It may only be a small Polish village of 200 inhabitants but each week hundreds of German women beat a path to Osinow Dolny, which claims to have the greatest concentration of hair salons on the planet.
Armed with purses full of euros, the women travel 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Berlin to a Polish border region otherwise seemingly left behind by Poland's post-communism boom.
Driving down the main strip on a grey March day, the village is festooned with candy-coloured signs – many in German – that advertise establishments such as "Friseur Salon Zuzanna," "Friseur Ada" or "Friseur Teresa."
Demand from German women coming for a blue rinse, a perm or just a tidy trim has been so great that the number of salons has not only grown but those already established have expanded into prefab huts, next door premises or even their gardens.
Others have also branched out into other services, like manicures and facials.
A sign advertising one of the many hair salons in Poland's small border town of Osinow Dolny 14 March 2009. The town boasts 150 hairdressers out of a population of 200, as German pensioners rush to the village from nearby Berlin for a cut and styling that would cost them more than double in Germany.
But none of the hair being cut, dyed, tousled or curled here is Polish.
Inside "Salon Karin" -- which greets customers with a sign saying “Willkommen" (“welcome” in German) -- not even the Polish currency, the zloty, is changing hands.
The price list, too, is in euros: a cut is 4 euros (5.25 dollars) while a wash and cut is 6.
Cost-cutting
Amid the din of hair-dryers, customer Brigitte Arnzk does the math.
"In Germany, my hairdo would cost 13 euros," says the 70-year-old Berliner, who made the trip to Osinow Dolny together with her neighbour.
Pensioner Gudrun Knapp is also a satisfied customer.
"I come here every six to eight weeks and have done for the last 15 years, always to the same salon,” said Gudrun. “In Germany, I wouldn't be able to afford it.”
“I make the most of it, fill the car up with petrol, buy some baby stuff," she adds –something that is also cheaper than in Germany, thanks to the strong euro and the weak zloty.
And there is no sign of a recession here. The salons are all busy, catering for a never-ending stream of German customers, particularly in the morning -- meaning that many open for business at 7:00 am including on Sundays.
Polish businessman Eugeniusz Swierczynski poses in his hair salon in Poland's small border town of Osinow Dolny 14 March 2009.
Language barriers
Language problems sometimes make it difficult for salon staff to grasp exactly what is required but business is booming nonetheless.
"Cut, dry," said Arnzk.
A television stands between trolleys full of rollers and dyes blaring out Polish programmes at full volume.
Jolanta Zelinska opened her salon nine years ago, when the main business in Osinow Dolny was selling bargain-hungry Germans cheap cigarettes and food and when there were just a handful of salons.
"After getting married, I worked down the market,” she said. “I became a hairdresser because the border is nearby and there is loads of work.”
Eugeniusz Swierczynski, meanwhile, never thought he would end up doing German women's hair in a salon on the ground floor of his house.
"But there was money to be made," he said as he directs an army of apprentices dressed in black and white. "We get 40 customers a day, that makes around 300 euros a day."
His biggest fear?
"The introduction of the euro," he said.
Yannick Pasquet/AFP/Expatica
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A village on the Polish-German border is becoming a hotspot for German bargain hunters seeking cheap haircuts.
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