We’ve seen fire used as a way to cut hair before, but one hairstylist in Pakistan is literally setting his clients heads on fire just to make their hear easier to comb. It’s an impressive, albeit shocking, display, that has recently made him famous around the world.
Shafqat Rajput, was just another barber in the city of Bahawalpur, Pakistan’s Punjab province, but after a patron recorded a video of him practicing his unique fire treatment on a customer and posted it on Facebook, he instantly became an overnight internet celebrity. The short clip shows the young hairstylist sprinkling powder on the patron’s hair, followed by a healthy dose of an unknown flammable fluid before casually setting his head ablaze with a lighter. He proceeds to comb the hair while it’s burning, using a comb and brush. After putting the fire out with his fast brushing, Rajput repeats the procedure. All this time, the client sits calmly in the barber’s chair, looking at his burning hair in the mirror.
The video has been shared on multiple social networks and has been watched millions of times in the past week, drawing mixed reactions from the public. While some people declared himself impressed by the technique, most called it dangerous and harmful to the hair, claiming that the high temperature does more harm than good.
Omar Quaraishi, the Pakistani journalist who happened to be in Shafqat Rajput barber shop and recorded the original video, recently said that the eccentric hairstylist calls this unconventional technique “fire cutting”, adding that it is actually popular in various parts of the world. As far as I know, that is only partially true.
Fire cutting is indeed a thing, but it usually involves using an open flame to actually cut hair, not setting a person’s hair on fire and then brushing the heck out of it. This is something else entirely, and Rajput himself admitted that it is used to to give the hair a straightened polished look.
A simple Google search reveals that Shafqat Rajput became somewhat of a celebrity in Pakistan a year ago, after several national news networks featured his hot new hair-styling technique. He has now achieved international fame.
If you’re into unconventional hair-styling techniques, you might want to check out this guy who cuts hair with hot tongs, this Vietnamese samurai stylist, or this claw-wielding hairdresser.
All I can say is ‘don’t try this at home’!
I can now confirm that the Hair Stylist here is Shafqat Rajpoot from the Pakistani city of Bahawalpur- calls it ‘Fire Cutting’ technique pic.twitter.com/VJzy3CGUCm
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) January 15, 2017
via Dawn.com
