Astronaut Barber Means Well, Gives Terrible Haircut in Space

He was doing his best.

Space Barber

Without the assistance of gravity, giving somebody a haircut is a lot tougher than you might think. Besides, the thought of being surrounded by a floating cloud of hair clippings is horrid.

Needless to say, astronauts try. But though the resulting haircuts might be able to keep the hair out of their faces, they won't be winning any awards, either.

"Step into the space salon where barber Raja Chari is a man of many talents," ESA astronaut and current International Space Station crew member Matthias Maurer tweeted over the weekend, accompanied by a video of him receiving a haircut. "Because none of us want hair in our eyes, or — even worse — the systems, our hair clippers come with a vacuum attached."

Buzzed Lightyear

Chari, a NASA astronaut, made it to the station back in November on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon.

"Five stars for this space stylist's service," a charitable Maurer tweeted.

The process doesn't look easy. It clearly requires quite a bit of precision and experience to successfully coif a fellow crew member's hair.

To be perfectly honest, though, we're not impressed with the results. And Chari's own haircut certainly leaves something to be desired — it's practically a perfect bowl cut.

Fortunately, looking good for the camera isn't exactly top of mind as an astronaut. Years of hard training don't leave much time for hairstyling school.

More on life in space: NASA Postpones Spacewalk Due to Deadly Debris