Story By: Delano Langras, Sub Editor: Michael Leidig,  Agency: Newsflash

This is the viral moment a former Syrian refugee in the Netherlands performs an all-face ‘wax shave’ on a man at his newly-opened barber shop called ‘Freedom’ out of respect for his new European home.

The resin treatment, which removes hair from the client’s face, neck, nose and ears, is carried out by hairdresser Renaz Ismael at his barber shop in the municipality of Boxmeer in the southern Dutch province of North Brabant.

Ismael, 25, reportedly opened his salon just three months ago and has seen his fledgling business boom despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

He explained that a video of him carrying out a face wax on a male client went viral, firmly placing his new shop on the map.

Ismael said: “After one day, I already had 300,000 views. After two weeks, 55.6 million people saw it on TikTok.”

Ismael, who fled to the Netherlands from Syria five years ago, already speaks excellent Dutch and has become a hit on social media for his novel waxing service.

He said: “In some countries, removing hair in the nose, ears, cheeks and neck is very common.

“For Dutch people, it often takes some getting used to having resin sticks pushed into their nose and ears, which is later whipped off quickly, removing excess hair.”

He added: “It is indeed very painful!”

Ismael said: “The result is a very clean and soft face, it also makes it look very fresh.”

He explained that he has been hairdressing since he was 15 years old: “I was a sickly child. That is why I never went to school in Syria.

“When I was 15 and started to get better, I ended up studying alongside toddlers. That didn’t work so I started making money by cutting hair.”

Ismael said that he learned to read and write in the Netherlands, and does not plan to return to his home country Syria anytime soon.

He added: “That is why my barbershop is called ‘Freedom’. Freedom is something very valuable that I found here (in the Netherlands).”

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