Barbers on the floor
All trained through our apprenticeship programme or vetted by a master barber before joining a chair.
Since 2014
One chair, then eight. Same rule book.
This is the short version of how Quorabit happened, who runs it, and why we still refuse to take appointments.
The beginning
A small shop, a kettle and a stubborn idea.
Quorabit opened in March 2014 inside a converted shoplot on Jalan Ampang, three doors down from a kopitiam our founder Aaron Tay had been eating at since university. The first shop had a single chair, a borrowed mirror and a kettle for towels. The kettle is still here. The chair was replaced in 2019.
Aaron had spent five years learning the trade at a thirty-year-old barbershop in Pudu under Encik Rahim, who insisted on three rules: cut what is in front of you, do not rush, do not lie about how long the wait is. Those three rules are still on a small wooden plaque above the till at our Avenue K shop.
The timeline
Eleven years in a few lines.
2014
First chair on Jalan Ampang.
Aaron Tay opens a single-chair shop with his cousin Iskandar. Walk-in only from day one. Forty cuts in the first week.
2016
Second shop, Bangsar Village.
A four-chair shop in Bangsar. Marcus Lim joins as a master barber - he is still here.
2017
Flagship at Avenue K.
Eight chairs, a dedicated junior corner and the first time we sit inside a mall. The Jalan Ampang shop closes the same year.
2019
Apprenticeship programme launches.
Eighteen months under a master barber, three months of senior shadowing, then a chair. Six of our current team came through it.
2021
Fully cashless.
DuitNow QR, GrabPay, TouchnGo and card across every shop. The cash drawer at Avenue K becomes a stationery drawer.
2024
Eighth shop opens at Setia City Mall.
A tenth-anniversary shop. Same kettle. Same plaque. Same three rules.
The thing that has not changed
Walk-in only. No deposit. No app.
Every couple of years someone in the trade tells us we are leaving money on the table by not taking deposits or running a booking app. We have run the numbers and we keep coming back to the same answer: the queue is part of the shop. It sets the pace. It also keeps the prices honest - if we cannot fill the chairs without you booking ahead, the prices need to come down.
If you have walked in to find a thirty-minute wait, we will not pretend it is ten. The screen above the door gives you a live count, the kopi machine is free, and the front bench has been broken in by enough men over enough years to be a small piece of local furniture.
Today
Eight shops. Thirty-one barbers. One pace.
The team is mostly long-serving. The shops are mostly the same. The kettle is definitely the same.
Years on the same rule book
Cut what is in front of you. Do not rush. Do not lie about the wait.
Shops across the Klang Valley
From the flagship at Avenue K to our newest at Setia City Mall - all walk-in, all on the same menu.
That is most of the story.
The rest is best told sitting in one of our chairs. Drop in to any shop when it suits you.
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