Telok Ayer Barber Shop by a Sassoon Alumnus: Rogue & Beyond

Rogue and Beyond is a barber shop on the second floor of 147A Telok Ayer Street, unit #02-01, Singapore 068606, where a haircut starts at S$65 and a full hot-and-cold towel shave costs S$70. It is the first branch of a brand founded in 2017, and the shop has a grace period of only 10 minutes for late arrivals. Anyone in the CBD typing barber shop near me should book before walking over, because walk-ins rarely get a chair.

The brand's timeline on its own site is unusually candid. It was founded in 2017 by two partners it calls Chris, the Book Keeper, and Joel, the Artist. Joel is described as an alumnus of Sassoon in Costa Mesa, California, with 20 years in the hair industry. The Telok Ayer shop was the first branch, and its stated mission was to blend precision cutting with modern style for men in Singapore.

The rest of the timeline reads like a survival story. In 2020 the founders write that they kept the brand alive through the pandemic when many others closed. A second Singapore branch opened on Circular Road at Boat Quay in 2022, and in 2023 the company launched Hairsauce Texture Balm, a styling product it says took three years of development. It expanded to Jakarta in 2024 and opened a flagship there in 2025.

The shop calls itself a premium contemporary men's hair studio rather than a traditional barbershop, and the Sassoon training shows in the approach. Every haircut on the menu starts with a consultation, then a wash, the cut and a rinse, so the barber decides the shape with your hair wet and clean rather than clipping straight onto dry hair. The goal, in the founders' words, is an effortless style that suits your features.

Telok Ayer sits between the Raffles Place towers and the Tanjong Pagar hotels, and the reviews reflect both. The booking page shows more than 600 reviews with a 4.98 average, including regulars who name their barber and a business traveller who wrote that he needed a sharp, professional cut while in Singapore and got one. The schedule runs tight from opening to close, so punctuality is part of the house style.

Prices are listed on the official booking page in Singapore dollars. The standard haircut starts at S$65 and covers consultation, wash, cut and rinse; booking a senior barber adds S$5 at Telok Ayer. Picking the assistant manager adds S$15. A long-hair or collar-length cut costs S$110. Under-18s pay S$55 for the Rogue Young cut, and the shop says it will ask for ID from anyone who looks older.

The towel services are the other half of the menu. Beard design costs S$65 and includes a hot and cold towel with a line-up shave, while the full shave is S$70 with the same hot and cold towel treatment. Combine them with a cut and the price is S$130 for a haircut with beard design or S$135 for a haircut with a full shave. An Aveda scalp balancing treatment costs S$105 on its own.

For a first visit, the haircut with full shave at S$135 is the booking to make. You get the consultation-led precision cut the shop is built around, plus the hot-towel shave that finishes the neckline and cheeks cleanly. If your budget is tighter, the plain S$65 haircut is the core of what Rogue and Beyond does, and the shave can wait for a second visit.

Skip the Aveda scalp balancing treatment combined with a haircut on your first appointment. At S$170 it is the most expensive item on the Telok Ayer menu, and the scalp treatment is a soothing add-on rather than something that changes the result of the cut. Try the barber first, then decide whether the extra S$105 treatment is worth adding. One more note: Joel himself is not taking new clients.

The policy is printed at the top of the booking page: arrive on time, because the grace period is 10 minutes, and a no-show or last-minute cancellation is charged the full price. The shop prefers cash or PayNow and adds a 4% surcharge for card payments, so a S$135 cut and shave costs about S$140 by card.

Telok Ayer is open Monday to Friday from 10:30am to 8pm, on Saturday from 10:30am to 6pm and on Sunday from 11am to 6pm. The CBD location means weekday lunch hours and after-work slots suit office workers, while visitors can take a mid-afternoon chair. Saturdays close at 6pm, so a weekend cut-and-shave appointment is best booked for the morning.

The studio is up a staircase on the second floor of a shophouse, so look for the 147A doorway rather than a ground-floor storefront with a barber pole. Telok Ayer MRT station on the Downtown Line is a few minutes' walk away, and Tanjong Pagar station on the East West Line is a little further south. Taxis can drop you on Telok Ayer Street itself, which is one-way for traffic.

If Telok Ayer is fully booked, the sister shop on Circular Road at Boat Quay runs the same menu and the same hours, and it is about ten minutes' walk north across Raffles Place. The senior barber surcharge there is S$10 rather than S$5. Both shops share one booking page, so you can switch branches without starting again, and the same 10-minute grace rule applies at both.

Thian Hock Keng Temple, a Hokkien temple completed in 1842 and one of the oldest in Singapore, stands a short walk along Telok Ayer Street. It was built when the street still ran along the shoreline, and sailors arriving from China gave thanks there to the sea goddess Mazu. Entry is free, and the carved roof ridges are worth a slow look after a cut.

Walk north toward Raffles Place and Lau Pa Sat, the cast-iron Victorian market hall, is about ten minutes away. In the evenings the adjoining Boon Tat Street closes to traffic and fills with satay stalls, which makes a natural dinner stop after a late weekday appointment. It is loud, smoky and busy, the opposite of the quiet studio upstairs on Telok Ayer.

Address: 147A Telok Ayer Street, #02-01, Singapore 068606. Open Monday to Friday 10:30am to 8pm, Saturday 10:30am to 6pm, Sunday 11am to 6pm. Haircut from S$65, full shave S$70, beard design S$65, haircut and shave S$135, under-18 cut S$55. Cards carry a 4% surcharge, and cash and PayNow are preferred.

Book online and arrive early, since the 10-minute grace period is strict and late cancellations are charged in full. Bring ID if you are booking the under-18 rate. If you want a particular barber, choose them on the booking page and expect the senior barber surcharge. Ask about Hairsauce Texture Balm if you want to recreate the finish at home, since it is the brand's own product.