Maram Hammadi is very good at small talk.
As the owner of Jazz Barbershop just north of Seattle, Hammadi often talks soccer with his customers, who know well that he and his crew of barbers are big fans. The barbershop even hosts a pickup game nearby every Sunday for clients and staff.
But when Mohamed Salah, the star captain of the Egyptian national team, sat down for a trim ahead of a World Cup game last month, Hammadi was at a loss for words. Instead, Salah peppered Hammadi with questions about his life.
“You know when you speak to your dad and you feel like you’re talking to a mentor, and whatever he says you use it as an education? It felt the same,” Hammadi said in an interview this week.
It was the moment of a lifetime for Hammadi, 34, who grew up playing on dirt fields in Iraq before fleeing the country during the Iraq war. He arrived in Spokane, Wash., in 2012 as a refugee when he was 18.
Now, he and three other barbers — all of Middle Eastern descent — were giving the entire Egyptian national team a trim before their 2026 World Cup debut against Belgium.
The players typically have highly regimented schedules during the tournament, being whisked from training to protected hotels between games. But in players’ limited free time, a visit to a local small business can turn it into a global hot spot. Such was the case for Wild Bill’s Western Store in Dallas when Norway’s Erling Haaland took home a stuffed raccoon hugging a whiskey bottle from his travels, or when English players visited Betty Rae’s Ice Cream in Prairie Village, Kan., in between training sessions.
But when one of Hammadi’s clients called to ask if he would be interested in cutting the Egypt team’s hair, he didn’t believe it at first. The next thing Hammadi knew, he was clearing his books and heading to the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle. Even after Hammadi and three other barbers went through a heavy security screening, he still couldn’t believe what he was about to do.
First up were the substitutes. A team manager inspected the barbers’ handiwork before sending in the starters, like goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir and forward Omar Marmoush. In all, the four barbers took care of about 30 team members over nine hours as players came in and out of the hotel room between training, meetings and meals.
By the end of the day, Salah had personally asked for Hammadi. After the cut, Salah told Hammadi he’d see him next week. What the Egyptian King says goes, so Hammadi and his team returned a second time before the team’s game gainst Iran. Salah hoped Hammadi and his team, which was based in Spokane in between games, would stick around for the entire tournament, but Hammadi had a business to run (and Egypt was eliminated by Argentina in the round of 16).
“It’s been an amazing experience for us,” Hammadi said. “To have a Middle Eastern team and be a part of the World Cup that we love — we’re all playing soccer and dreaming.”
The response has been overwhelming. As word of their team haircuts spread, Hammadi said his business was slammed with both new and returning customers who wanted to come and congratulate the shop.
“People say, ‘Oh you’re famous now,’” Hammadi said. “I’m not really, I’m just happy that people are actually seeing that I’m sharing this love with other people.”
That love has been brewing for years. After Hammadi arrived in Spokane, he worked as a dishwasher at Panda Express and then enrolled in an adult English language school. Hammadi attended beauty school once he felt his English was good enough. He started with women’s hair but then “fell in love with the whole industry,” he said.
But Hammadi struggled to find work in Spokane, so he went to North Dakota to work in an oil field. He saved up money and moved to Seattle in 2018, working in a salon for five years. In 2024, Hammadi opened Jazz Barbershop in Shoreline, and he is working on opening a second location.
Through it all, soccer has remained a constant.
“You feel so free, so happy when you’re doing it, you know?” Hammadi said of the sport. “It always gives you the same feeling.”
