Syria's leader Al Shara was a quiet boy who enjoyed football, says childhood barber

Syria's new president Ahmad Al Shara was a quiet and calm boy who spent his time playing football and praying at a local mosque, his childhood barber has told The National from the Damascus suburb where the former rebel leader grew up.

Mr Al Shara, who spearheaded an insurgency two months ago that toppled former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, made an unexpected return to the hair salon of 56-year-old Mohammad Mustafa Ouglo in the days following his victory, free to roam again after years exiled from the capital.

"I've known him since he was a child, he used to be in the streets and playground playing ball with the other kids every day," Mr Ouglo said from the town of Mazzeh, just west of Damascus, where he has run the Abed Hair Salon for Men since 1989.

“Ahmad Al Shara is someone I've known since his childhood, since the third grade. How wouldn’t I remember him?"

The president's father, Hussein Al Shara, and his brothers Ali, Jamal, Maher and Hazem were also regular visitors to the barber shop in the past, Mr Ouglo said. The Al Shara family owned a grocery store in Mazzeh staffed by the sons, with the father later opening a small real estate brokerage next door.

In 2014, the family fled the neighbourhood and the businesses were seized along with their home, Mr Ouglo told The National. Syrian state officers moved into the house, he added.

The hairdresser has seen many clients come and go over the years, forced here and there by the throes of Syria's civil war.

He said he immediately recognised Mr Al Shara, now 42 years old, when he stepped through the door, despite the long absence.

"I knew him until he was a second-year university student studying media, and I saw him again more than 15 years later when he came in twice for a haircut," Mr Ouglo told The National.

He described the president as a very quiet, kind and soft-spoken child, who only talked when spoken to and often kept to himself.

"He would come in quiet and leave quiet too. He didn’t have many friends until he was a bit older. He used to go to the mosque to pray and invite the other boys to go with him."

Years later, as the newly minted president sat in the barber's chair after ending five decades of Assad family rule, Mr Ouglo refrained from asking him about politics, he said. Instead, he wanted to know how he was doing.

"When you meet someone like that, you don’t talk about politics, he didn’t come for that," the barber told The National.

Mr Al Shara arrived with his wife and children but the family waited outside in a car driven by the president himself, Mr Olgu added. Halfway through the haircut, people on the street began to notice him.

"They asked him when they would have electricity again, and he told them 'be patient'."

Before he left, the new leader took photos with passers-by. "People love him a lot, he’s very nice and kind," the barber said.

'Don’t come near my beard'

Mr Al Shara was on a mission to visit the places that shaped his childhood when he arrived in Damascus, including his hometown, school and the local Al Akram Mosque, Mr Ouglo said.

"The haircut was to get acquainted and talk, it wasn’t about the haircut itself, he was the exact same as he always has been," he added.

"He asked me about myself and about my brothers Muhannad and Abed, who are also barbers. He told me the salon looks the same and that I haven’t changed since he last saw me – he knows me very well."

Syrian boys in days gone by were ordered to cut their hair short for school and refrain from experimenting with creative styles to stay clean and tidy, with Mr Al Shara no exception.

However, the same does not apply to beards. "He told me, 'don’t come near my beard, just keep it long and fix the moustache'," Mr Ouglo said of the president's recent visit.

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Mr Al Shara returned to the salon for a second visit soon after, making the same style request in an outing that went unnoticed by locals, the barber said.

But after he was announced as Syria's new president, the visits stopped.

Mr Ouglo said he had come to be known in the town as "Al Shara's barber" but had not enjoyed any subsequent bump in business. In fact, client numbers had decreased since the Assad regime fell as his customers were mainly men from the former Syrian army, he said.

"They ran away when the Assad regime fell," he added. "Here in Syria, you don’t change your barber" even to visit a place frequented by the president, Mr Ouglo told The National.

He said Syrians were optimistic about the future with Mr Al Shara at the helm, as Syria navigates a period of rapid political change.

"I am very happy he is the president, I am very optimistic, my friends, customers and people too. If you stop anyone in the street, they would say the same," Mr Ouglo said. "We want our country to be better."