Omicron-hit Shanghai, with a population of over 25 million has seen a group of "bulk buying organizers" becoming "life savers" in this battle against the virus amid a sealed-off management that has lasted for over a month. Besides buying daily commodities in bulk, including vegetables or milk, this time residents have purchased bulk hairdresser services.

With the growing demand for hairdressing, more and more residents in Shanghai's Zhichun community, located in the Putuo district of the city, agreed to invite some hairdressers to help them with a haircut as the community has kept zero COVID-19 infections since Shanghai started the "static management" at the end of March due to the latest virus outbreak.

A resident of Zhichun surnamed Shi told the Global Times on Thursday that, unlike men, women are particularly caring about their image and they are not willing to cut their hair at home. They rather want professional hairdressing services.

"If we can get daily necessities through bulk buying, why can't we buy the hairdressing service as well? So, we discussed the issue with the neighborhood committee," Shi said.

"The residents have raised the demand after the community was sealed off for about 20 days," a working staff from the Jinlingyuan neighborhood committee, surnamed Wang who is in charge of this community, told the Global Times on Thursday.

However, due to the grim epidemic prevention and control situation, they were cautious to allow hairdressers in. On May 2, they successfully invited three hairdressers who are also residents from a nearby community to provide the services.


About 180 residents from four residential communities under the management of the Jinlingyuan neighborhood committee enjoyed the services at the price of 40 yuan ($6.07) per person, less than half of their regular service prices at their working salon.

Due to the epidemic situation, Wang admitted that they had to take careful and strict preventive measures to reduce risks, including reservation, providing service to each client at different time and disinfection after finishing services for each client. In the community of Shanghai Zhichun alone, 40 residents received the services on Monday.

The residents were quite satisfied with the haircut thanks to the professional services, Wang said.

Shanghai has continued to conduct citywide nucleic acid and antigen tests for the residents during recent days to curb the spread of the virus. As of Wednesday, over 16.47 million residents were in precaution-level regions, which means that they could be allowed to move within certain areas under the preventive mechanism.

'Seeing them happy also cheers me up'

Wearing a protective suit and a mask, Japanese hairstylist Daichi Miyamoto carefully cuts the hair of a young woman while discussing with her what hairstyle she liked. After nearly an hour, she looked at her new hairstyle in the full-length mirror in front of her, gave a satisfied smile and took a photo with Miyamoto.


That scene did not happen in a barbershop, but in a residential community in Minhang district where Miyamoto and his Chinese wife live. Residents at his community were recently also allowed to walk nearby after spending weeks of self-quarantine at home. However, some worried about their messy hairdo as local barbershops remained closed during the city's "static management."

To solve his neighbors' problem, Miyamoto built a temporary outdoor haircut booth downstairs with the permission of the community managers. Each day, from 9 am to 7 pm, he is serving more than 10 clients.

"About 100 residents booked the hairdressing service from me in advance," Miyamoto told the Global Times on Thursday. To prevent the possible transmission of the virus, Miyamoto allows only one client to come downstairs at each time and asks them to wear face masks.

Although he is charging his neighbors between 100 and 158 yuan ($15.6 - $24.7), one fourth of his normal price at hair salon, Miyamoto said he tried his best to provide a caring services. He took "before and after" photos for all the clients, and carefully designed hairstyles based on their characteristics and preferences.

"Some neighbors thought they would get a simple, 10-minute haircut," said Miyamoto's wife surnamed Dong. "But after enjoying a 40-minute plus service, they told us that they were so surprised and glad to have such an exquisite hairstyle."


Having a haircut during this special lockdown time improves the mood of residents of the community, and many of them excitedly shared photos of their beautiful new hairstyles on the community's WeChat group. "Seeing them happy also cheers me up," Miyamoto said adding that "compared with the previous quarantine days when I either slept or watched anime at home, I prefer the current busy time to bring my neighbors convenience and beauty."

After working as a hairstylist in Japan for 10 years, Miyamoto came to Shanghai in 2018 and settled in this city. He is confident with Shanghai's anti-epidemic response and is looking forward to the return of a normal, orderly life.

"I think my hair salon will have good business after Shanghai lifts lockdown, and I am optimistic about the coming days," Miyamoto said.