South African Township Barbershops & Salons

About this book

As the cultural and social hubs of South Africas townships barbershops and salons serve not only as places to get your hair styled but as places to gather gossip and come together as a community. They also happen to showcase sharp and snappy vernacular designs: renditions of the haircuts on offer as well as typographic demonstrations of each shops name. In South African Township Barbershops and Salons Simon Weller presents his vivid photographs of these shops their signage and their patrons alongside interviews with the proprietors customers and the sign makers. Internationally acclaimed South African designer Garth Walker contextualizes these homemade signs and together with Wellers atmospheric images of the townships across South Africa where these barbershops and salons are found the case is made that these establishments reveal a great deal about South Africa today and the people who live in the townships.