Gaza barber using a blow torch to fire up his customers

In a first in the Strip, Ramadan Edwan’s salon uses flames to straighten hair and signal his prowess

While the idea of setting one’s hair on fire would scare away most customers, a barber shop in Gaza has found that the practice is setting competition ablaze.

Ramadan Edwan’s salon in Gaza’s Rafah refugee camp is not the first to employ the practice known as “firebarbing,” but it is the only one doing so in the Strip, Reuters reported.

“People have gone crazy about it, many people are curious to go through the experience and they are not afraid,” he told Reuters. “People here love adventures.”

He’s only had one accident in the two months he has been practicing, he said.

Clients requesting the “firebarb,” are prepped by Edwan rubbing flammable powder and liquid in their hair. He then uses a large torch to set the fibers aflame.

A client sits in a hair salon as barber Ramadan Edwan performs a technique that utilises fire to straighten his hair, in the Rafah refugee camp, in the Gaza Strip on February 1, 2017. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)

The technique is mainly used for straightening hair, but is also used for removing hair from the ears. Edwan notes it is also “good for blood circulation.”

Edwan told Reuters he was motivated to show that Gaza barbers were as good as anywhere else in the world.