BEIRUT: In a city full of hair stylists, Muhannad Khaled Omar stands out.
Omar, 26, is a Palestinian-Syrian stylist known for shaving celebrity portraits into clients’ hair.
On a recent Friday at his Beirut salon, Omar shaved a portrait of US President Donald Trump into the hair of a young customer’s head. With a painter’s precision, he created the contours of the president’s face, cutting at various lengths to give the image depth. A spray of gold hair coloring added to the effect.
“I started this profession when I was in 9th grade,” Omar said. “I was studying at the same time, learning how to cut hair. I’ve had a talent since I was young, a talent for drawing.”
Omar was raised in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, Syria, but moved to Lebanon in 2011 after a crackdown against demonstrations in Syria grew violent.
Omar said his vocation in hair styling is an extension of his passion for art.
“I started my baccalaureate studies and I studied psychology. When I came here to Lebanon, I mixed psychology, cutting hair and drawing into one profession,” he said.
Hair salons are a staple in every Middle East city, a place for friends to gather and gossip ahead of the weekends. They are usually segregated by sex.
Omar manages his own salon in the Bourj Al-Barajneh refugee camp in south Beirut, established in 1948 to accommodate Palestinians made refugees by the creation of the state of Israel. The camp’s population has swelled with the influx of Syrian refugees — some of them also Palestinians — who have come to escape the violence of the war next door. The United Nations says Lebanon is home to 1 million Syrian refugees.
Syrians are vulnerable to workplace and housing abuses in Lebanon because they lack basic legal protections. Many find it easier to live and work in Palestinian camps.
Omar said he hopes that someone will invest in his work one day and sponsor him to emigrate to Europe.
“I want to start something new, but not in this area, something outside of the Arab world, to show that we are capable, we can produce things,” he said.
Syrian barber creates portraits on canvas — clients’ heads
Syrian barber creates portraits on canvas — clients’ heads
Harry Styles announces first album in 4 years, ‘Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally’
- It follows the critically acclaimed synth pop “Harry’s House,” which earned the former One Direction star album of the year at the 2023 Grammy Awards
- “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” will contain 12 tracks and is executive produced by Kid Harpoon
NEW YORK: In this world, it’s just him: Harry Styles has announced that his long-awaited, fourth studio album will arrive this spring.
Titled “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” and out March 6, the album is Styles’ first full-length project in four years. It follows the 2022, critically acclaimed synth pop record “Harry’s House,” which earned the former One Direction star the top prize of album of the year at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
In a review, The Associated Press celebrated “Harry’s House” for showcasing “a breadth of style that matches the album’s emotional range.”
On Instagram, Styles’ shared the cover artwork for “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally,” which features the 31-year-old artist in a T-shirt and jeans at night, standing underneath a shimmering disco ball hung outside.
According to a press release, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” will contain 12 tracks and is executive produced by Kid Harpoon. The British songwriter and producer has been a close collaborator of Styles’ since the beginning of his solo career, working on all of his albums since the singer’s 2017 self-titled debut.
“Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” is now available for preorder.
It is also Styles’ first project since his former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne died in 2024 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.
