Another war, just another day for this Beirut barber

Despite the persistent threat of Israeli airstrikes, Michel Tabet still opens his shop daily in Beirut, Lebanon. In fact he can still fondly remember the day he threw on an apron and started working at his father’s barbershop in central Beirut.

That was in 1975 – the very year that Lebanon’s civil war broke out. It wasn’t before long that he was donning a flak jacket and clutching a rifle, as civil war gripped the country for the next 15 years. Tabet said there wasn’t any escaping the fighting—it was just something people of his generation were forced into back then, no matter what affiliation they belonged to.

But when things calmed, he would return to the same space that his father’s shop had occupied since 1941 to cut hair, and remain at his post, even as other biting conflicts and crises continued to grip his Lebanon. Nearly 50 years since his first day as a barber, with Israeli jets hitting targets across Beirut and southern and eastern Lebanon, the doors to his barbershop remains open day after day.

After his father's passing 10 years ago, and his children pursuing different career paths, the 64-year-old barber is now the final generation owner of the landmark salon. For Tabet, he likens his work to life itself, and vows to keep opening up shop until he can’t.

When a massive explosion from the Beirut port killed at least 220 people, woundimg thousands, and damaging swathes of the city, Tabet’s salon didn’t come out unscathed. The blast left the shop in shambles, but Tabet still managed to restore the shop to its original form, while cutting patrons’ hair just outside its damaged walls.