Are barber shops the latest front for London crime gangs?

Drugs. People trafficking. Terrorism. That £10 haircut might be too good to be true

- STORY BY JACOB PHILLIPS

It's a scene familiar across the capital. Run-down high streets, just a stone's throw from well-heeled residential neighbourhoods, where fruit shops knock up against building supply merchants and restaurants with enormous pictures of the food advertising their wares. There are often solicitors, funeral directors, carpet shops, the odd café of varying quality.

There will also be endless barber shops, often empty of customers. The borough of Westminster has one of the highest proportions of barber shops within the capital, followed by Kensington and Chelsea, and in third place Camden. Five years ago, the scene looked rather different. Barber shops are the fastest-growing sector of the retail economy, according to the Local Data Company, and figures from the National Hair and Beauty Federation show that 304 barber shops opened across the country in the first half of 2023-almost six times the number of coffee shops that opened in the same period.

Meanwhile, data from the Office for National Statistics show the number of hairdressing, barber and beauty spots in London has risen from 5,930 in 2015 to 8,915 in 2024. But is the explosion of barber shops in the capital really related to a rise in male vanity, or is there a sinister side?

"There are not enough haircuts for the amount of barber shops [in London]," former Met Police detective chief inspector Mike Neville told The London Standard. "You get these guys charging £10 to £15 a haircut, and then they are driving around in a massive Mercedes."

Neville is not the only person to have noticed that the proliferation of barber shops in the capital feels suspicious. The issue has also caught the attention of Reform UK MP Richard Tice, who has accused barber shops of being money laundering spots "for drug money" and vowed to investigate the issue.