Halil Kılınç: The Path from Barbering to Mastery and Management

First Steps Driven by Passion

I am Halil Kılınç, and my 28-year career in barbering began with the apprenticeship culture of the neighborhood where I grew up. Despite my family’s words, "We don't want you to be a barber," I chose this profession for myself and began my apprenticeship under Bekir Abi and my older brother Erhan in our neighborhood.

Nişantaşı and a Modern Vision

After mastering the craft quickly, I decided to enter a higher-quality, more luxurious environment, inspired by the advice and role modeling of Muzaffer and Nihat Özçelik, who were barbering in Etiler at the time. I left the neighborhood and began working at a prestigious barbershop in Nişantaşı alongside Ali Söylemez. There, everything I knew was taught to me again from scratch, and thanks to my great masters, I transitioned to a more innovative and modern perspective on this profession.

The Göktürk Era and Meeting Kaizen

Following my military service, I returned and decided to try working in Göktürk, which was said to be a developing area, again upon the recommendation of Muzaffer and Nihat Özçelik. I worked in different shops for 6 years and decided to open my own shop within the first 2 years. However, I couldn't realize this dream at that time due to reasons such as not finding the right project or the appropriate conditions not being met.

I met Cem Salbaz when I first arrived in Göktürk. He had begun creating the Kaizen brand during that period. Over time, as Kaizen became a rising brand in Göktürk, a new project emerged aimed at bringing a fresh breath to the industry. They wanted to unite beauty, a barbershop, and a hair salon under one roof to offer every service to the customer with higher quality and comfort. When this offer came to me, I felt that the time had finally come to own my own shop.

Teamwork and Professional Structure

When we first started 8 years ago, only my nephew and our professional barber Uğur Savaş and I were serving in our 190 m² salon. Since then, with every new hire, we have made progress by prioritizing people's craftsmanship and the importance they give to their work, and Adem Tölüy joined our team.

We continued to move forward with firm steps by integrating every staff member into our desired mentality. Later, with valuable masters like Muhammed Emin Savaş and Murat Yiğit joining us, we gave our salon a modern, prestigious, and continuously productive structure.

Boutique Service and Future Goals

Through the product training we received from established brands, bringing these products to our customers, and providing higher quality service every day—along with our desire to elevate each other as two salons together with the contributions of the Kaizen team and Cem Salbaz—we have become a boutique yet modern name known by everyone in Göktürk.

We stand out by merging our sincere internal formation with the customer and making them feel this sincerity as well. Making the customer feel special is our primary priority; for this reason, we offer personalized cutting services, hair treatments, manicure-pedicure services, and use products tailored to our customers' needs. Our goal for the future is to carry both our service quality and our vision further every day with our team that is always open to growth and learning.