“The barber chair just has its magical way of disarming people,” says Mr Nicholas Fheng, 26, an Airbnb safety specialist, as he described customers who have shared dreams, shed tears and requested prayers at Nic’s Barber Room, a one-chair barbershop located in his bedroom that was started in 2019.

Mr Fheng initially started learning to barber in 2018 as a life skill, but soon realised that he could use his barbering skills to provide strangers with a safe space where they can openly share their emotions without judgement in his room.

Mr Fheng graduated from Singapore Management University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. During his schooling years, Mr Fheng wanted to be an entrepreneur and start a social enterprise but could not think of a business model.

In 2018, Mr Fheng found a new barber, Firdaus Osman. During the haircut, Mr Osman shared about how he used to work as an engineer onboard a ship and was elected as the “unofficial ship’s barber” because he possessed basic barbering skills. After the haircut, Mr Fheng asked Mr Osman if he considered teaching barbering before.

“I was thinking, 'Nic, are you crazy? Why would somebody teach you his secret recipe?'” says Mr Fheng. However, to his surprise, Mr Osman said that he believed in “imparting the knowledge”.

From August to December 2018, Mr Fheng travelled down to Mr Osman’s house in Yishun every week to practise his barbering skills but soon realised that it would not be enough for him to improve. He wanted to “create a platform” to practise without having to travel to Mr Osman’s house. Mr Fheng found that some barbers would cut hair after hours at their lift lobbies but felt that cutting hair at his lift lobby would be impractical. He ultimately chose to set up his barbershop in his room. 

“My dad is quite particular about all this kind of hair stuff, so I was like, ‘maybe not in the living room’,” Mr Fheng says.