Ever since coming to China in 2008, I have wanted to try and make something like this but have never found the time nor been focused enough to make it work. Well thanks to my trip to Yiwu a couple of months ago and this image the project got up and running. After a few failed attempts last year I now have an aesthetic and frame I can work with and make it all about the people and the place which is what an good environmental portrait should be.

Chen Long, 19 years old from Jiangxi province working in Rui Li Shi Shang Salon in Yiwu, Zhejiang province.

Migrant workers are a huge floating population in China and have been instrumental in providing much of the cheap labour required for China’s explosive development. Like everywhere else migrant workers make up the majority of low paid unskilled labour primarily in the construction and food industries, factories and hair salons.

The majority of staff in a hair salon are migrant workers, many are male and did not pass the required grades to enter college and so leave their hometowns and look for work in major cities. As China has developed the middle class has expanded as has their disposable income. With this increase in disposable income more money is being spent on image and appearance and this has lead to an increase in the number of hair salons throughout China. Given the option of working on a construction site, a factory or in a kitchen I can see how a hair salon might be an attractive option. Yes the hours are long but in general the working environment is pleasant there is a good chance for interaction with customers and the work is far more relaxed than working on a production line in a factory or on a construction site.

However there is a glass ceiling, once the workers work up the ladder from washing hair sweeping and cleaning the salon to colouring and perming hair and then finally cutting and styling hair a peak is reached. Sylists can also be graded junior and senior stylists but this is as far as they can realistically progress. The next step requires an investor and the stylist to open his own salon which doesn’t happen to the majority of stylists but is something that motivates the majority of the stylists I have spoken to.