NEW YORK -- The chairs stay occupied at 12 Pell. Client after client, they come through the tiny barbershop on a narrow side street in Manhattan’s Chinatown. They come for the cuts, sure.
But really, they’re coming for the cool. From New York City, from the metro area, from many states away, they’re coming for what they see on 12 Pell’s lively social media accounts, where the young, predominantly Asian American barbers offer advice to teens and men of all ages and ethnicities with humor, quips, confidence and ease — and not a hint of hesitation. Karho Leung, 34, embodies that.
A son of Chinatown and one of the founders of 12 Pell, he wanted to start a business that reflected him – his creativity, his longstanding interest in fashion and style, his desire for “building the world that I want to live in ...
not asking for permission.” About as American an idea as it gets, right? The hunger to make your own path, to find your own way, make your voice heard? In some ways, Leung is a case study for the latest incarnation of this. A look at social media and pop culture shows plenty of other Asian Americans of his and younger generations doing the same — in business, in politics, in content creation, in entertainment, in life.
If the space isn't already there, they're determined to create it. Any look at the country’s past shows that such an American reality hasn't always belonged to everyone, including previous generations of Asian Americans. That American notion.
