Salons leave old-style barbers on the street

On a January afternoon, temperatures in Beijing fell to -10 C during an unexpected cold snap.

People rushed around the streets with their jacket hoods pulled up to protect their faces from the bitter wind.

Despite the cold, an elderly woman was providing haircuts for residents outside an apartment block in Haidian district.

Using a corner of the building to shield her from the icy blasts and dressed snugly in a down jacket, cap and cotton shoes, she used an old bicycle to carry her tools, including clippers, a broom, a stool and a card printed with a QR code for mobile payment.

Xing Xiuzhen, from Chengde, Hebei province, has been plying her trade at the spot since November. Though she once owned two barber salons in the capital, the 60-year-old is one of many older people who have turned to on-street, freelance barber work to pay the bills.

Her attempts to establish a hairdressing empire nearly 30 years ago ended in failure. In 1995, she traveled to Beijing, leaving her husband and two daughters at home in Chengde, and rented a 60-square-meter salon near what is now Zhongguancun Science Park, a tech hub.

She later opened a second salon, but was forced to close it in 2008 because the manager she had employed failed to run the shop properly. When her business failed, Xing took work on construction sites and eventually moved in with one of her daughters, who had relocated to Beijing to work for a high-tech company.

As she has no pension, the senior now earns a living through her hairdressing skills.