‘I’m putting smiles on the faces of young kids in a warzone and this is how’
On her days off, Kristie Rahal straps on the leather shear holder, packed with clippers and combs, before heading to Beirut’s waterfront known as Corniche.
This is where dozens of displaced Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian families have scrambled to safety after Israel started bombing Lebanon’s capital as it launched a ground invasion of the south as part of its war on Hezbollah.
‘It takes nothing to make someone happy,’ Kristie said after shaving a thin line in the eyebrow of a young boy.
It was only seven months ago that the 28-year-old abandoned her job as a dental technician to pursue her dream as a barber.
She opened a salon at Barbell House, a powerlifting gym on Pasteur Street in the neighbourhood of Gemmayze, from where she has been working.
When Israel escalated its attacks on Beirut almost six weeks ago, Kristie wanted to somehow help all the people left without a home and uplift their spirits.
‘I can see that people feel amazing afterwards, their whole face changes. Children are smiling and I can see that they are happy,’ she told Metro a month after she began visiting shelters, schools and Corniche.
‘Us Lebanese like to look after our looks so much, so before the war everyone had a beauty routine they followed. People would go to their barber a few times every month, get a cut and a shave, and get their face and head oiled.
‘After Israel’s war, it has all stopped. You know, it is not only that so many people have been displaced, but any barber salons have been destroyed by bombs and some barbers killed.
‘After I cut their hair, many thank me and tell me that they finally feel beautiful.’
Kristie has been sharing videos of her work on Instagram. In one post, she is seen shaving slits in the eyebrows of a group of young boys, who seem to be beaming with joy and pride because of their new, trendy look.
The barber has lost count how many people she has helped in the last month. But she insists that it is not about giving haircuts to as many people as possible – it is, instead, about making people feel looked after and giving them a reason to smile.
Recalling the first weeks of her travels to Corniche and giving free haircuts, Kristie said she would get curious stares from passers-by.
‘Lebanon is a Middle Eastern country, so being a female barber is a new concept to people. There is a stigma attached to it’ she said.
‘I bring my chair and my kit, and people start to approach me, asking if I can give them a haircut, how much it is and if I cut children’s hair too or just adults.
‘As soon as I start cutting someone’s hair, more people stop to observe and then more line up. So people get used to it.’
More than 2,600 people have been killed by Israel in Lebanon during this war and more than 1.2 million people displaced, according to the Lebanese government.
Many displaced people have fled to the capital, particularly in the centre near the seafront and the vicinity of the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque, also referred to as the Blue Mosque.
With shelters bursting out at the seams, some families – many of which had once fled to Lebanon from Palestine and Syria – now sleep in makeshift tents, or under tarpaulins in public squares, on beaches or pavements around Beirut.
Left to fend for themselves, most have to rely on charities scrambling to support as many people as possible with little to no support from Lebanon’s government.
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