Hairdresser's style wins her fame online

Faced with great popularity, Xiaohua said she does not consider herself a professional hairdresser. She believes there are many other hairdressers who have better skills. She learned to cut hair from her husband, who is also a hairdresser.

As long as a person cuts enough hair and makes enough mistakes, they can grasp the techniques, she said.

She mostly cuts hair for male customers and charges 30 yuan ($4) for each haircut. She serves about 30 customers a day and is fully booked to the end of the year.

"I am the most common hairdresser. There is nothing unique about me," she said. "I have not considered raising the price for a haircut because the trust from people is satisfying enough."

She said she likes to talk with netizens via livestreaming and considers them her friends.

They come to watch her mostly because they are bored, and sometimes she also gets bored from her work, so it is relaxing to talk with netizens, she said.

Her WeChat is filled with messages from clients asking for a haircut, and she wants to tell them to be patient and wait until the online fame cools down.

She said she is not worried that one day people may suddenly dislike her haircuts, or about making mistakes.

"I have made lots of mistakes before, so I just want netizens to be more understanding when they happen again," she said.

Her popularity has attracted many tourists to the city. A total of 200,000 people visited the city in seven days, bringing in 120 million yuan in tourism revenue, according to the local government, which has responded quickly to her popularity.

The road in front of her shop has been paved, and more than 60 vendors have been added to sell local specialties to tourists near her shop.

Capitalizing on her fame, the local government has also conducted promotional activities at local shopping malls and online platforms to increase the popularity of the city.

She said that she is happy to attract lots of people to Huaihua and see her neighbors also making some money from her sudden fame. "It makes me even happier than cutting hair for 100 people," she said.

zoushuo@chinadaily.com.cn