Barbering is the one high street category that refuses to shrink. Local Data Company figures have had barbers as the fastest-growing category in Great Britain for several years running, with a net gain of 665 units in 2023 alone. The Times reported in May 2025 that the number of barbershops in the UK had risen by around 50% since 2018 to 18,411, with more than 750 opening in 2024. Cardiff is a textbook version of that story: a student-heavy inner city, Victorian arcades that suit small-footprint shops, a regenerating Bay, and a ring of suburbs and satellite towns where a second or third branch makes sense.

The market here splits fairly neatly into three groups: a handful of multi-site operators, a set of family names that go back decades (several of them to the same post-war Cypriot lineage), and a wave of newer shops built around booking apps, tiered pricing and, increasingly, a “self-care” model that bolts other services onto the haircut.

The big players

Lazarou Hair Group

Lazarou is the largest hair business in the city by site count and the one with the deepest roots. The family, of Welsh-Cypriot origin, opened its first barbershop in 1966 and now runs eight salons and barbers across South Wales. In Cardiff that means Duke Street Arcade opposite the Castle (a dedicated barbershop opened in 2006 and run by second-generation brothers Andreas and Adam Lazarou), Churchill Way (a combined salon and barbers just off Queen Street), Birchgrove on Caerphilly Road (run by Barri Lazarou), Whitchurch, and the original Tudor Street shop in Riverside (run by Mario Lazarou). Outside the city there are branches in Caerphilly, Penarth and Talbot Green.

Two things set Lazarou apart from the barber-only operators. First, it is a hybrid group: several sites serve men, women and children under one roof, and the group sells colour, extensions and treatments alongside skin fades and hot towel shaves. That widens the revenue base considerably. Second, it stacks discount partnerships aggressively: student, NHS, military, Blue Light Card, PureGym members, FOR Cardiff members, under-16s and seniors all get a rate.

There is also an arguably unethical marketing angle worth knowing about. Lazarou operates a family of “guide” websites: barbersofcardiff.co.uk, hairdressersofcardiff.co.uk, salonsincardiff.co.uk, hairextensionsofcardiff.co.uk and bestsalons.com. The barbers guide presents itself as an independent “Top 10 Barbers of Cardiff 2026” reviewed by “industry insiders”, ranks four Lazarou branches in its top ten, and links back to the group’s main site in its footer. The main Lazarou site links out to all five guide sites in its own footer, both are built on Wix, and both carry the same Bing site verification code. In practice it is owned media dressed as a directory, and it ranks.

Gents of Brooklyn

Gents of Brooklyn is the fastest-growing barber-only brand in the city. It started on Crwys Road in Cathays and now has four sites: the Cathays original, Penarth, a shop inside David Lloyd Cardiff, and its newest flagship at 42 Charles Street next to St David’s in Cardiff city centre. The pitch is the experience rather than the price point: freshly brewed coffee or a cold drink, a chat, and a barber who remembers your cut. The brand describes itself as luxury barbering, but the price list is pitched at the mainstream rather than the top end.

Its structural advantage is training. The GB Academy is a purpose-built barbering academy in the city centre running courses from complete beginner through to advanced technique, and the group says many of its barbers come through in-house. In an industry where the skills shortage is the main brake on opening new sites, owning the pipeline matters. Bookings run through Fresha and the website is a Shopify build with retail attached.

Capello Barbers

Capello has been trading in Cardiff since 1994 and was rebranded in 2016. It has shops in Cathays, the city centre and Pontcanna, plus a fourth in Bristol, which makes it the first of the Cardiff barber brands in this piece to expand over the bridge. Creative director Alessandro Calliva fronts the business. Capello runs a tiered price list from apprentice to senior barber, which is now the standard model for multi-chair shops that want to keep an entry price without under-selling their best people. It also runs a firm cancellation policy: two hours’ notice, 50% for late cancellations, 100% for no-shows. The brand positions itself as independent and LGBTQ+ friendly.

Groom For Men

Set up in 2011 by Jason Humphrey, Groom For Men built its name on being more than a barber: a “head-to-toe man-maintenance clinic” offering barbering, hot towel shaves, male waxing, spray tanning and hand and foot care, with shops on Crwys Road in Cathays and in Penarth. It was an early example of the wider-grooming model that others have since copied. Booksy now lists the Cathays shop as Barberoo Groom For Men, which points to a rebrand or change of ownership.

The legacy names

The Cypriot connection

Cardiff’s modern barbering trade has an unusually clear origin story. After the Second World War, Chris Asprou ran what was regarded as the top gents’ barbers in the city, on Caroline Street, and sponsored Cypriot hairdressers to come to Wales. One of the men he sponsored was the father of Simon and Tino Constantinou, who arrived in 1953. The Constantinou family salon on Crwys Road went on to win the world hairdressing championship for Britain in 1980 and a string of gold medals through the 1980s, and Simon Constantinou was still cutting in his sixties with clients he had served for 40 years.

The Asprou name is still trading. Asprou Barbers describes itself as four generations of barbers dating back to 1948: great-uncle Chris, grandfather Johnny (winner of the Welsh gentlemen’s title in 1959), father Anastasis through the 1980s to 2000s, and the current owner, cutting since 1999. The business now operates from Barry, with A & H Asprou also appearing in Cardiff listings.

The Lazarou family, who opened in 1966, are the branch of that same Cypriot lineage that scaled into a group. So the city’s biggest hair business and its oldest barbering names share a common thread.

Neighbourhood institutions

Away from the arcades, the legacy end of the market is made up of single-shop institutions that have outlasted several recessions.

Carl Cutters in Splott is the archetype. Carl Robinson runs the barbers and his wife Maria runs Intense Hair and Beauty from the same building, with the barbers’ door on Adeline Street and the salon’s on Carlisle Street. No appointments, walk in, sit down. It has been there for decades and locals describe it as an institution.

City Barbers on City Road is old-school in the literal sense: candy-stripe poles, gents only, and a loyal local customer base that has carried it through downturns while newer shops on the same road have come and gone.

Stamy Todds on Whitchurch Road in Gabalfa is a traditional barbers with the old hydraulic chairs and a reputation for quick, friendly, well-priced cuts.

Jones The Barber in Castle Arcade is younger (established 2015) but sits firmly in the traditional camp, and it shows how the Victorian arcades have become a natural address for independent barbers in the city centre.

The new kids on the block

The self-care hybrid: Keep The Faith Social Club

Keep The Faith Social Club opened in the Royal Arcade in 2013 as a family-run tattoo studio and traditional barbers, and picked up a stack of awards for both. It has since evolved into KTF Studio Selfcare, which adds nails, piercings and tooth gems to tattoos and haircuts under one roof. It is the clearest local example of the trend towards multi-service studios that keep a customer in the building longer and sell them more than one thing per visit.

The pandemic-era start-up: Bears Barbershop

Bears Barbershop was incorporated in June 2020, at the point when most of the trade was shut, and set up in the Casablanca Buildings on Mount Stuart Square in Cardiff Bay. It runs a mixed team of barbers, stocks its own-brand pomades, clays and beard products, takes bookings through Nearcut, and charges 100% for anything cancelled inside an hour. It is a good example of a shop built app-first from day one, in a part of the city that had been under-served.

The solo studio: Unit 33 Barber Studios

Unit 33 is a one-barber studio at Meanwhile House on Curran Embankment. The owner, Josh, has close to ten years across hairdressing and barbering and sells longer, consultation-led appointments through Fresha. This is the rent-a-chair and micro-studio end of the market that the trade bodies have been flagging: more barbers going self-employed, fewer of them wanting to run a five-chair shop.

Appointment-only neighbourhood shops

Severn Barbers in Pontcanna takes no walk-ins at all. Everything is booked through Booksy against a short, clearly priced menu that includes specific services for under-12s and seniors. The Office Barbershop in the city centre pitches itself as relaxed and on-trend, again appointment-led. The common thread is that the booking app has replaced the queue.

The Turkish barber wave

The biggest change to Cardiff’s high streets in the last few years is the arrival of Turkish-style barbers: walk-in, multi-chair, hot towel shaves, flame ear treatments, and prices that undercut the appointment shops. Mehmet’s Barber describes itself as the first traditional Turkish barber in Cardiff North. Majestic Turkish Barber is on Crwys Road, and Gino’s Turkish Barber Shop is another city name. Beyond the city boundary the model is being run as a chain: Istanbul Barbers opened in Caerphilly in 2019 with branches in Newport and Cwmbran to follow, offering £10 cuts and £13 skin fades at the time. That price pressure at the value end is now a permanent feature of the market.

Still arriving

Bayside Barbershop near St David’s was promoting a 2026 opening on social media, and Newstyle Barber Shop Cardiff Ltd (incorporated December 2020) is another Crwys Road entrant. Cathays remains the front line: Gents of Brooklyn started there, Groom For Men and Capello both have shops there, and the Turkish barbers and newer independents keep arriving.

What the map tells you

Three battlegrounds. The Castle Quarter and arcades (Lazarou Duke Street, Jones The Barber, Keep The Faith) compete on footfall and heritage. Crwys Road and Cathays compete on students and price. Penarth has become the default second-town expansion for Cardiff brands: Lazarou, Gents of Brooklyn and Groom For Men are all there.

The booking app is the storefront. Fresha (Gents of Brooklyn, Unit 33), Booksy (Severn, Groom For Men) and Nearcut (Bears, Asprou) all have a Cardiff presence. For a lot of customers under 35 the app listing matters as much as the Google Business Profile.

Training is the moat. Gents of Brooklyn has the GB Academy, Lazarou partners with ISA Training and VTCT, and Luke Anthony’s Barbering Academy trains independently. Whoever can train and keep barbers can open sites; everyone else is stuck at one or two.

Price is stratifying. Turkish walk-ins anchor the bottom, tiered apprentice-to-senior menus (Capello) fill the middle, and experience-led brands (Gents of Brooklyn) sit above that. Very few shops in Cardiff are trying to compete on price and experience at the same time.

Salon groups versus pure plays. Lazarou is really a salon group with barbering inside it. Gents of Brooklyn and Capello are barber pure plays. The salon group has more revenue lines; the pure plays have a sharper brand. Both models are growing, which says something about how much room there still is.

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