At newly opened B+Lim hair salon, the hunt for its location is just as thrilling as the haircut you get from Japanese stylist Ryu Oba.
B+Lim, which opened in December 2015, is in a tiny space located at the basement of Naumi Hotel. The entrance is a the back. To get there, you walk down the alley between Seah and Purvis Street, which is lined with trash bins and as ghetto as it gets in central Singapore.
You’ll know you’ve reached your destination when you see potted plants brightening up an otherwise drab entrance. You take the stairs going down the basement, and there it is, a glass door that previews a tiny space reminiscent of tiny, owner-run shops in Tokyo.
The man in charge of this cocoon is Ryu Oba, who used to be the area manager at Kizuki+Lim salon at Raffles Hotel Shopping Arcade.
The Lim company (it means “Less is More”), based in Osaka, has a policy that requires its employees to conceptualize their own space when they are on their 10th year. The company pays for the cost of establishing the salon and, after a few years, if the employee wants to go it alone, he can, but he will need to drop the +Lim from the salon’s name.
Kizuki+Lim has only been in the Little Red Dot for seven years, but Oba had started working for the Lim company in Japan three years before that. Since he wanted B+Lim to be an extension of himself, he gave the bare and unused space a streamlined, industrial-themed interior design, where he can execute precision-style cutting that ranges from a casual barber style for men to something edgier and so Japanese for both men and women.
There are only four work stations here, and patrons pass through a tiny corridor to reach the other side of the room where the reclining shampoo chair and bowl are located. Hanging plants, and a turntable, gives the space a warm, friend’s-apartment feeling.
This city has too many secret cocktails bars already, so how about a hidden beauty parlour instead?
39 Seah St, Naumi Hotel #B1-01; +65 6837 0789, www.lessismore.co.jp/b. Mon-Wed & Fri 10am-8pm, Thu, Sun & PH 10am-4pm. Haircut is $80 (men) and $100 (women).
