The Men’s Room
by Fred Roed on 01/07/08 at 11:52 am
4 comments
The other day I went and got my ‘usual’ at my favourite barber shop: ‘The Men’s Room’ in Diep River, Cape Town. I’ve written about them before, but I’m a big fan of how Wesley and his crew are taking an ordinary small business and making it extraordinary by going the extra mile on every detail. They’ve totally pimped up the hairdressing experience, to the extent that for around R150 you can get a shave, haircut and massage – all while watching quality sports channels and sipping your favourite beverage. Nice.
[Check out The Men's Room website here]
The mezzanine level:
The massage chair:
The owner:
Visit The Men’s Room behind Meltz on Main Road in Diep River.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
naeem
Jul 1st, 2008
on the subject of barbers. Props go to the Pakistani & Indian immigrants back here in Fordsburg (JHB)
In the area of about 4 blocks theres at least 15 of these barbershops.
Get this, all of them offer for guys
- standard issue haircuts
- cotton threading (good to remove fine hair on your cheeks and forehead/eyebrow areas)
- steam shaving
- head & shoulder massage
They too have woke up, and most sport designer tiles & model posters, selling Paan (type of candy), got some bollywood flick playing on the plasma in the corner, laid back lounge type chairs to wait at.
All in all, nice way for the locals to catch up on the daily gossip
Only thing thats missing is that X factor in class & professionalism. But hey, for R30 for a haircut, threading & massage i’m not complaining
Andrew Smith
Jul 1st, 2008
I visited the Men’s Room for the first time this week, and it was great.
As I walked in the door I was offered a drink from the stocked fridge (free!). I sat in a comfy chair that could be raised with a foot-pedal, and had a hair-cut from a professional who loves what he does.
And the amazing bit is that it cost R55 – which is the same amount I used to pay the lady who lives around the corner and cuts hair from her converted lounge, with none of the frills!
The reason the men’s room has had to move to bigger premises twice in the last year is that they understand that giving something away for free and creating an experience out of the mundane is an excellent strategy for growth.
Amabacha
Jul 2nd, 2008
I remember reading about these guys on Ideate the first time round and its awesome to see them continuing to grow and do well as they consistently keep their clients in mind.
I wanted to find out more and get a map so did a quick google on them and was a little surprised that (other than the Ideate posts) they have no web presence. Surely an opportunity here for WWC & Ideate to take them to the next level?
Mental Picture: a line of German football fans lining up for a quick trim at The Men’s Room in 2010 before their team’s next game…
Fred
Jul 2nd, 2008
Amabacha – classic dude! that’s just classic. We need you to come in as creative consultant on our projects.
Out of interest, I did chat to Wesley about web stuff when I was there, and they’ve got a mate to design a site for them. Check it out: http://www.mensroom.co.za/