Mobile VW Crafter Barber Shop ! A UK company called Barbus that’s based in Banbury, Oxfordshire has found a way to match barbering services with our frantic 21st century lifestyle by bringing the barber shop to the customer. The company provides its mobile barbering service to clients at local trading estates, supermarket car parks or any other type of parking lot. Barbus uses a Volkswagen Crafter panel van that has been converted into a mobile barbers shop. The Crafter’s interior has been completely transformed and is fully equipped with two leather salon chairs, mirrors, power points, hair driers, electric clippers, and even a toilet/cloakroom cubicle.
We meet 6 populations in transition via the microcosm of the local barber shop. In South Africa, post Mandela era, the white middle class is degrading to poverty. Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) prepares for the Olympic Games of 2016 by educating its prostitutes. Syria’s refugees realize that they have stranded in Container City. Greenland’s youth forswears the traditional belief that the human soul lives on in long hair. The inhabitants of Detroit (USA) learn to accept the bankruptcy of their city. In central Portugal young toreadors visit the barber before they enter the arena. In every episode, a population finds itself on the verge of change and a barber plays his role. As opinion maker, as confessor, as story collector, as society barometer. We enter the barber shop at a crucial moment in time and leave after 26mins with a new look.