Artist Statement

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Whenever we think about ‘Ladies Hair Salon’, we will have a nostalgic feeling. And in reality, it is indeed challenging to find the ladies hair salons in Hong Kong anymore or even the other developed cities. If yes, they are probably brothels, which under the name of ladies hair salon only.

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From this circumstance, I would like to arouse some arguments. Firstly, does the disappearance of ladies hair salon relate to the transformation of society? Is it replaced by the fashionable salon where we can build up our figures into the ‘ideal image’ for the others?

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On the contrary, the male hair salon still exists. Its image is clear; it presents itself as a professional and old-style quality one. It is very different from the multiple stores on the streets nowadays. Undoubtedly, their clients are mostly old men.

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My concern about the ladies hair salon is not about their disappearance. Conversely, I am interested in the differences between the existence of the old male hair salon and the transformation of the ladies hair salon. Nowadays the ladies hair salons have been changed into the unisex ones. Or they are replaced by the fashionable salons where you can build up your figure into ‘perfect woman’, in which it is presupposed in the dominant male society. The traditional ladies hair salon cannot fulfil contemporary society anymore; its disappearance comes naturally and reasonably. On the other hand, although the male hair salon is also going to be disappeared, in fact, it is not caused by the ideology of the society in our contemporary world.

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Wai Kit Lam

Hong Kong

10.2005

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