12Pell Is the MSG of Barbershops | Docs - video Dailymotion

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12Pell says they’re the Madison Square Garden of barber shops. What they mean is when certain folk come through New York City, they don’t leave without visiting. The barbershop is always packed, and there’s a few reasons why barbers combine Japanese style precise scissor work with  the sharp shaves of Dominican barbershop, layered on top of K hair techniques. They are one of a kind, and their audience of nearly 2 million followers on TikTok and 300,000+ on Instagram has made them some of the most sought after barbers of our generation. Customers book months in advance for a slot, with prices starting at $150+ for a trim.  But 12Pell is important not just because of the popularity. . During the COVID-19 pandemic when Chinatown became a 'ghost town', the store rarely got any customers. 12Pell translated this downtime into community-driven initiatives, offering free haircuts when customers spent $45 dollars at any Chinatown store, and investing in their TikTok community. Soon, 12Pell had things up and running again for the entire neighborhood, including themselves. The barbershop cares beyond just the business of hair – they show up for the Asian American community by creating a space for young Asian men to feel a sense of belonging.  Director Stephanie Tangkilisan  Producer Boya Sun  Editor Armando de la Cruz  Director of Photography Boya Sun Stephanie Tangkilisan  Editor-In-Chief Keshia Hannam  Head of Production Stephanie Tangkilisan  Post Production Coordinator Skolastika Lupitawina  Assistant Editor Rendy Abi Pratama  Color Nadya Sabrina  Sound EzSound Studios  Special Thanks 12Pell  Additional Music by Smile (aka Chillie Willie) by I AM A DUO Stinky Sax by Dimitrix Origin by Theatre of Delays Day Off by Aves  Don´t Hide Your Pains Inside by Eleven Tales  Eyes Closed by Nobou  Adventure by Liquify Dusk - Instrumental Version by nuer self

Transcript

00:00 From day one, I always told myself, you know what, this is going to be the MSG of barbershops.

00:08 When people come into the city, they visit us.

00:10 When barbers come in, they stop by and they say hi to us.

00:14 We're Madison Square Garden of barbershops.

00:17 Hey, what's up guys?

00:21 This is Peter.

00:24 We're in Chinatown, New York City.

00:28 We are at the front of our new store, which we're going to bring you guys into.

00:32 I'm a barber here at 12PAL.

00:34 My name is Tim and I am also a barber at 12PAL.

00:37 And we specialize in consultations where we teach you about your face shape, the hair

00:41 type you have in relation to your lifestyle.

00:44 Can't wait to show you what's inside.

00:47 Let me walk you through my tools because this is where the money is at.

00:53 I got the clippers, trimmer and clipper for all the things that we do for you guys.

00:58 A thousand dollar chair.

00:59 One, two, three and four chairs.

01:01 These are Belmont's, Terracotta.

01:03 Basically, really good leather barber chairs that are on like two, three thousand each.

01:08 We've been really in high demand.

01:09 A couple of our other barbers are booked a month in advance, but there is still a chance

01:14 for us to take walk-ins, maybe like a one to like 10% on a good day.

01:18 I'm Carl Leung.

01:19 I'm one of the founders of 12PAL.

01:21 Right now I have 1.7 million on TikTok, 210 subscribers on YouTube and we have about 265

01:29 on Instagram.

01:30 The original concept of putting one barber chair in the back of this retail shop that

01:34 we were going to create, be this grander sneaker retail experience plus barbershop haircuts

01:39 didn't pan out the way that we had originally envisioned.

01:42 People were walking past the sneakers.

01:43 They thought it was cool, but it was more like ornaments on the shelf.

01:46 We weren't getting the engagement.

01:47 We weren't getting the sales.

01:49 What really struck a chord with me was when I finally was standing behind the chair, cutting

01:53 a lot of the younger kids, they would ask me advice like, "Oh, what was college like?"

01:58 Or like, "How did you choose your major?"

02:00 And giving a lot of this like life advice to the younger version of myself felt really

02:05 good.

02:06 Felt like there was a lot of purpose there.

02:07 It's more like a school.

02:09 Carhole really taught me a lot of things about business and entrepreneurship.

02:13 12CallsToMe is an outlet where kids can be exposed to mentors and business owners.

02:19 My name is Gia.

02:22 I'm actually not a barber.

02:25 I'm a videographer here.

02:27 I wanted to contribute to the team in some way.

02:30 I bought a camera myself.

02:31 I want to show my commitment to him.

02:34 It's a lot of just trial and error and everything for me was self-taught.

02:38 It was just YouTube university, you know.

02:41 We created this barbershop environment where it was very friendly to the younger generation.

02:47 And we understood the needs and the wants of the younger generation.

02:50 We would go to Dominican Spanish barbershop and get faded up on the sides, but we would

02:54 go to the salon and get cut on top.

02:56 We all want to elevate into a space where it's mainly scissor work combined with cutting

03:00 hair or scissor work combined with clipper work.

03:03 And fusing the two techniques pretty much gives you like a very tailored outcome.

03:08 And I always like to say that like foundationally there's a cap to what you can learn with barbering,

03:12 but after that it's how you kind of elevate and making like a hairstyle your unique style

03:17 or tailoring it, as we mentioned with the consultation stuff.

03:29 I think that when we first began, there was a little bit of worry for us to see like how

03:33 would the block approach us.

03:35 We sit on the street called Barber's Row and it's like a whole row of barbershops.

03:39 They're priced very affordably at like $8 to $15.

03:44 How would all the OGs on the block that have been cutting hair for over 20 years, how would

03:48 they view us, especially coming in with this brand spanking, brand new looking modern barbershop.

03:54 So I made it a point to introduce myself to everybody on the block.

03:57 And eventually we grew to learn that a lot of the OGs on the block appreciated what we

04:01 were doing because we were doing something that was new and motivating for them to see

04:06 that people within our community were pushing the industry.

04:10 A younger generation was kind of like representing what we were doing in the industry, especially

04:14 in the community.

04:16 We realized that a lot of the people on the block actually appreciated what we were doing

04:20 when they started actually to show up to our store visiting us and asking to come and learn

04:25 from us.

04:26 I think a large part of it was actually seeing a group of Asian American kids come and do

04:30 this.

04:31 And I think that that was very surprising to them because I don't think that this is

04:35 like a gap between the understanding between the generations.

04:39 If your parents is a hairstylist, things like that, that's not something that you grow up

04:43 as an Asian American necessarily aspiring to do.

04:45 You know how like parents talk about, "Oh, what is your son doing?

04:49 Oh, they have a nine to five."

04:50 And then my mom's like, kind of like nervous talking about like her son is like practicing

04:55 cutting hair.

04:56 You cut hair?

04:57 Yes.

04:58 And you do this job?

04:59 This job?

05:00 I don't make any money.

05:01 I don't make any money.

05:02 I don't make any money.

05:03 Very good.

05:04 I'm proud of you.

05:05 It was actually during COVID, we realized as a team that it was no longer about our

05:12 shop surviving, but rather our community surviving as a whole.

05:17 And so when you looked at what was going on in Chinatown, it was a straight ghost town.

05:22 What can we do to break the stigma that there was a correlation between Asians and COVID?

05:28 How can we make people feel comfortable about visiting Chinatown again?

05:32 And all those thoughts made us realize are only in our best resource with social media

05:37 because it costs us nothing to post anything.

05:40 You spend $45 in Chinatown local businesses, your haircut is on us.

05:49 So for every $45 you spend at any shop in Chinatown, we'll give you a free haircut.

05:53 And that day I think we saw so many new people decide to come by and show support.

05:59 I think our message ended up on Twitter.

06:01 I ended up message getting reposted by so many other community organizations.

06:05 The impact was being made because people were actually showing up, buying groceries and

06:10 stepping foot into our barbershop.

06:12 I used to look back on my calendar and text these clients if they haven't gotten a haircut

06:18 for a month out.

06:19 Hey, I think it's time for your haircut, my friend.

06:21 Definitely, it was a struggle.

06:23 Yeah.

06:24 It was a struggle.

06:25 For sure.

06:26 Now it's about 7.15, which is nice.

06:27 I get to leave a little early today.

06:28 Usually we leave about 7.30, 7.45.

06:29 Had a small, tiny break today, maybe like 15 minutes.

06:30 I don't know, I don't know.

06:31 I'm just going to be here for a little bit.

06:32 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

06:33 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

06:34 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

06:35 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

06:36 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

06:37 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

06:38 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

06:39 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

07:00 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

07:23 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

07:41 I'm going to be here for a little bit.

07:53 (upbeat music)

12Pell Is the MSG of Barbershops | Docs

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