.
- How is the process different from Japan?
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They often go straight to the clippers without wetting your hair, and shaving is sometimes done with water alone, no cream. You may also get sprayed with the shower with nothing protecting your clothes. On the other hand, some shops throw in an ear cleaning and a head and shoulder massage.
- Can I get the same finish as in Japan?
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The result tends to be “shorter” rather than “lighter and cleaner.” One reason is that barbers here are taught to be cautious about thinning, because the coarse hair of Vietnamese men sticks out as it grows if you take too much out. If you want the same feel you get in Japan, a Japanese-run or foreign-run salon is the surer choice.
