A ROBOT BARBER CHARGED ONE CLIENT $5,000 FOR A HAIRCUT AND HE PAID IT WITHOUT BLINKING.
not for the fade. for the story. the first guy in the city to post "cut by a machine" buys the flex, not the haircut, and there's a waiting list behind him willing to pay the same.
now watch the clip. humanoid working scissors around a clean fade, tight and even, no nicks, no crooked line, no off day. the cut itself is worth maybe forty bucks. the novelty is worth a hundred times that, and novelty is the one thing that sells out fastest.
here's the flip: the owner isn't a barber anymore. he bought one machine, and it prints money off people paying to be first. the fade is free. the story is the product.
right now barely anyone has one. in a few years the novelty's gone, the price is forty bucks again, and the only question is whether you owned the chair or you were the barber behind it.