Hallak, the owner of a barber shop in the district of Kadikoy on the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey, is cutting hair for customer. (Xinhua)

ISTANBUL, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Tea was brewing in pot over a built-in stove while a washing machine was working quietly in the corner. Meeting the eye are cupboards and a vintage sunglass collection. Some antique pieces and a drum kit enhance the view of a large kitchen.

Two young women were having their hairs cut in front of a large mirror fixed directly opposite the kitchen counter. The barber and his apprentice were chatting with the ladies while a secretary sitting next to the fridge was trying to schedule appointment requests for the day.

The place in the district of Kadikoy on the Asian side of Istanbul was once a kitchen, where cooking classes were held. In April last year, it was converted into a barbershop, a transformation that has brought changes to everything known about hairdressing in the city.

The owner simply calls himself "Hallak," which means "shaver" in Ottoman Turkish, declining to reveal his real name.

"I'm not a hairdresser, neither a hairstylist nor a coiffeur, as it used to be called in our country," he told Xinhua in front of his shop on a bright May day.

"I am Hallak, a human barber," he said.

In his shop, he serves males and females alike, though his counterparts work as either male barbers or female hairdressers.

Before he did it on his own, he had worked with several so-called conventional hairdressers, but he realized that none of them were able to give him a free hand.

His dreams were high. He wanted to do it in different ways, so he bought the kitchen studio with all his savings.

Before starting his business there, he remodeled the kitchen according to his own taste. And from the get-go, he posted each and every hairstyle he created in the warm atmosphere of his studio on social media, setting himself apart from others in the metropolis.

His social media accounts soon had thousands of comments.

"I'm posting a hairstyle in the morning and in a couple of hours someone comes asking me for the same," said the hairstylist.

Now, he has more than 25,000 followers on social media, a feat that has made him a phenomenon in the country, while his business has doubled in just one year.

He serves 15 to 25 clients per day and does not accept customers without an appointment anymore even when he is free.

"Hallak is different than others," said Yagmur Ulku, one of the shop's frequenters, who just had her hair cut pretty short.

For her, it is very difficult to be on the same page with coiffeurs in Turkey, because they do not care about what style a woman wants.

"Hallak, on the other hand, listens to you carefully and tries to analyze you and your lifestyle and then forms your hairstyle according to his interpretation," she explained.

As one of the five team members of Hallak, Recep Ozyurt was working hard to be a master in hair color matching.

"We create our tints here. We are not bound by fixed catalog colors like others," he said.

Rather than using the conventional yellow base to make hair colors of balayage and ombre, for instance, he mostly uses a wide range of colors from pink to blue.

In his view, Turkish coiffeurs are girdled by strong patterns and they cannot easily break the traditional habits and try something new.

Hakan Kazan, an apprentice of Hallak, agreed. He said the notion of hairdressing in the country is very static, almost like in robotic uniformity.

"Not only the hairstyles are identical, but also they even welcome customers using the same words," he said, noting that traditionally apprentices are not allowed to communicate with their customers.

"But here, I can freely chat with the clients," he added.

Hallak and his team toured some parts of the country recently. They visited seven provinces, traveling 4,000 kilometers by car in just two weeks.

Hallak presented a medal to each of his clients he met during the tour and posted online each new hairstyle he created, boosting his popularity on social media.

In addition to hairstyles, he shared online all the fun and games of the tour.

"I have received thousands of comments from my fans requesting us to visit their cities," he said. He is now planning to organize another tour, this time a longer one.

"I can cut people's hair wherever I want. All I need is to have my scissors with me," he proudly proclaimed.

He is hoping for a day when he can perform hairdressing on the stage of a rented small theatre with an audience around.

"My ultimate goal, however, in the long run, is to establish a hairstyling academy for women," he said. He is sure that women are more innovative than men.

"This would be a game changer in this male-dominant sector," he added.