People don't come back to a barbershop just because the cut is good. The cut has to be good — obviously. It's the price of entry. But the people who book at Xin Fade every three weeks and bring their friends? They're coming back because the chair is one of the last places where you can have an unplanned, low-stakes conversation with someone who isn't on your phone.
A barbershop is a rare space. You're both in the same room for forty-five minutes minimum. You can't really check your emails. There's nowhere to rush off to. You either sit in silence, which is fine, or you talk about whatever's on your mind. More often than not, it's the second one.
The usual topics
The conversation almost always starts the same way:
"How's Bali treating you?" or "How long are you in town for?"
From there it goes wherever. The most common subjects:
Surf. Where broke today, where was flat yesterday, which board you're riding now, whether Batu Bolong is worth the paddle at high tide. If you surf, you already know. If you don't, you learn a lot by osmosis.
Food. Where to get good nasi campur that isn't on Instagram. The new coffee shop that opened near the rice fields. Whether the warung at the end of the road is still the best banh mi in Canggu or if someone has taken the crown. We keep a running list.
Scooters. Everyone has a scooter story. The one that died on the way to Uluwatu. The one the rain flooded. The brake cable that snapped at exactly the right moment. If you've ridden in Bali for more than a month, you have at least two.
Work. For the digital nomads and the people who run businesses here, it's usually the first time they've spoken to someone face-to-face who isn't in a coworking space all week.
And the less usual ones
Then there are the conversations you don't expect. The guy who's just quit his job in Tokyo and isn't sure what comes next. The first-timer who's nervous about proposing to his girlfriend on the beach at sunset. The person dealing with something back home and doesn't really want to be alone with it for an hour.
You learn quickly as a barber that sometimes people don't need advice. They just need someone to listen while they say a thing out loud for the first time. You don't have to fix anything. You just have to keep cutting straight.
The unwritten rule
The rule of the chair is simple: what's said in the chair stays in the chair. It's not a complicated rule, but it matters. People open up because they know they're not going to see you at a dinner party the next night and have the conversation brought up. They can say what they want, pay, and leave.
The other half of it is: if someone wants to sit in silence, that's also fine — it is covered in our unwritten etiquette rules. A good barber can tell within five minutes whether you booked the appointment to talk or to zone out for a while. We match your energy.
Forty-five minutes. No notifications. No agenda. A decent haircut at the end of it. If you haven't booked yet, here is how. In a place as busy as Canggu, that's a luxury. It's not a bad way to spend an afternoon.