Barber tidies up in Turkey quake tent camp

Student Mohammed al-Hamo, who learned to cut hair to earn money in his spare time, never imagined he would put his skills on display in a tent camp for earthquake survivors.

But following the devastating tremor on February 6 that destroyed swathes of southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, 18-year-old Mohammed is offering open-air haircuts to his family and others displaced by the disaster.

“If anyone comes he will for sure give them a haircut,” said his father Khaled with a proud smile as he waited for his turn in the barber’s chair.

Mohammed first gave his brother a fade, carefully using a cut-throat razor to sculpt 19-year-old Sobhi’s hairline.

“I didn’t manage to rescue my equipment until now,” said Mohammed who had successfully retrieved electric clippers, combs, scissors and shampoo from the wreckage of his destroyed home.

While the Hamo family said they still have relatives missing following the earthquake that killed almost 45,000 people, their immediate family escaped unhurt.

Khaled said that, beyond free haircuts, his two eldest sons had been volunteering to help others in the camp in a park in the southeastern Turkish city of Antakya.