Cutting a man’s hair in Seoul can cost ₩25,000 — or ₩110,000. Same city, same men’s haircut, more than four times apart. Where you should land on that spectrum is the question this article answers.
Billycat, Herr, and Cream Men’s Hair, already covered in the barbershop primer, are left out here. This is the rest of the field, compared side by side by their price lists.
The short answer
- A shaving menu means barbershop; no shaving menu means men's hair salon. It comes down to licensing.
- Real shaving prices in Seoul run ₩30,000–44,000. Cuts run ₩25,000 to ₩110,000.
- The densest cluster right now isn't Seongsu — it's Yongsan, around Itaewon and Hannam.
- Only five shops have confirmed English service, Reker (Itaewon) among them.
Why split barbershops and men's hair salons at all?
Straight answer: whether they can shave you. And it’s not a matter of taste — it’s a matter of licensing.
To hold a razor and perform a shave in Korea, you need a barber (iyongsa) license. The hairdresser (miyongsa) license most salon designers hold doesn’t cover it. So in the trade, whether a place shaves is the practical line between salon and barbershop.
That gives travelers a very simple test.
- If the price list has a shaving / SHAVING / 면도 item → it's almost certainly a barbershop with a licensed barber.
- If it doesn't, and instead you see ten-plus perm options → it's a men's hair salon.
- Case in point: Seongsu's Sabujak Men's Hair openly states it's "a men's hair shop, not a barbershop, so shaving isn't available" — while its perm menu is among the widest in Seoul.
Some places only wear the barbershop sign
Industry reporting suggests it's not rare for a licensed hairdresser to hang up a barbershop sign while offering no shaving at all. If a classic shave is the point, choose by the price list, not the signboard.
So where should you go?
Only the shops with clearly distinct personalities made the cut.
💈 Confirmed price list comparison — in won, cut priced separately unless noted (verified September 2026)
| Shop | Area | Cut | Shave | Down perm | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bee Handsome Jamsilsaenae | Jamsil | 25,000 | none | down cut 25,000 | men’s-only salon, lowest tier |
| Authentic | Dangsan | 25,000–35,000 | 32,000 | 77,000 incl. cut | old-school fade |
| Tteogi | Sangsu | 33,000 | unverified | unverified | cornrows · braids |
| Treve | Sinchon | 39,900 | 33,900 | 72,300 incl. cut | cut + shave 72,300 |
| 407 | Wangsimni | 40,000 | 30,000 | 40,000 | iron perm 120,000 |
| High Tension | Itaewon | 44,000 | 33,000 | 33,000 | bleach 55,000 |
| Oakleyman 33 | Jamsil | 55,000 | 44,000 | 88,000 incl. cut | crop-down cut 110,000 |
| Sabujak Men’s Hair | Seongsu | 35,000 | none | 65,100 | most perm options |
| Reker | Itaewon | unverified | unverified | unverified | English · Dutch |
Why Yongsan, and not Seongsu?
Fashion moved to Seongsu, but the barbershops stayed in Yongsan. Reker and High Tension sit around Itaewon and Hannam, and Billycat Yongsan and Herr — covered in the earlier article — are in the same district. Seongsu has little beyond Sabujak Men’s Hair.
There’s no single provable reason, but it’s clear Itaewon has long had a high density of foreign residents, and classic barber culture grew with that demand. For a traveler, the practical takeaway is simple — if you want to compare two or three barbershops, spend half a day in Itaewon. They’re within walking distance of each other.
📍 Reker Barbershop 📍 High Tension Barbershop 📍 Authentic Barbershop 📍 Sabujak Men’s Hair
Where can I get it done in English?
Straight answer: only five places are confirmed in writing. The rest aren’t confirmed — which isn’t the same as “they can’t.”
🌐 Shops that state English service (prices are March 2026 guide figures)
| Shop | Area | Cut | Language | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reker Barbershop | Itaewon | unverified | English · Dutch | languages stated in store intro |
| The Days Hair | Hongdae | 30,000–40,000 | English | shadow perm · down perm specialty |
| Buddy Men’s Hair | Hapjeong | 35,000–45,000 | English · Japanese | men-only, translation device on hand |
| C.PLOT | Gangnam | 44,000–77,000 | English | premium, 30s–40s target |
| Park Seung-cheol Hair Studio | Hongdae | from 25,650 | English | chain, strong on combined treatments |
Book earlier than you think
- Cut only — 3–7 days out. Color · bleach · perm — 1–1.5 weeks. Peak season, 2 weeks.
- Walk-ins can wait 2–3 hours or get turned away, especially as reservation-only shops multiply.
- Booking channels vary — Instagram DM, Naver booking, and Kakao Hair Shop are common, and some take phone only.
- There's no tipping culture in Korea. Pay the price-list amount and that's it.
What should you say once you're in the chair?
Once you can read the price list, half the battle’s over. These are the names that keep coming back in Korean men’s hair menus.
✂️ Reading the 2026 Seoul men's hair menu — prices are confirmed real transactions
| Name | What it is | Real price |
|---|---|---|
| Down perm | A treatment that flattens the sides and back that stick out. Basically the default option | 30,000–40,000 |
| Aes perm | A soft curve at the center part, forehead slightly visible | 90,000 (incl. cut) |
| See-through aes | Shows more forehead than a standard aes perm. For wider foreheads | similar to aes perm |
| Garma perm | A sharper 6:4 or 7:3 side part. More mature look | 90,000 (incl. cut) |
| Shadow perm | Soft waves focused on the front and top. The most-requested | 95,000 |
| Leaf perm | Trims the ends for a natural flow. Pairs with the leaf cut | 75,000 |
| Iron perm | A perm set with a heated rod. A clear Seoul price band | 105,000–130,000 |
| Volume magic | Straightens while keeping volume | 135,000 |
You only need a few cut names too. A semi-leaf cut leaves hair just covering the eyes — far more wearable than a full leaf cut. A Ga-il cut is the up-style that shows the most forehead, and a flat cut is for when you want it short but aren’t ready to bare the whole forehead. Comma hair is bangs that curl softly to one side — these days, instead of blow-drying daily, people set the structure with a comma perm to cut down styling time.
The 2026 direction sums up in one sentence — away from angular, product-heavy styles and toward airy, slightly tousled ones. Even the two-block has gone soft, with the boundary blended out of sight.
How much time should you block out?
- Cut only — 30–45 minutes. A classic barbershop cut can run up to an hour.
- Cut + down perm — about 90 minutes. The most common combo.
- Cut + perm — 1.5–3 hours.
- Cut + bleach + color — 3–4 hours. Clear half a day.
Extra charges for length and thickness are common, so confirm the full total when you book.
Sources
- Authentic · High Tension · Tteogi Barbershop prices — Esquire Korea, "5 Recommended Barbershops in Seoul" (June 30, 2025)
- Reker · Wesley Barbershop introductions — W Korea (April 3, 2025)
- Current menus and prices for High Tension · Sabujak · 407 · Treve · Oakleyman 33 · Bee Handsome — Mamedne store pages (verified September 2026)
- English-friendly shops, per-treatment average prices · durations · booking lead times — Creatrip English guide (updated March 25, 2026)
- Barber vs hairdresser licensing, barbershop service times, industry growth — Hankyung Business (February 10, 2023)
- Down perm mechanics · frequency · side effects, leaf cut · slick cut definitions — Namu Wiki entries