I’d argue that the finest a man can look is after he has received a fresh hairstyle at a barbershop or salon.
Many would agree, including Julian Saluta, the founder of TheGallery DTLA, a barbershop in Los Angeles. His clients come to him not only for shape-ups, braids and trims, but also in hopes of being featured on the shop’s Instagram and TikTok pages, where Mr. Saluta posts his version of personal ads.
“What if I just post my clients and it’s like hitting two birds with one stone?” Mr. Saluta said he found himself wondering. “I get to show off their haircut, and also I get to show a diversified roster to the public and, half the time, they are available and they are looking to date.”
Mr. Saluta, 30, founded TheGallery about two and a half years ago and began posting the videos on TikTok last spring. Eventually he started to include a short bio, “yearbook-style,” as he described it, along with their age and height. It quickly took off on TikTok, and earlier this year he began sharing the videos on the shop’s Instagram page as well.
He posts his clients around three times a week, and while the page features mostly men, his clips also include people of different genders, and feature various ethnicities and sexual orientations.
Each video showcases a variety of freshly coifed singles, including one who’s listed as looking for “someone to make pizza for” and another who’s in search of a “coffee shop romance.” In one video, Mr. Saluta posted about clients who were specifically looking to date people who are Muslim. He also has videos for people who are part of L.G.B.T.Q. communities and posts themed videos for holidays like Valentine’s Day.
Mr. Saluta, who born and raised in the Philippines and has been cutting hair since he was 14 years old, described his relationship with his clients as one similar to that of a therapist, as many of them, who have been coming to him for years, talk to him about their lives. The posts started off as a lighthearted way to promote his business, but he soon realized many of his customers were struggling in the dating scene.
“As I’m cutting their hair, all their problems seem to be the same,” he said. “It’s like, where do we go to meet someone special? Where do I go to meet someone that’s not the bars, that’s not the clubs or doesn’t involve drinking or online applications like Tinder or Hinge?”
Eventually, customers started coming to him asking to be featured on the page, he said.
Mr. Saluta often shares the social media handles of the people he is featuring, and when he doesn’t, his followers reach out to him directly for contact information. He said he received about 10 to 30 inquiries on average. Some have resulted in dates; others have resulted in flings. Most have resulted in a flurry of fawning comments.
Felix Martinez, 28, is one of the clients who ended up in a long-term relationship after being featured in a video.
Mr. Martinez, who said he had been a client of Mr. Saluta since he was in his early 20s, didn’t expect to meet someone after being featured on TheGallery’s TikTok page last summer, and thought the whole thing was funny. But he was interested in meeting new people, so he gave it a shot.
Soon after being featured, Mr. Martinez began gaining new followers, including one woman who caught his eye.
“So I slid in the DMs like, ‘Hey, do we know each other?’” he said. “And she just said that I was cute and that I caught her eye.”
Nearly three weeks later, they went to eat ramen together and have been dating ever since.
Many businesses use social media gimmicks to promote their work and attract new customers (and there are other barbershops and salons, possibly inspired by TheGallery, that post about their single clients). But Mr. Saluta said that in addition to helping his business, he was trying to build a community via the shop and to boost his clients’ confidence. He has hosted a few mixers for platonic and romantic connections, and he is planning more in the future.
With some of his videos gaining more than one million views, he sees them as something that can increase the odds that his clients find romance.
It’s giving people a platform, he said, adding, “It’s empowering my clients.”
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