When you have to go to the dentist, the local council (Gemeinde) or a hairdresser in Switzerland, if you haven’t learnt the language you often fear the awkwardness of your words and worry that the things you say may be lost in translation - which in these cases could lead to a root-canal, revoked residence permit and bowl cut respectively. Now, a hairdresser in Zurich has answered many an introvert and struggling expat's prayers by offering “chat-free” haircut appointments.
“Where are you going on your holidays? A little shorter than usual? How are the kids?” These are many items of small talk that people at the Drycut salon in Zurich don’t have to engage with if they don’t want to. The salon on Limmatstrasse has recently started to offer “Silent Cuts”, where the hairdressers quite literally cut to the chase and don't engage in conversation with the customer at all.
Moritz Steinle, managing director of the salon, told Züritoday that it seems as though the good people of Zurich are craving the sound of silence: “The offer is more popular than we thought”, she noted, revealing that 50 out of every 500 haircuts they do are now “silent”.
“We want to accommodate customers who, after a day full of meetings, don't feel like chatting about the weather or the holidays while they're getting their hair cut," Steinle explained.
However, before you assume that choosing the service is incredibly rude, Steinle noted that most of her stylists enjoy “Silent Cuts”. "Sometimes it's exhausting for the stylists to have to try to talk to [customers] out of sheer politeness… Multitasking is not easy for all hairdressers either.”
With its success in Zurich, Drycuts will now be rolling out the service - which was inspired by similar ideas in the UK and US - to its stores in Winterthur and Bern. At the same time, Steinle was quick to mention that "customers who like to talk are of course very welcome to do so."