Zuhair Tahan

He was auditing a bank in Damascus when he worked out that the suit was the wrong investment.

This was the era of the three-piece revival, when a generation rediscovered tailoring and started growing beards their grandfathers would have recognised. Zuhair fell into it with a small group of friends, cutting suits, styling them, learning the language of dressing well. Then came the realisation that redirected everything: the clothes come off at the end of the day. Hair doesn't. Hair is the one piece of a man's wardrobe he never takes off, and knowing how to shape it is a form of self-possession no tailor can sell you. He also knew, from his friends' barbershops, that the trade had a problem. No systems, no bookings worth the name, chaos behind the chair. A finance brain saw an industry running on goodwill alone.

He did not quit to find out. From 2012 he took freelance styling work alongside the audit job, learning on other people's sets while the bank still paid the rent. By 2015 the second career had outgrown the first. In 2016 he left finance and moved to Kuala Lumpur. On a music video set there, covering hair as well as wardrobe, he found the thing he had been circling.

He had taught himself to fade from YouTube, learning from Arod and the first wave of barbers who put the craft online. Then he went and got the fundamentals properly. Sassoon Academy for scissor work in 2016, and a year at Behind The Chair Academy under award-winning barbers including Matty Conrad and Kevin Luchmun. Self-taught where it made him fast, classically trained where it made him good.

Kuala Lumpur, 2016 to 2020, is where the two halves met. He cut, and he built the shop's social media and partnerships, taking barbering into rooms it had not been in. A Movember campaign at the W Hotel and Father's Day with Mercedes-Benz, both in 2019.

Then Dubai, drawn by a reputation for service he wanted to measure himself against. Four years at Chaps & Co from 2020, with pop-ups for BMW that same year, Jägermeister, and St Patrick's Day at Lock Stock & Barrel. In 2022 he was a finalist for Barber of the Year GCC, became an ambassador for the British Barbers' Association in the UAE, and shot a collection for the One Shot Hair Awards.

In 2023, Wahl made him an educator for the Middle East and North Africa and the work changed shape again. Stages at Beautyworld Middle East and Pro Beauty GCC. Teaching across Nigeria and Ghana, learning as much from African barbers as he brought them. Road education through almost every barbershop in the UAE. The same year he became an ambassador for Matakki.

By 2024 the session work had its own momentum: Dubai Fashion Week, Arab Fashion Week, press kits, theatre and red carpets. That February he was commissioned as part of the grooming team for the grand opening of One&Only One Za'abeel, Dubai's first vertical urban resort, a weekend that set three Guinness World Records for the projection mapping across the building's facade. He was working red carpet.

Australia came in 2024, and a role at Langanis Studio in Brisbane where the old finance discipline finally earned its keep. Two years building an operation that actually ran. He has since stepped back from operations to return to the work itself: imagery, session styling, education, and partnerships with the brands and tools he believes in.

Much of the work is private. Commissions have included Jake Paul, Nick Kyrgios, Steven Gerrard and Rahi Chadda, brought by the same thing that brought everything else: the study, the practice, and never staying still long enough to get comfortable.

Four continents. One skill. Still the best thing he ever bought with a banker's salary.