KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — From unconventional handshaking to condoms as finger protection when pressing lift buttons, the deadly coronavirus is forcing many to rethink otherwise mundane, everyday tasks.

The latest comes in the form of hairstyling, where barbers in China have found a way of cutting their customers’ hair while keeping a safe distance to avoid contracting Covid-19.

Armed with protective gear like hazard suits and masks, hairdressers are attaching their styling tools at the end of long poles all for the sake of safety.

Videos have been circulating on Twitter which show hairstylists carrying out their jobs by wrapping the end of four-foot-long sticks with the usual suspects found at a hair salon such as shavers, brushes and hair dryers.

One clip uploaded by Twitter use @mic12b shows two hairdressers clad in black suits using the poles to comb a customer’s hair and washing a customer’s hair respectively.

 

Another clip which has been viewed more than 74,000 times on Twitter shows a hairdresser clad in a white hazmat suit standing several feet apart from his customers while using a shaver attached to a pole to get the job done.

 

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Wu Junlong who owns a barbershop in central China’s Henan Province said the novel way of cutting hair isn’t the same but necessary to avoid getting infected.

“The tools don’t work as well as when you hold them in your hand, but this is for the safety [of us and the customers],” he told the British publication.

Another hairstylist named He Bing shared a video of his colleagues offering what is now known as “long-distance haircuts” at a salon in Luzhou, located in the Sichuan Province of south-western China.

“Although the lockdown is finished, we still need to keep some distance to stay safe,” wrote He on Douyin, the Chinese version TikTok.